The Songs - Take Five
This is another entry in my ongoing “songs that visited me and decided they wanted to stay” series. I hope you like these enough to become a paid subscriber, because I really need you to keep this series going…
Take Give - The Dave Brubeck Quartet
The secret of a great melody is a secret…
—Dave Brubeck
The song is written in quintuple (5/4) time, which I never heard of until just now. But now that I know the term and sort of what it means I know that anybody who tries this must be crazy, because even a band as whip-sharp as the Dave Brubeck Quartet kept getting lost trying to tie the tempo down. They tried it over 40 times and eventually just said fuck it and went to the bar. They came in fresh the next morning and finally nailed it, but considered the track a “throwaway”, because that’s how these cool jazz cats roll. Whatever they created today they could best tomorrow.
(May 4th (5/4) is unofficially known as “Dave Brubeck Day” in the United States, and this should be a national holiday so everyone can listen to Take Five on repeat. It might bring us all together in wild wonder. Anybody busy keeping 5/4 time doesn’t have time to argue.)