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Archive 1

No. 1?

Was it number one worldwide, or just in the USA? --70.104.234.254 15:52, 2005 July 20 (UTC)

I believe the statistic is that it was the first jazz recording (as a single) to sell a million copies. I think it made it into the top 100 according to Billboard - dunno if it was ever #1. ¦ Reisio 00:56, 2005 July 21 (UTC)
Oh my, there certainly are a large flock of claimants to the "first jazz million seller"! From so many decades, too! Amazing. -- Infrogmation 05:37, 21 July 2005 (UTC)
Ya, I don't see how anybody can be sure about any such information. Iirc it may have been more specifically for "first small jazz ensemble recording to sell a million copies" or something, but it's been a while since I looked into it. ¦ Reisio 05:51, 2005 July 21 (UTC)

The amazeing thing is that despite becoming a Jazz standard Take 5 was a B track and no one in the record company flet that it would do well due to the use of 5/4 time over the more traditional 4/4 time used in most Jazz.FLJuJitsu —Preceding unsigned comment added by FLJuJitsu (talk • contribs) 22:32, August 29, 2007 (UTC)

Sung?

Who is the best known vocalist who sang this song? Clearly that should be mentioned. Am I unusual in being more familiar with it as an instrumental? Wondering, -- Infrogmation 04:09, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)

To the best of my knowledge, no vocalists have ever "sang" it. There are no lyrics that I know of. AFAIK, it is solely an instrumental work--and I'd hate to hear it with lyrics. Maybe Manhattan Transfer could pull it off, but other than that--NO! Kurt Weber 04:39, 14 Jun 2005 (UTC)
Good, then removing the previous language which described the piece as a "song" was an appopriate correction. Thanks. -- Infrogmation 04:47, 14 Jun 2005 (UTC)
Following up on that, should {{Song-stub}} be changed to {{Music-stub}}? Cohen the Bavarian 08:53, 16 July 2005 (UTC)
Yes - done. ¦ Reisio 10:15, 2005 July 16 (UTC)
The famous swedish jazz vocalist Monica Zetterlund sang it in Swedish... --81.224.241.132 09:58, 2005 August 15 (UTC)
Message to Kurt Weber who says that, as far as he knows, nobody has sung Take Five: please get the Take Five single (Jazzman Records, 1962), Carmen McRae, D Brubeck, L Brubeck & P Desmond and listen to it. A version you won't ever forget --Kranich 08:05, 2005 December 3 (UTC)
Carmen McRae did in fact perform it. Classic. WesleyPinkham 07:22, 7 March 2006 (UTC)
Al Jarreau also sings it (can be found on both his Best Of album and My Favorite Things album). Amazing performance. The lyrics was apparently written by Dave Brubeck's wife. -- Bjørn Vester.

RFC:Image choice

The current image used in this article, Image:Take_Five_introduction.png, is not an accurate transcription of the piano intro of "Take Five"; it should be in the key of Gb and in 5/4 time (and if it's to be representative of how it was most often played by Brubeck, the second low Eb should be the same octave as the first). Image:Take_Five-piano_intro.png is accurate and should be used instead. ¦ Reisio 00:05, 2005 August 12 (UTC)

Prove that it is inaccurate: Image:Take Five introduction.png is sourced. Hyacinth 22:41, 11 August 2005 (UTC)

Here is a scan of the E♭ version of The Standards Real Book produced by Sher Music, Co. [1].
You'll see that the key is E♭ - when transposed to concert, this becomes G♭:

File:Take Five-Sher.png


Here is a scan from the booklet included with the compilation album Dave Brubeck, Time Signatures: A Career Retrospective.
The part where he specifies that the time is specifically 5/4 is marked by a red box:

File:Take Five-Time Sigs02.png


Here is a copy of the piano intro from the classic recording at half speed.
You can clearly hear that the first and third notes are basically the same tone:

