Take Five was composed by Paul Desmond in 1959 and first recorded by the Dave Brubeck Quartet for the album Time Out on Columbia Records. Written in 5/4 time, the piece arose from drummer Joe Morello's desire for a feature to showcase his command of the unusual meter, with Desmond supplying the melody and Brubeck arranging the final structure. The composition is built on a hypnotic two-chord vamp in E-flat minor, over which Desmond states a catchy blues-scale theme in ABA form before opening into solos. Early attempts at a faster, Latin-inflected version failed after more than twenty takes; the successful recording used a slower, groovier pulse captured in just two takes on July 1, 1959. Desmond reportedly considered it a throwaway, but it became the best-selling jazz single of all time and a Grammy Hall of Fame inductee. On the original recording featured in AllSolos, Desmond's cool-toned alto saxophone solo glides through the odd meter with characteristic lyricism, and Morello's extended drum solo remains one of the most celebrated in jazz. The piece became the Brubeck Quartet's signature concert closer, with musicians exiting the stage one by one until only Morello remained. Upon his death in 1977, Desmond left the royalties to the American Red Cross. Take Five is one of the most widely recognized jazz compositions ever written and a standard that helped bring odd time signatures into the mainstream.
