Wed 9 Oct 2019
Music I’m Listening To: DAVE BRUBECK QUARTET “Take Five.”
Posted by Steve under Music I'm Listening To[6] Comments
All all-time favorite. This is the first time I’ve seen them play it live.
[6] Comments
[6] Comments
Wed 9 Oct 2019
All all-time favorite. This is the first time I’ve seen them play it live.
October 9th, 2019 at 9:43 pm
I heard Brubeck say in an interview that the beat for “Take Five” came to him on long horseback travel in Montana.
October 10th, 2019 at 6:15 am
I took another listen, and while I hear either a donkey or a burro, but if Brubeck says it was a horse ride, than a horse ride it was.
October 10th, 2019 at 3:05 am
The presence of Hugh Hefner at the start, plus it’s in black-and-white, indicates that the show is Playboy’s Penthouse, which aired locally in Chicago on WBKB-Channel 7, the ABC-owned station there, late Saturday nights, circa 1960.
WBKB had some success syndicating this series at that time, but ABC’s coffers weren’t up to a big national roll-out.
Playboy After Dark, the splashier full-color version of this, came about a decade later.
October 10th, 2019 at 6:15 am
I agree. Great detective work, Mike!
October 10th, 2019 at 10:40 am
Steve:
Thanx for the call-out – but it wasn’t really detective work … just memory kicking in.
In 1960, WBKB-Channel 7 in Chicago was one of the more successful ABC network affiliates, due in part to attracting well-known local people as on-camera personalities.
Some that I recall included bookseller Stuart Brent, Polish-born Bob Lewandowski, Captain Stubby and the Buccaneers, Chatter the Chimp, kid-show hosts Terry Brennan and Jim Stewart –
– and this magazine guy named Hefner, who’s just started taking Playboy national.
All of the above-named (plus some others I can’t call to mind just now (senior moment)) were the subjects of a print-ad campaign in the four local papers, plus the Chicago edition of TV Guide: Everybody In Chicago Knows This Man! (or b>Men!/Woman!/Chimp!/ whatever.)
That’s what I remembered here.
Full disclosure: A few weeks back, at Ken Levine’s blog, I had occasion to recall Chatter the Chimp, which in turn triggered the overall memory … So There Too.
October 11th, 2019 at 8:25 pm
Steve–no lack of Brubeck Quartet video and film…one thing you’ll see/hear is that Desmond tries particularly hard, as do they all but none more than Desmond, to never repeat himself in a solo.
And boy such tensions and guilt in that band, along with genuine affection and respect.
Mike–good to read! I’m always fascinated by accounts of local programming, syndicated programming, and the small networks and their interactions…WGN alone makes for extensive documentation.