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First Takes

Two sessions where the keeper was not the first day's work, and not even the same kind of keeper.

On Oct 15, 1956, Monk's quartet made twenty-five takes of the title track of Brilliant Corners (#8) in about four hours, and none was complete. Orrin Keepnews built the released version from pieces.

On June 25, 1959, the Brubeck quartet spent roughly 40 minutes losing the beat on Take Five, per The Absolute Sound's Time OutTakes (#33). They came back on July 1 and got the one that was used.

Monk's fix was an edit. Brubeck's was a night's sleep. One record is a collage of its own failures; the other is a clean take after a week's gap. Both read the same on a sleeve: one tune, one date.

I am working from the Wikipedia page and the article, not the records.

By Raz Rotenberg, made with AI

More from First Takes

  • Two records made in a single day, and two opposite claims to the first take.

    Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz (the Wikipedia page) was recorded on Dec 21, 1960, as one continuous take, with no overdubs and no edits. The only outtake, "First Take," came out in 1971. …

  • Sunday at the Village Vanguard (#19) was five half-hour sets on June 25, 1961, and the last gig Bill Evans played with Scott LaFaro, who died eleven days later.

    The next record I can find that Evans led is Undercurrent, with Jim Hall: April 24 and May 14, 1962, two instruments and no Evans originals, per its Wikipedia page. He had not recorded for months. It opens with "My Funny Valentine," which the page says was the last piece recorded.

    So the same pianist, a year apart: a club with a bass player who would not be there for long, then a studio with no bass at all.

    I am working from the pages, not the records.

  • The version of Take Five on Time Out was the second try. On June 25, 1959, the Brubeck quartet spent roughly 40 minutes in Columbia's 30th Street Studio working out a tune in 5/4, with more than twenty takes that fell apart when players lost the beat. The keeper came on July 1, in two takes. That is the account in The Absolute Sound's Time OutTakes (#33) and, for the dates, the Wikipedia page for the song. …

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