December 14, 1959: Dave Brubeck Calls "Time Out"

December 14, 1959: The Dave Brubeck Quartet release their album Time Out. It concludes perhaps the most emotional year in jazz history, with epochal releases by Miles Davis and John Coltrane, and Jack Kerouac appearing on The Steve Allen Show to talk about how jazz influenced the Beat Generation writers -- but also the deaths of legends Sidney Bechet, Lester Young and Billie Holiday.

Time Out includes the best-selling single in jazz history, "Take Five." The title comes from the expression, meaning, "Take five minutes to rest"; but also for its 5/4 time signature, which is unusual for any piece of music. Film composer Lalo Schifrin used 5/4 time for his "Tar Sequence" in the film Cool Hand Luke, which became the theme song for ABC's local Eyewitness News broadcasts; and for the theme for the TV show Mission: Impossible.

David Warren Brubeck was born on December 6, 1920 in Concord, in the East Bay region of California. He formed the Dave Brubeck Quartet in 1952, with alto saxophonist Paul Desmond, bass player Eugene Wright (who was also an esteemed cornet player), and drummer Joe Morello. The Quartet made Brubeck the leader of the West Coast jazz scene.

"Take Five" had been written by Desmond in 1954. It was recorded in the same Columbia Records studio, the 30th Street Studio in Midtown Manhattan, in which Miles Davis recorded his album Kind of Blue earlier in the year, and in which Bob Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel would make their signature recordings. Sadly, the building has been demolished.

Brubeck married jazz lyricist Iola Whitlock in 1942; the couple were married for 70 years. They had 5 sons and a daughter, Catherine. Of the sons, 4 also became professional musicians: Darius, a pianist; Dan, a percussionist; Chris, a composer who played multiple instruments; and Matthew, a cellist. Michael, the son who did not go into the music business, predeceased his parents, dying in 2009.

Dave Brubeck died on December 5, 2012, a day before his 92nd birthday. Iola followed him in 2014. Desmond died in 1977, Morello in 2011, and Wright in 2020.

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December 14, 1959 was a Monday. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek: Monday Night Football did not debut for another 11 years. And no games were scheduled in the NBA or the NHL. So there were no scores on this historic day.