Dave Brubeck's 1959 Jazz Masterpiece 'Time Out' Certified Double Platinum by RIAA

By: Dec. 06, 2011
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American jazz legend Dave Brubeck, who celebrates his 91st birthday today (December 6), reached another milestone recently when Time Out, his 1959 watershed masterpiece, was awarded Double Platinum status by the RIAA in recognition of sales of more than two million copies in the United States.

A profoundly pivotal and influential recording, Time Out -- which began as a musical experiment showcasing the Dave Brubeck Quartet performing seven original jazz compositions, each in a different time signature -- became an iconic crossover smash, reaching #2 on the Billboard Pop chart in 1961, eventually spending a mind-blowing 164 weeks on the charts.  Propelled in part by "Take Five," the DBQ's signature classic in 5/4 time, Time Out is the first jazz album to sell more than one million copies and one of the select few to achieve Double Platinum status.

Time Out was added to the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry in 2005.  Legacy Recordings released a three-disc 50th Anniversary Edition of Time Out in 2009, the same year the album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame (established by The Recording Academy's National Trustees in 1973 to honor recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance that are at least 25 years old).

Brubeck's album, Dave Brubeck: Legacy of a Legend, released in advance of the legend's 90th birthday last year, hit #1 on the CMJ Jazz Top 40 chart as the album garnered critical acclaim and coast-to-coast airplay.  With the album reaching #13 on the Billboard Top Jazz Album chart and #8 on the Traditional Jazz Album Chart, Brubeck earned the rare distinction of having played on albums charting in every decade since the 1950s.  Dave Brubeck: Legacy of a Legend, a commemorative collection of tracks hand-picked by the artist, featuring extensive annotation and anecdotal liner notes written by his son Darius, was released through Columbia/Legacy, a division of Sony Music Entertainment, to all physical and digital retail outlets last November.

Brubeck received Kennedy Center Honors in December 2009, and, along with his ensemble, was named the Jazz Group of the Year in the 2010 Downbeat Reader's Poll.

Dave Digs Disney, Brubeck's delightfully groundbreaking jazz interpretations of classic songs from Disney films, has recently been made available as a two CD package in the US featuring the original mono album on Disc 1 and stereo mixes and alternate takes of the album on Disc 2.  Recorded in New York and Los Angeles over the course of three historic sessions in June and August 1957, Dave Digs Disney is often cited as one of the most important titles in the Brubeck canon.

On November 1, 2011, Legacy Recordings released Their Last Time Out, a two-CD, 15-track recording of the December 26, 1967 concert (with the exception of a 1976 reunion tour) of the classic Dave Brubeck Quartet--featuring Paul Desmond on alto sax, Eugene Wright on bass, and Joe Morello on drums--the group's final performance (with the exception of a 1976 reunion).  Recorded in Pittsburgh, December 26, 1967: Their Last Time Out finds the classic DBQ at the top of its game, marking the close of an 18-year run as one of the most influential, and popular, ensembles in jazz.  An emotional celebration of the quartet's repertoire, the 98 minute concert has been made available for the first time by the Brubeck Archives and signs off with the consummate performance of "Take Five," that unpretentious and infectiously swinging combination of melody, rhythm and sound that's come to signify jazz itself.

The Dave Brubeck Quartet - December 26, 1967: Their Last Time Out

Disc 1

  1. Introduction
  2. St. Louis Blues
  3. Three To Get Ready
  4. These Foolish Things
  5. Cielito Lindo
  6. La Paloma Azul
  7. Take The "A" Train
  8. Someday My Prince Will Come

Disc 2

  1. Intro to Band Members
  2. Swanee River
  3. I'm In A Dancing Mood
  4. You Go To My Head
  5. Set My People Free
  6. For Drummers Only
  7. Take Five

On November 22, 2011, Legacy Recordings released The Dave Brubeck Quartet's Complete Studio Albums in a boxed set containing 19 CDs in facsimile sleeves covering the DBQ's Columbia Records catalog from 1955's Brubeck Time through 1966's Anything Goes, with several long sought-after album titles being converted to a digital medium for the first time in the creation of this collection.



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