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“Take Five“ is a jazz piece composed by Paul Desmond and performed by The Dave Brubeck Quartet on their 1959 album Time Out. Recorded at Columbia Records' 30th Street Studio in New York City on July 1, 1959, fully two years later it became an unlikely one-hit wonder and the biggest-selling jazz single of all time. Written in the key of E-flat minor, it is famous for its distinctive two-chord piano vamp; catchy blues-scale saxophone melody; imaginative, jolting drum solo; and use of the unusual quintuple (5/4) time, from which its name is derived. Brubeck drew inspiration for this style of music during a U.S. State Department-sponsored tour of Eurasia, where he observed a group of Turkish street musicians performing a traditional folk song with supposedly Bulgarian influence that was played in 9/8 time, a rare meter for Western music (traditionally called “Bulgarian meter“). After learning about the form from native symphony musicians, Brubeck was inspired to create an album that