Media:Dave Brubeck Quartet, The-Time Out-Take Five-half speed.ogg

¦ Reisio 23:49, 2005 August 15 (UTC)

Thanks. Hyacinth 22:34, 16 August 2005 (UTC)

Isn't the whole song in triplets? --70.240.68.157

nope ¦ Reisio 03:55, 14 January 2006 (UTC)
The song does swing, however, but that is generally assumed in jazz. Evan Seeds (talk) 05:09, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

Couple of points

Before i make the change, I would like to check with you guys as it states on the right hand table that this CD was a single when it wasn't (due to there being more than 1 song on the album). Also Paul Desmond was not the only writer on the album as far as I know (I belive that it was Dave Brubeck who wrote Blue rondo a la turk) but I'm not sure. 202.168.18.88 07:04, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Time out album cover.jpg

Image:Time out album cover.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot 00:36, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

Let's kill the covers list

There are now 16 items in the covers list, which is *way* too many. This song is too much of a classic to list every cover. I suggest we kill the list, note that it has been recorded many times in many formats, and perhaps have a short text description of unusual versions, such as those with lyrics. - DavidWBrooks (talk) 20:07, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

Nobody seems to object - or maybe to care - so I think I will. - DavidWBrooks (talk) 21:51, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

King Tubby

"...dub version by King Tubby in 2002..." according to wikipedia King Tubby died in the year 1989. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.113.140.243 (talk) 21:55, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

Posthumous Action

After Paul Desmond passed away in 1977, he donated all future royalties of this song to the American Red Cross.

Besides needing a source, this sentence needs to be reworded to clarify that Desmond did not extend this donation from the grave. --Byuthai (talk) 08:35, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

The sentence has been reworded. I've always assumed the ownership by the Red Cross was a generally accepted fact. Typically most news items related to the piece contain this information. Ddysart (talk) 14:59, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

Conflicting dates

The info box says the single was released June 25, 1959. The article body says The original single was recorded at Columbia's 30th Street Studios in New York City on June 25, July 1 & August 18, 1959.. Since those additional recording dates were after the cited release date, one of these assertions is wrong, therefore I put up the conflict flag. -Rolypolyman (talk) 04:04, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

It

Does anyone concur that the repeated use of the word "it" is excessive? --162.83.106.21 22:30, 2005 July 13 (UTC)

Little annoying, ya. ¦ Reisio 04:51, 2005 July 14 (UTC)

It is! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.91.213.175 (talk) 20:54, 2 July 2011 (UTC)

Time signature

Are you sure this is in 5/4? I think it's 6/4.--90.220.160.158 (talk) 14:46, 21 January 2012 (UTC)

Hence the working title, "Take Six".- DavidWBrooks (talk) 14:51, 21 January 2012 (UTC)


Did advice about eating fruit and vegetables come from here?

I have always assumed that when British people are told "Take Five" meaning that they should eat five portions of fruits and vegetable a day, the phrase comes from this piece of music's title - am I correct? If so, perhaps this should be mentioned in the article.ACEOREVIVED (talk) 16:00, 23 October 2012 (UTC)

It would need a source - but it could also be referencing the phrase "take five" as in "take a five-minute break" meaning "take a quick break", which is very well known; in fact, I suspect that the title of this song was written to reference it. - DavidWBrooks (talk) 01:36, 24 October 2012 (UTC)

Golden Brown reference removed

I removed the following paragraph "The song has proved influential in many ways, including mainstream pop music. Although using a different melody, the 1981 worldwide hit song Golden Brown by English rock group The Stranglers used a quintuple (5/4) time reminiscent of "Take Five"." Golden Brown was mostly in 6/8, with the occasional bar of 7/8 (see the Golden Brown entry or listen to the song if you don't believe me). I just added this note here in case anyone wanted to say something similar without the false relationship to Golden Brown. Conrad Leviston (talk) 15:27, 6 December 2012 (UTC)

Pentangle's 'Take Three'

