Dave Brubeck Quartet - Complete Time Series in Mono

 

The Dave Brubeck Quartet

Complete Time Series

US Mono Vinyl

This collection brings together for the first time in mono all five of the classic Dave Brubeck Quartet albums devoted to exploring unusual time signatures and rhythmic combinations: Time Out (1959), Time Further Out (1961), Countdown: Time In Outer Space (1962), Time Changes (1964), and Time In (1965).

Painstakingly transferred from pristine vinyl and mastered in 24bit by Q, each title is presented in both 24/96 Hi-Res and 16/44.1 Redbook CD versions, and includes numerous bonus tracks that have never been officially released in digital format.

==The Albums (reviews from AMG and All About Jazz)==

Time Out (1959)

Dave Brubeck's defining masterpiece, Time Out is one of the most rhythmically innovative albums in jazz history, the first to consciously explore time signatures outside of the standard 4/4 beat or 3/4 waltz time. It was a risky move -- Brubeck's record company wasn't keen on releasing such an arty project, and many critics initially roasted him for tampering with jazz's rhythmic foundation. But for once, public taste was more advanced than that of the critics. Buoyed by a hit single in altoist Paul Desmond's ubiquitous “Take Five,” Time Out became an unexpectedly huge success, and still ranks as one of the most popular jazz albums ever. That's a testament to Brubeck and Desmond's abilities as composers, because Time Out is full of challenges both subtle and overt -- it's just that they're not jarring. Brubeck's classic “Blue Rondo à la Turk” blends jazz with classical form and Turkish folk rhythms, while “Take Five,” despite its overexposure, really is a masterpiece; listen to how well Desmond's solo phrasing fits the 5/4 meter, and how much Joe Morello's drum solo bends time without getting lost. The other selections are richly melodic as well, and even when the meters are even, the group sets up shifting polyrhythmic counterpoints that nod to African and Eastern musics. Some have come to disdain Time Out as it's become increasingly synonymous with upscale coffeehouse ambience, but as someone once said of Shakespeare, it's really very good in spite of the people who like it. It doesn't just sound sophisticated -- it really is sophisticated music, which lends itself to cerebral appreciation, yet never stops swinging. Countless other musicians built on its pioneering experiments, yet it's amazingly accessible for all its advanced thinking, a rare feat in any art form. This belongs in even the most rudimentary jazz collection.

Time Further Out (1961)

Time Further Out appeared in 1961 and already the title, and the fact that Brubeck did a 'sequel' at all, provides an opening for those who question Dave's jazz bona fides ; after all, it's hard to imagine seeing 'Kind of Bluer', or 'Another Love Supreme' in the racks. But the quality of this record, constructed as a blues suite 'inspired' by Joan Miro's paintings, nearly matches its predecessor. The opener, “It's A Raggy Waltz” is a joy from beginning to end, its relatively conventional 3/4 meter irregularly bunched up by ragtime-like accents. “Bluette”, a Chopin-like waltz with some of Desmond's loveliest playing on record, features some nice arco playing by Wright. “Far More Blue/Far More Drums” is a 5/4 blues followed by a drum solo that shows just how far this group has come in two years; no longer does Brubeck need to hang onto a steady vamp to keep everyone on track in this meter, and Morello's solo, while not as epochal as “Take Five's”, is considerably longer and more assertive. Hand claps, a bass ostinato, Morello's drum-rims, and Brubeck's rollicking piano hoedown add up to “Unsquare Dance”, a cute idea in a decidedly oblong 7/4. “Blue Shadows in the Street” closes the original album with an evocative tune in an interestingly-grouped 9/8.

Countdown: Time In Outer Space (1962)

Countdown: Time In Outer Space has some big shoes to fill, following in the footsteps of both Time Out and Time Further Out, but it does so with great aplomb. Like the preceding albums, it continues the exploration of difficult “unsquare” time signatures and polyrhythms, however Countdown sees the quartet taking a more adventurous route. The opening title track is a good example of the Quartet's sleight-of-hand; the group rolls on this boogie-woogie so smoothly that it takes a couple of listens before one realizes that it's in 10/8. “Eleven Four”'s prosaic title belies one of Desmond's best compositions, a soaring theme that swings breezily even in this most awkward of meters. “Why Phyllis”, a blues waltz, is a charming bass feature for Wright, but “Castilian Blues/Castilian Drums” is yet another 5/4 blues-drums sequence and is not unduly inspiring, Morello's intriguing bare-hand solo notwithstanding. A new version of Brubeck's 1956 3 beats-against-4 arrangement of “Someday My Prince Will Come” may initially seem a pointless retread, but comparison with the earlier version shows how well the group plays together by this point. Desmond's solo is simply astounding, one of those that is so perfectly constructed and swinging that it almost constitutes a new tune. The album also includes four tunes from a ballet that Brubeck was writing at the time, and they are nice and swinging without being terribly remarkable.

