Dave Brubeck RIP

Jazz pianist and composer Dave Brubeck has died, aged 91.  His most famous single, Take Five, was recorded in 1959, but took until 1961 to reach the UK charts. Written in 5/4 time, it spent an extraordinary five weeks in the Top Ten. The follow-up single, Unsquare Dance (below), in 7/4 time, arrived in 1962, and was the 100th best selling single of a pre-Beatles year. No less than four instrumentals took top slots in that year's sales - Acker Bilk's Stranger On The Shore (2), The Shadows' Wonderful Land (3), The Tornadoes, with Joe Meek's Telstar (6), and B Bumble and The Stingers' Nut Rocker (17).

Both Brubeck singles featured in so-called "musical appreciation " sessions at my school, Prescot Grammar, under the beady eye and waiting gym shoe of music master E. Fielding Kirk, known out of his earshot as Ted. Take Five was actually written by sax player Paul Desmond (I learned that much later, and now treasure his work with Gerry Mulligan).

Unsquare Dance's tempo became even more unsteady when I found an ex-juke box copy in 1963, and centred it on the turntable by eye - in the style of a comedy potter's wheel. Until today, I didn't know that Unsquare Dance also featured a musical phrase known in America as "Shave and a haircut - two bits", and in the UK "Shave and a haircut - five bob".