I'd like to observe that the folk-rock group Pentangle had a hit with a song whose rhythm and melody must have been heavily influenced by Take Five. In fact, their song, Light Flight, was better known as Take Three Girls, after the TV series that it was the theme music for. When I was a kid, I used to love that theme song. However, I'd long forgotten it, and had always thought it was actually Take Five. When I recently heard the Pentangle song again, which has a female vocalist, I was amused that my mind had substituted Take Five for "Take Three". But they really do have a striking connection. I'm surprised that this connection has not been noted by others. --Michaelmross 16:48, 2005 November 4 (UTC)

As I've mentioned elsewhere, there's also Pavement's "5-4=Unity", a short instrumental from Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. There's also a similarity which can't be written off as mere coincidence. I read many years ago that Stephen Malkmus conceived of the track as an homage to Brubeck and their shared roots in Stockton. I'm guessing that someone (likely the piece's writer, not Malkmus) was either ignorant of the fact, or didn't find it important to point out when making the connection, that Brubeck didn't write "Take Five"; the uninitiated may have developed such an impression. Anyway, I've yet to come across any mention of this in recent years. There is a whole lot of contemporary source material out there in the world which has been ignored or discouraged on here because it never migrated onto the web. This goes far in explaining the crappy, "according to Hoyle" quality found in too many music articles. RadioKAOS  – Talk to me, Billy 06:24, 14 October 2013 (UTC)
You are right that the need for Internet-accessible sourcing can limit or warp wikipedia articles. But without that need, which has grown organically over time (there was no sourcing at all when I started on the site, lo those many years ago) you too often end up with screenloads of vague, hand-waving, pseudo-musicology, the sort of stuff that can be found on the Net all over the place.
Of the two shortcomings - too little and "according to Hoyle" or too much and "according to hipster with a keyboard" - the former is preferable, at least for this sort-of encyclopedia. - DavidWBrooks (talk) 12:09, 14 October 2013 (UTC)
The need to start writing "the next Unabomber Manifesto" (HA HA HA HA!!!) Wikipedia:WikiProjects cause undue weight is becoming more evident as time passes. Music articles are just one of those areas where the problem is more glaringly obvious than others. Back to topic: I spent like 10 minutes performing and reading through several Google searches, nothing terribly specific. The very first hit from one of those searches produced this, found in the April 1994 Spin:

Malkmus was born in Los Angeles, but moved at the age of eight to Stockton, a bald, agricultural northern California town whose only other notable musical contributions have been Chris Isaak and Dave Brubeck (to whom Pavement pay twisted homage on "5-4=Unity" on Crooked Rain).

Not really trying to brag or anything, but having a memory that information existed in the first place makes a big difference when searching for it on the web years later.
And I certainly can't be the hipster. For one, this tiny thing I keep tapping can't reasonably be called a keyboard. For another, I'm actually Rahsaan Roland Kirk, back from the grave. Only for you. Put my ashes in a pipe and smoke it. Seriously, when I hear of "the good old days", I know this isn't accessing BITnet with a VT100 terminal and a 280 baud acoustic coupler. OTOH, my breakfast at the place where I've been sponging wi-fi today was like $16 (that's USD, no libations). RadioKAOS  – Talk to me, Billy 21:10, 14 October 2013 (UTC)

Too many covers

We now have 40-some-odd covers listed, even after I removed 4 that had neither wikilinks nor sources. That is way too many - a trivia pit that contributes nothing to the article. I suggest that it be replaced with something along the lines of "The song has remained a classic, with scores of covers being recorded by artists as diverse as XXXX and YYYY, as early as 196XXX and as recently as XXXX." If people want to create a list of all covers, that should be another article.

Any thoughts? - DavidWBrooks (talk) 01:01, 27 November 2014 (UTC)

(Looking up this page, I see I had this same conversation 6 years ago! I believe I killed the list then, and it has, like Topsy, grown.) - DavidWBrooks (talk) 01:03, 27 November 2014 (UTC)
Well, it's 18 months later and nobody seems to care one way or the other ... but [[2]] is clear that covers should be notable in themselves to be listed, so I think I'm going to kill the list and replace it with a text paragraph. I'll copy the list here, in case people want to replace it or use more examples:

- DavidWBrooks (talk) 13:13, 6 May 2016 (UTC)

What tonality ?

