Joe Morello on ‘Take Five': They’re Still Playing the Damn Thing

Scott K Fish

Silver Member
Joe Morello on ‘Take Five': They’re Still Playing the Damn Thing

SKF NOTE: The back story to this interview is here. In this segment, Joe Morello tells how the classic "Take Five" came to be. Caveat: Everything Joe says here was said in good humor - which can be lost with the written word.

Joe Morello: Then the 5/4 thing, where that got started.... When we were living in California where I first joined Dave [Brubeck], he use to feature me on the drum thing every night and do that "Sounds of the Loop." And I got tired of it. So when the group would cut out [of "Sounds of the Loop"], I'd go into 5/4, see? Just to try different rhythms.

So I told Dave, "Why don't you write me a drum solo in 5/4?" He said, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll do it. We'll do it."

So, I bugged him for about a year, and [Paul] Desmond said, "Well, I'll write something." And that's how "Take Five" came along. It was just a throwaway. Just a set up for a drum solo. Desmond use to play a few choruses and then - out!

So the thing became popular and it started getting a lot of airplay. So, Columbia made a 45[-rpm], and that's the story of that. That song, at the time, sold seven million albums and then singles. And it's still selling, believe it or not. They're still playing the damn thing.

Scott K Fish: Life Beyond the Cymbals
 
Very cool story. The Buddy story about just diggin' playing for 3-hours and then going home, sometimes there's good things about that. He's not the bandleader, and doesn't have to be the focus of what's going on. I can relate to that, and him being the star since he was a child, who can fault him for just being a background guy once?
 
Former MD Features Editor Rick Mattingly read my post and wrote me: "Morello told me that when they first started doing 'Take Five,' Brubeck had trouble soloing in 5/4, so that's why he just vamped through the whole thing and didn't solo."
 
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