Take Five is the second song that moved me away from rock and roll in my mid-teens, ~1972. Moondance was the first. Then I heard Freddie Hubbard’s Red Clay and First Light and never looked back.
Frank
When Paul Desmond composed this piece he must have been thinking of Mussorgsky’s recurring Promenade theme in Pictures At An Exhibition. The Promenade alternates between 5/4 & 6/4 rhythm, while Take Five is a riff on 5/4. Even the melodic themes are similar. Mussorgsky was born too soon but was a jazz musician at heart.
I have a couple of Brubeck’s early piano collections from 1956. At 11 years of age I could play the easy ones like Two Part Contention which was based on Bach’s Two Part Inventions, but go nowhere with most of the others because he wrote them for his ridiculous 12 key stretch. He must have had hands like Goliath!
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3 responses to “Take Five”
Take Five is the second song that moved me away from rock and roll in my mid-teens, ~1972. Moondance was the first. Then I heard Freddie Hubbard’s Red Clay and First Light and never looked back.
When Paul Desmond composed this piece he must have been thinking of Mussorgsky’s recurring Promenade theme in Pictures At An Exhibition. The Promenade alternates between 5/4 & 6/4 rhythm, while Take Five is a riff on 5/4. Even the melodic themes are similar. Mussorgsky was born too soon but was a jazz musician at heart.
I have a couple of Brubeck’s early piano collections from 1956. At 11 years of age I could play the easy ones like Two Part Contention which was based on Bach’s Two Part Inventions, but go nowhere with most of the others because he wrote them for his ridiculous 12 key stretch. He must have had hands like Goliath!
I started my kids on “Take Five” at around age 2. It inspired #3 son to become a drummer.