Take Five: For Cello

Here is the jazz classic ā€œTake Fiveā€ transcribed and arranged for cello.

While this classic jazz number is strongly associated with Dave Brubeck, it was actually written by two lesser-known members of his group (quartet): Paul Desmond (1924-1977), the saxophonist, who came up with the melody, and Joe Morello, the drummer, who came up with the backing rhythm (drum groove). Interestingly, Take Five was part of a recording project, inspired by a trip to India and the Middle East, dedicated to pieces in unconventional time signatures. The record that resulted, called “Time Out” was the first-ever jazz record to sell more than one million copies. That was obviously a bit of very fertile cross-cultural pollination!

In the published versions, it is normally written out “square” in 5/4 time but it should definitely be played in 15/8 time, with every pair of 8th notes played as a lilting triplet:

  1. Edited Version
  2. Ā  Ā Ā  Clean Version

And here below is an audio play-along accompaniment which is a little slow perhaps: