Take Ten Original Columbia Jass Cla Ssics

We had ragtime, the first historically recorded music that was technically jazz. Then Dixieland with all the New Orleans greats, Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, etc. "Hot jazz" that started featuring improvisations and jams from the best musicians of the late 1920's. (Sad I have to put the "19" on first. Time is just going so fast). Big band, bebop, hard bop, and cool jazz pioneered by Miles Davis. But Dave Brubeck had his own distinct style, and it was "cool", too, but a bit more rhythmically adventurous. One thing that Brubeck was famous for was "Take Five", one of jazz' greatest songs and most identifiable. Part of that sound also belonged to saxophonist Paul Desmond. I must confess that while I certainly appreciate good horn playing, I have typically been more interested in cleaner sounds. The blaring, the noisy and outright noise of some players just doesn't do it. I can listen to tons of weird guitar sounds, or keyboards. But horns? Uh uh. But my personal physician friend who also plays guitar and is a more avid jazz fan than I am and I are always recommending discoveries to each other during my usual three month appointments (we diabetics have to have lab work and regular monitoring) played a bit of Paul Desmond's "Take Ten" for me, and already liking Desmond, finding the great Jim Hall as his guitar player on this album meant it was an instant buy. It means a wonderful album of Desmond's ultra smooth sax, and Jim Hall's equally beautiful accompanying guitar, with no piano. It gets down to business on the title track, sort of taking the mega hit "Take Five" and attaching trigonometry rhythms to create a very demanding but cool tune that might even suggest some of the more challenging rock and jazz to follow. But the album overall is so soothing it just seems to float. Desmond shares that tone with Stan Getz, and Jim Hall is as mellow but still incredibly brilliant as any jazz player there ever was. "Take Ten" is timeless, and for non-jazz fans, easily digested. And cool enough to make you look like a real jazz cat when your friends are around when you play it. Highly recommended.

Paul Desmond, i'm finally convinced, was as gifted an alto master as Bird, though he possessed a "story-telling" ability perhaps exceeding that of any other alto player. Certainly, the noticable lack of Desmond imitators is testimony to his singular brilliance. What Paul does on the horn is simply something that can't be taught: he listens to himself with an attentiveness unmatched by few other players on any instrument. Listen to his continually setting up "call-response" patterns with himself. He'll introduce a musical question, then answer it with a response to his own query--but that answer is also a new question demanding its own response. And so goes a Paul Desmond solo, always open to new ideas, new inventions and motifs, inexhaustible little forays into the myriad of possibilities thrown off at any moment by the melodic-chordal-rhythmic nature of the form or song chosen as the vehicle for improvisation. Those moments during which the dialogue is not limited to Paul himself but to Paul and Jim Hall help the listener to gain an even sharper sense of the call-response form that motivates, then sustains, every Desmond narrative.My only reservation about this disc concerns the stereo mixing. Jim Hall's guitar is so distant in the mix--not to mention, "separated" from the central focus--that it sounds as if it could be an after-dub, if the listener didn't know better. I decided to compare this recording with a couple of others featuring Jim Hall with another musician--with Bill Evans ("Undercurrent") and Sonny Rollins ("The Bridge"). Both are recordings that provide the listener with the sonic image of two players who are, at the least, in the same room with each other. On my copy of "Take Ten" Hall's guitar is so exclusively prominent in the left channel and Paul's in the right that the effect is unsettling (try moving your balance control all the way to the left--normally, the level of Paul's alto would be diminished: on this remaster, it's practically eliminated!). If you have the abiliity to play "Take Ten" in monaural, the album should easily rate the extra star.

Item arrived appearing as though it had been re-packaged. Plain clear plastic wrap. Usually authentic record company name appears on the plastic wrap covering, hinge side. Also, case had a small crack in it. Well it cost only $5. Sometimes ya get what ya pay for right? The manner of recording makes Paul's sax and the percussionist heard only from the right side speaker. The left channel plays the guitar. My system functions fine as this does not occur on any other cd I own. I have never heard this before from either a vinyl record or cd. I give three stars as the sound is otherwise just fine.I previously purchased this same cd many years ago. It did not have this problem. I ditched it because it had an anomaly known to cd's but perhaps not often experienced: disappearing music. Yes some of the sound just departed the cd!

If you like the classic Take Five album of the Brubeck Quartet with Paul Desmond on sax, you will enjoy this remastered release of the original 1963 Take Ten album of Paul Desmond's group with guitarist Jim Hall. Liner notes wryly written by Desmond himself in which he thanks his father for discouraging him from taking up the violin (Amen to that).

I heard this whole album in low quality on YouTube and decided I had to buy it. I've given it 5 Stars because I like this type of music and this is exactly what I wanted. People either like 'cool jazz' or they don't. If you don't you might dismiss this as elevator music from a 60s movie [and it's right in-period for that]. If you do like this type of jazz, it just flows, from 'Take Ten', a subtle update 'Take Five', through Bossa/Samba tracks, to standards. Perfect for chilling out on the beach or late night relaxing and I wil be using this for both. I could use a better pair of bass bins to get the most out of the recording though.There was a bewildering array of CD versions and prices for this album so I will be clear on what I am reviewing. It is the 1997 reissue on Sony/Columbia/Legacy/BMG, with three bonus tracks, 'Out of Nowhere' and alternate takes of 'Embarcadero' and 'El Prince'. It does not say that it is the remastered version and I can't hear any of the usual compression that inevitably comes with a modern remaster. I read another review that complained about too-prominent drums and that may have been the remastered version.Essentially, this is Paul Desmond on a break from the Dave Brubeck Quartet, noodling around wonderfully on alto sax, with Jim Hall's simple and effective jazz guitar accompaniment. Gene Cherico's upright bass [Eugene Wright on 'Take Ten'] and Connie Kay's drums just drive the whole thing along unobtrusively.The version I bought cost me £4.21 [but is now even cheaper] and arrived in three days on free delivery. Beat that.My only complaint is that the original cellophane packaging of the CD was almost impossible to get off and I nearly cracked the flimsy, original-style jewel case to do so. But that didn't affect the music at all. Sublime.

Another excellent 5 star recording from Paul Desmond, should be in your collection if your a fan!

Everything about this album sparkles: the clean, tactile recording, the smooth, mellifluous sound of Paul Desmond's alto sax, the way in which the band plays together in a seamless but complex manner, and the selection of tunes, some of which, like Take Ten, having different time signatures.Each piece sparkles and you can always find something new to listen for and catch your ear. If you like Paul Desmond, or the Dave Bruback Quartet of that era, this CD will fit in extremely well to your collection.

Classic cool from the master I liken to Stan Getz.Icing on the cake here are presence of brilliant Jim Hall on guitar and Connie Kay on drums.Tracks Embarcadero and Samba de Orfeu are simply beautiful

Really cool laid back jazz.