Dave Brubeck - Blue Rondo A La Turk (1959)

From the album Time Out by The Dave Brubeck Quartet, Recorded at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York City and released in 1959 on Columbia Records.
Blue Rondo à la Turk is a jazz standard composition by Dave Brubeck. It appeared on the 1959 album Time Out. It is written in a 9/8 and swing 4/4 time signatures (the rhythm determine the pulse of the music you are playing or listening to) at a time when most jazz was composed entirely in 4/4.
Brubeck heard the unusual 1-2/1-2/1-2/1-2-3 rhythm performed by Turkish musicians on the street. Upon asking the musicians where they got the rhythm, one replied "This rhythm is to us, what the blues is to you." Hence the title Blue Rondo à la Turk.
The piece is sometimes incorrectly assumed to be based on the Mozart composition Rondo alla Turca. In a 2003  interview,  Brubeck commented that "I should've just called it 'Blue Rondo', because the title just seemed to confuse people.'
Boasting the first jazz instrumental to sell a million copies, the Paul Desmond-penned Take Five, Time Out captures the celebrated jazz quartet at the height of both its popularity and its powers. Recorded in 1959, the album combines superb performances by pianist Brubeck, alto saxophonist Desmond, drummer Joe Morrello and bassist Gene Wright. Along with Take Five, the album of course features 'Rondo', another one of the group's signature compositions. Though influenced by the West Coast-cool school, Brubeck's greatest interest and contribution to jazz was the use of irregular meters in composition, which he did with great flair. Much of the band's appeal is due to Desmond, whose airy tone and fluid attack often carried the band's already strong performances to another level. Together, he and Brubeck proved one of the most potent pairings of the era.
French singer Claude Nougaro has used this standard as a musical foundation for his song "A bout de souffle".


The Lively Ones television show first broadcast July 25, 1962. The Quartet is shown riding a magic carpet over a freeway in Los Angeles. As you do.