Dave Brubeck

2-LP FOLD OPEN VINYL EDITION

BOTH COMPLETE MASTERS FROM THE ICONIC ALBUM
TOGETHER ON THE SAME DE-LUXE FOLD OPEN 2-LP PACKAGE !

The fact that Time Out became such a huge success took the world by surprise, including the members of the Dave Brubeck Quartet. By 1959, the group with Paul Desmond (the bass player and the drummer changed a few times until Joe Morello arrived in 1956 and Eugene Wright joined the group in 1958/59) had been in existence for nearly a decade and it was highly popular among jazz audiences. They had begun playing in colleges, and slowly made their way into concert halls and jazz festivals. Brubeck’s fame even led to him being featured on the cover of Time magazine in 1954 (the second jazz musician to receive the distinction; Louis Armstrong was previously honored in 1949), a fact that was questioned by many black jazzmen like Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk, who rightly felt that they should have been there themselves and saw in the choice of Brubeck a form of racism.

Despite the possible overreaction by the press, the popularity of the Dave Brubeck Quartet was real, as was the singularity of their music. The formation took the challenge to experiment with musical forms foreign to jazz and, in addition to playing standard tunes like everyone else, they introduced many new compositions that gave the formation its identity. Most of the songs were composed by Brubeck, as is the case on the album "Time Out". However, one of the most catchy melodies on that album, “Take Five”, was a Paul Desmond composition, and it would become the quartet’s most celebrated tune.

THE DAVE BRUBECK QUARTET

PAUL DESMOND, alto sax
DAVE BRUBECK, piano
EUGENE WRIGHT, bass
JOE MORELLO, drums

A1 & B4: New York, August 18, 1959.
A2-A3: New York, July 1, 1959.
B1-B3: New York, June 25, 1959.

LP 1: THE STEREO VERSION (Columbia CS 8192)

SIDE A:
01 Blue Rondo À La Turk
02. Strange Meadow Lark
03. Take Five

SIDE B:
01. Three To Get Ready
02. Kathy's Waltz
03. Everybody´s Jumpin'
04. Pick Up Sticks

LP 2: THE MONO VERSION (Columbia CL 1397)

SIDE A:
01 Blue Rondo À La Turk
02. Strange Meadow Lark
03. Take Five

SIDE B:
01. Three To Get Ready
02. Kathy's Waltz
03. Everybody´s Jumpin'
04. Pick Up Sticks

In the late 1950s, it was common for big labels to record performances simultaneously in mono and stereo, and then release both versions at the same time, with different reference numbers. This was explained at the time by the fact that Stereo was still a very recent innovation, and not everyone had sound systems capable of reproducing the new technology. The stereo albums, thus, were slightly more expensive than their mono counterparts. Over time, the mono versions were condemned to oblivion, and only recently some music fans began to value these long forgotten masters, which capture classic performances from a different aural point of view. On the present release, both versions of this masterpiece can be compared.