Time Out by Dave Brubeck Quartet

Time Out, the Dave Brubeck Quartet's 1959 album for Columbia, is the record that proved jazz could count in odd numbers and still sell like a pop hit. Cut at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York with Teo Macero producing, it takes that cool, West Coast poise and sets it on rhythms that shouldn't swing but do: 9/8, 6/4, 5/4. Brubeck's piano lays out the knotty patterns, Joe Morello's drums make them feel as natural as walking, and Paul Desmond glides over the top like none of it is hard.

"Take Five" is the one everybody knows, a sly, smoky groove that became the first jazz single to move a million copies, and the album was the first jazz LP to pass the million mark. It reached number two on the Billboard albums chart, went double platinum in 2011, and now sits in both the Grammy Hall of Fame and the National Recording Registry.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.