Time Out is a studio album by the American jazz group the Dave Brubeck Quartet, released in 1959 by Columbia Records. Recorded at Columbia’s 30th Street Studio in New York City, the album is noted for its pioneering use of unconventional time signatures for jazz, including , , and . Musically, it represents a subtle fusion of cool and West Coast influences.
Time Out peaked at number two on the Billboard albums chart and became the first jazz album to sell one million copies. Its standout single, "Take Five", was also the first jazz single to sell over one million copies.
The album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2009, and in 2005 it was selected for preservation in the United States National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
On the condition that Brubeck's group first record Gone with the Wind (a conventional album of traditional songs of the American South that received negative reviews upon its release), Columbia president Goddard Lieberson took a chance to underwrite and release Time Out. The album produced a Top 40 hit single in "Take Five", composed by Paul Desmond (the only album track not written by Dave Brubeck).
Music
Although the theme of Time Out is non-common-time signatures, "Blue Rondo à la Turk" starts in , with a typically Balkan subdivision into short and long beats (the rhythm of the Turkish zeybek, equivalent of the Greek zeibekiko) as opposed to the more typical way of subdividing as , but the saxophone and piano solos are in . The title is a play on Mozart's "Rondo alla Turca" from his Piano Sonata No. 11, and reflects the fact that the band heard the rhythm while traveling in Turkey.
"Strange Meadow Lark" begins with a piano solo that exhibits no clear time signature, but then settles into a fairly ordinary swing once the rest of the group joins. "Take Five" is in throughout. According to Desmond, "It was never supposed to be a hit. It was supposed to be a Joe Morello drum solo."
Legacy
The Dave Brubeck Quartet followed up Time Out with three more similarly named albums that also made use of uncommon time signatures: Time Further Out (1961), Countdown—Time in Outer Space (1962) and Time Changes (1964). Another album, Time In (1966), which featured the quartet but was credited only to Brubeck, echoed the title of Time Out, although it made use of more conventional time signatures.
In 2005, Time Out was one of 50 recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry. It was also listed that year in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. In 2009 the album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Reissues
In 1997, the album was remastered for compact disc by Legacy Recordings.
In 2009, Legacy Recordings released a special three-disc 50th Anniversary Edition of Time Out. This edition offers a much higher dynamic range than the 1997 remaster. In addition to the complete album, the Legacy Edition includes a bonus disc featuring previously unreleased concert recordings of the same Brubeck Quartet from the 1961, 1963, and 1964 gatherings of Newport Jazz Festival. The Legacy Edition's third disc is a DVD featuring a 30-minute interview with Brubeck in 2003, and an interactive "piano lesson" where the viewer can toggle through four different camera angles of Brubeck performing a solo version of "Three to Get Ready".
In 2020, the album Time OutTakes was released, which was overseen by Brubeck's children and released on their own record label, Brubeck Editions. The album features alternate takes of "Blue Rondo a la Turk", "Strange Meadowlark", "Take Five", "Three To Get Ready" and "Kathy's Waltz" (now billed as "Cathy's Waltz"), as well as two songs from the same sessions that had not been included on the album: a cover of "I'm In a Dancing Mood" (which Brubeck had previously covered, live and on the album Dave Brubeck and Jay & Kai at Newport) and "Watusi Jam" (a take on Brubeck's composition "Watusi Drums"). The release was chosen as a Critics Pick by The New York Times.
In 2026, the European independent record label Vinyl Passion released a special limited edition reissue of Time Out under the catalog number VP 90173. This specific release was pressed on 180-gram heavyweight vinyl in a translucent aquamarine color, aesthetically chosen to complement the original 1959 abstract cover art by Neil Fujita. The tracklist faithfully replicates the original Columbia Records release, featuring all seven original compositions distributed across both sides, including jazz standards such as "Blue Rondo à la Turk" and "Take Five."
Operating within the European public domain framework, this edition utilizes remastering sourced from high-resolution digital files rather than the original analog master tapes, positioning it as an accessible, visually driven alternative to pure AAA audiophile pressings.
Track listing
Personnel
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
- Dave Brubeck—piano
- Paul Desmond—alto saxophone
- Eugene Wright—bass
- Joe Morello—drums
Production
- Teo Macero—producer
- Pat Maher—engineer
- Fred Plaut—engineer
- S. Neil Fujita—cover artwork
- Seth Rothstein—project director
- Russell Gloyd—reissue producer
- Mark Wilder—reissue remastering
- Cozbi Sanchez-Cabrera—reissue art direction
- Jeff Powell—2024 vinyl reissue lacquer cutter
Charts
Album
Billboard (United States)
{| class="wikitable"
!align="left"|Year
!align="left"|Chart
!align="left"|Position
|-
|align="left"|1961
|align="left"|Pop Albums
|align="left"|2
|}
Time Out peaked at No. 2 the week of November 27, 1961 on the Billboard Monaural LPs chart, behind only Judy at Carnegie Hall by Judy Garland.
Singles
Billboard (United States)
{| class="wikitable"
!align="left"|Year
!align="left"|Single
!align="left"|Chart
!align="left"|Position
|-
|align="left"|1961
|align="left"|"Take Five"
|align="left"|Adult Contemporary
|align="left"|5
|-
|align="left"|1961
|align="left"|"Take Five"
|align="left"|Pop Singles
|align="left"|25
|}
Sales and certifications
Time Out was the first jazz album to sell more than a million copies.
{|class="wikitable" border="1"
|-
!Country
!Certification
!Sales
|-
|United States
|2× Platinum
|2,000,000+
|}
References
External links
- The Dave Brubeck Quartet: Time Out – by A. B. Spellman and Murray Horwitz; part of NPR's Basic Jazz Record Library
- Time Out: How Dave Brubeck Changed Jazz