Time Changes (1964)

The first 4 tracks of Time Changes constitute some of the best music in the box set, and exhibit a new, tougher style that Brubeck developed in the late 60s and early 70s. “Iberia”, a propulsive waltz, features an astonishing piano solo that moves from scrabbling free runs not too far off Cecil Taylor into a 4-against-3 saloon chorus before coming back to the melody. As on a good deal of the Quartet's later, harder-edged material, Desmond, a lyrical player at heart, lays out. He returns to lovely effect with a great solo in “Unisphere”, a jaunty theme in 10/4 with some trademark piano/sax counterpoint improvisation. “Shim Wah”, a rare Joe Morello composition, is a funky 3/4 tune on which Desmond appears only to state the melody, clearing the stage for an amazing Brubeck solo in which Dave's left hand rocks in offbeat accents between two dissonant chords like a stuck phonograph needle while his right breaks off vaguely Oriental shards of melodic glass. This solo, in which Dave plays the piano like the percussion instrument it actually is, is followed by a drum solo that conversely is almost melodic in its flow. But even better is the understandably brief “World's Fair”, in a tricky 13/4 that nevertheless manages to conjure up a 1920s stop-time feel under Desmond's deliciously bluesy solo. For the Quartet's unique ability to meld the avant-garde with the down-home and make it all instantly enjoyable, there is no better example. Unfortunately, the album falters after this blazing start. “Cable Car” is a feeble rewrite of “The Trolley Song”, complete with overly-literal cymbal bells tolling. And while “Elementals” a piece for jazz combo and orchestra that filled up the entire side two of the original record, is intermittently interesting and features some lovely Desmond, even repeated listens suggest it is more a messy hodgepodge of baroque brass, Stravinsky-esque winds, and Neal Hefti big band charts than any new 'third stream' form of music. The bonus track, a brief quartet version of the “Elementals” theme is, however, beautiful and ironically (or maybe expectedly?) says more in three minutes than the orchestral version does in 17.

Time In (1965)

Time In, issued in 1965 and the Quartet’s 15th anniversary album, was the last of pianist and composer Dave Brubeck's “Time” recordings, and one of his most musically adventurous. Gone are the moody, silky textures and glissando moves of Time Out, or Time Further Out. In fact, of all the “Time” recordings, this is the least commercial and, in places, almost hard bop-oriented among them. This set goes beyond the entire West Coast idea as well. That's not to say there are no ballads –“Softly, William, Softly” is one of the most gorgeous ballads Brubeck ever composed, with a memorable solo by Paul Desmond, who plays a slow, bluesy articulation over the pianist's augmented harmonic changes. But there's so much more. The title track has Stravinsky-esque chords that introduce a delicate theme, which disintegrates into a dissonant swing. There is also Brubeck variation on “Frankie and Johnnie,” on “He Done Her Wrong.” This track comes charging out of the box à la the Ramsey Lewis trio in a fit of pure one-four-five groove, with Desmond playing ostinato throughout the chorus. And here, Brubeck shows his love of tradition: Inside his solo, comprised of chords and striated intervallic figures that are just off the harmonic series, he never leaves the original behind; it is always readily evoked at any moment in the tune. The set closes with “Cassandra,” a piece with sleight-of-hand rhythms and fleet soloing by the pianist and Desmond. Brubeck himself comes out of the melody with a series of 16th notes that blaze into 32nds before he comes back to the changes for Desmond. All the while, Joe Morello is triple-timing the band even in the slower passages just to keep the pulse on target as Gene Wright and Brubeck move all around the time figures to create a sense of space around Desmond's solo. Though it is seldom celebrated as such, this is one of Brubeck's finest moments on Columbia.

==Summary==

The sound on these recordings is pristine yet warm, and best of all, when grouped this way, these five albums offer a story: a progression and a synthesis of how time and jazz were synonymous to stretch one another to breaking point and then become something else, apart and together, in the larger context of modern music. Brubeck's studies with Darius Milhaud and Desmond's revisioning of the blues are intertwined on these discs, making for a portrait at once very strange, yet lush and haunting, and almost nostalgic -- like these stretches were meant to be all along.

==Why mono? (by Q)==

I’ve always found the stereo separation “distracting”. Great for a concert hall experience, but not for that studio feel. Prior to this project I enjoyed “Time Out” and “Time Further Out”, but just didn’t get into the other titles. That changed considerably though when I heard them in mono. Suddenly there was depth, there was power. Centred drums and deep bass made a huge difference, and I now find that all the mono albums get regular play on my system whereas the stereo CDs are gathering dust in the corner.

