What song opens Dave Brubeck’s 1959 album Time Out?

“Blue Rondo à la Turk” opens Dave Brubeck’s 1959 album Time Out.

Brubeck composed the piece after hearing Turkish street musicians during a 1958 tour. Its unusual 9/8 meter is grouped as 2+2+2+3, giving the opening a distinctive uneven pulse. The title plays on Mozart’s “Rondo alla Turca,” although Brubeck’s composition is an original modern-jazz work.

Time Out was recorded by the Dave Brubeck Quartet, with Paul Desmond on alto saxophone, Eugene Wright on bass, and Joe Morello on drums. The album explored meters uncommon in popular jazz at the time, including 5/4, 6/4, and 9/8.

“Take Five,” the quartet’s best-known recording, is also on Time Out, but it does not open the album. Paul Desmond wrote “Take Five,” while Brubeck wrote “Blue Rondo à la Turk,” “Strange Meadow Lark,” and the other Brubeck compositions on the record.