In the article, I read Take Five is : « written in the key of E-flat minor. »
However, many scores for alto saxophone (pitched in E♭) are in E-flat major (3 accidentals : Bb, Eb, Ab).
Moreover, in the book « Experiencing Jazz » , it is said : « 1:07–1:58 Solo section—28-bar alto sax solo: improvised sax solo over tonic (E flat) chord ».

Would you have an explanation ? Hippo75 (talk) 07:16, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

E-flat minor is the relative minor of G-flat major, 6 flats. But the alto sax is a transposing instrument ("pitched in E-flat"); this means that the sheet music written for the sax is a minor third lower, or three flats less. This (rather confusingly) brings us back to C-minor, the relative minor of E-flat major, and thus three flats. The improvised sax solo "over tonic (E flat) chord" should properly say "E-flat minor" chord, which will look like a C-minor chord on the sax score. So all the numbers add up. (Incidentally, tonality isn't really the right word; normally you would say "key".) Imaginatorium (talk) 09:42, 23 February 2017 (UTC)
Thank you for this clear and accurate explanation, Imaginatorium ! Hippo75 (talk) 20:31, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

References

  1. ^ Deda, Edmond (1968). Parada muzicii uşoare româneşti, Musical Publishing House, Bucharest. p. 17
  2. ^ Foss, Richard. "Review". All Music Guide.
  3. ^ "Reference Point overview". Allmusic.com.
  4. ^ "The String Cheese Incident". The String Cheese Incident. Retrieved 2011-01-18.
  5. ^ "Dancing Fantasy overview". Allmusic.com.
  6. ^ "Take Five". Sachal Studios Orchestra. Retrieved 2011-06-09.

Rhythm inspired by Balkan folk songs

I've read this in a number of places but I don't have a cite for it. Perhaps, Ken Burn's Jazz mentioned this but it is not on the website. If there is an editor that owns this, could they check?

Hi from Canada. Check out Bela Bartok "Six Dances in Bulgarian Rhythm", #148-153 in his Mikrokosmos Vol. 6 - Publisher: Boosey and Hawkes (1940). Time sig's include 4 2 3/8, 2 3/8, 2 2 2 3/8/ The Wiki article incorrectly says 9/8 is unusual in Western music. It's the internal groups freedom that is unusual. and that inspired Paul Desmond for Take Five.

This is a minor edit. Arne Sahlen. Source is the Mikrokosmos volume cited.

Are we perhaps thinking of Blue Rondo à la Turk? Eman235/talk 22:34, 29 July 2017 (UTC)

Supposed "Bulgarian" influence

This introductory paragraph needs sorting out. 9/8 is not even rare in "Western" music, and doesn't have anything obvious to do with the topic. I wonder if it is a confusion for 10/8? Imaginatorium (talk) 08:50, 12 April 2018 (UTC)

I agree that that paragraph sounds dubious, but the problem is that it's supported by a citation (although Kaplan's title is actually different). It was added by User:Kchishol1970 on 21-Jan-2012. I wonder if Kchishol1970, or somebody else, could provide a quote from that book supporting the text in the article. -- Michael Bednarek (talk) 11:20, 12 April 2018 (UTC)
I agree that the precise geographic origin, if it exists, of whatever inspired "Take Five" in 5/4 time specifically is not properly documented here. Over the past few weeks/months I've rewritten the paragraph generically (refocusing on the Eurasia trip as a whole) and uncontroversially (I hope). Frankly, the version I've come up with is equally applicable to the Time Out album collectively, and to the other Time Out tracks individually. Birdman euston (talk) 00:35, 8 February 2020 (UTC)
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