I also learnt that while largely similar, there are some obvious mix differences in some of the tracks.

Enjoy! 

==Track listings==

Disc 1 (Time Out)

01 - Blue Rondo A La Turk

02 - Strange Meadowlark

03 - Take Five

04 - Three To Get Ready

05 - Kathy's Waltz

06 - Everybody's Jumpin'

07 - Pick Up Sticks

08 - Take Five (Columbia single 4-41479, Oct 1959)*

09 - Blue Rondo A La Turk (Columbia single 4-41479, Oct 1959)*

Disc 2 (Time Further Out)

01 - It's A Raggy Waltz

02 - Bluette

03 - Charles Mathew Hallelujah

04 - Far More Blue

05 - Far More Drums

06 - Maori Blues

07 - Unsquare Dance

08 - Bru's Boogie Woogie

09 - Blue Shadows In The Street

10 - It’s A Raggy Waltz (Columbia single 4-42228, Dec 1961)*

Disc 3 (Countdown: Time In Outer Space)

01 - Countdown

02 - Eleven Four

03 - Why Phillis

04 - Someday My Prince Will Come

05 - Castilian Blues

06 - Castilian Drums

07 - Fast Life

08 - Waltz Limp

09 - Three's A Crowd

10 - Dance Duet

11 - Back To Earth

Disc 4 (Time Changes)

01 - Iberia

02 - Unisphere

03 - Shim Wha

04 - World's Fair

05 - Cable Car

06 - Elementals

07 - Theme From Elementals (Columbia single 4-42920)*

Disc 5 (Time In)

01 - Lost Waltz

02 - Softly, William, Softly

03 - Time In

04 - 40 Days

05 - Travellin' Blues

06 - He Done Her Wrong

07 - Lonesome

08 - Cassandra

09 - Lost Waltz (Columbia Special Short Tracks for DJ Programming DJ 2 5)*

10 - Softly, William, Softly*

11 - Time In*

12 - 40 Days*

13 - Travellin' Blues*

14 - Lonesome*

15 - Cassandra*

*bonus tracks

==About the transfers==

These needledrops were taken from albums in near mint minus or better condition (three were near mint and one was unsealed by me just for this project). My aim was to create something that sounds like an “official” release, so albums with groove wear or other obvious damage didn’t make the grade. I then spent many tens of hours manually removing vinyl clicks, pops and ticks. However, you might occasionally hear what sounds like vinyl clicks or noise on some of the tracks. Such noise is not from the vinyl. As many listeners will know, jazz recordings can sound quite "dirty", with clicks and other noises captured on the master tape from vibrating strings, breath intakes, instrument valve movements and just general background noise from recording limitations of the time. For removing clicks and the like I used a second copy or the official CD as a reference. If the noise existed on the reference copy, it stayed on my 'drop as a faithful reproduction of the original master tape and of the exact sound that you heard all those years ago. Likewise I have applied no EQ, NR or filtering, so tape hiss, 60hz cutting hum and other similar noises inherent in the original recordings are still in place.

The bonus tracks were taken from singles that average around VG+ condition. Finding singles from the late 1950s and early 1960s that aren’t trashed or distorted through being cut so “hot” seems an impossible task! Still, most came out very nice and the rarity of hearing some unique mixes should more than compensate for any loss of quality.

LP Sources

Time Out: Columbia Records “6-eye”; CL 1397 (XLP47853-1BG/XLP47854-1CC)

Time Further Out: Columbia Records “6-eye”; CL 1690 (XLP53955-1C/XLP53956-1F)

Countdown: Time In Outer Space: Columbia Records “6-eye”; CL 1775 (XLP55595-1AA/XLP55596-2H)

Time Changes: Columbia Records “Guaranteed High Fidelity”; CL 2127 (XLP75904-1E/XLP75905-1B)

Time In: Columbia Records “360 Sound”; CL 2512 (XLP113717-1D/XLP113718-1D)

Time In: Columbia Records “Special Short Tracks for DJ Programming”; DJ 2 5 (XLP115038-1A/XLP115039-1A)

Lineage (for all)

Vinyl -> Ortofon 2M Blue -> Project Xpression III (w/ SpeedBox II) -> Denon PMA-700AE -> 32/96 -> ClickRepair/Audition -> 24/96 and 16/44.1 (iZotope RX 2 Advanced) -> FLACDrop

Time Out: CD quality (160mb) | Hi-Res (451mb)

Time Further Out: CD quality (145mb) | Hi-Res (410mb)

Countdown: CD quality (138mb) | Hi-Res (385mb)

Time Changes: CD quality (149mb) | Hi-Res (403mb)

Time In: CD quality (205mb) | Hi-Res (583mb)