Popularity is double-edged, and perhaps no jazz artist exemplifies this better than Dave Brubeck. The unparalleled success of his classic quartets with Paul Desmond, which expanded the market for jazz into colleges and the homes of suburbia, often obscured his very real musical innovations. The ever-increasing professional sheen of Brubeck's '60s albums for Columbia, his interest in writing for orchestras, the quartet's base in traditional swing rather than bop, and their largely white, middle-class fan base have all led some to brand Brubeck as a lightweight, or worse yet, an 'entertainer.' Although there is a grain of truth to this characterization, extended exposure to Brubeck's best work argues otherwise.
Columbia Records' long-overdue reissue program of classic Brubeck albums has gone some way towards rehabilitating Dave's reputation. The latest release is a 5- CD box set entitled For All Time , which brings together all of the classic quartet's albums devoted to exploring unusual time signatures and rhythmic combinations: Time Out (1959) and Time Further Out (1961), which were already available in remastered editions, along with three records that have never appeared on CD domestically; Countdown: Time In Outer Space (1962), Time Changes (1964), and Time In (1965). While Brubeck fans will rejoice in the availability of these latter CDs, they are likely to be disappointed by the box as a whole. Unlike Columbia's exemplary Miles Davis sets, which included extensive new liner notes (in some cases almost book-length) and unreleased material in a quantity exceeding that of the original albums, For All Time simply re- packages the already-available editions of Time Out and Time Further Out with the separately packaged new CDs in a slipcase. Fans hoping for never- before-heard outtakes of classic tunes such as 'Take Five,' 'Blue Rondo a la Turk,' or 'It's a Raggy Waltz' will not find them here. Nor will they gain any new perspective on the importance of these albums or insight into what went into their making, despite some very brief new notes from Dave. Indeed, it is unclear just for whom Columbia is releasing such a configuration: any serious Brubeck fan will already have purchased the first two albums (many several times over), while the casual jazz listener will be unlikely to shell out for a 5-disc set. Since Columbia will almost certainly release the later three albums singly after the box has had its run (as they did with all of Miles' records), most listeners will probably wait until then to pick them up.
CD1 - Time Out (1959)
01. Blue Rondo A La Turk [6:46]
02. Strange Meadow Lark [7:24]
03. Take Five [5:27]
04. Three To Get Ready [5:26]
05. Kathy's Waltz [4:51]
06. Everybody's Jumpin' [4:25]
07. Pick Up Sticks [4:17]
CD2 - Time Further Out (1961)
01. It's A Raggy Waltz [5:15]
02. Bluette [5:24]
03. Charles Matthew Hallelujah [2:53]
04. Far More Blue [4:40]
05. Far More Drums [4:01]
06. Maori Blues [3:56]
07. Unsquare Dance [2:03]
08. Bru's Boogie Woogie [2:30]
09. Blue Shadows In The Street [6:37]
10. Slow And Easy (A.K.A. Lawless Mike) [3:30]
11. It's A Raggy Waltz (Live At Carnegie Hall) [6:39]
CD3 - Countdown Time in Outer Space (1962)
01. Countdown [2:25]
02. Eleven Four [2:54]
03. Why Phillis Waltz [2:18]
04. Someday My Prince Will Come [6:21]
05. Castilian Blues [2:33]
06. Castilian Drums [5:20]
07. Fast Life [3:00]
08. Waltz Limp [4:17]
09. Three's a Crowd [2:44]
10. Danse Duet [3:47]
11. Back to Earth [3:20]
12. Fatha [3:47]
CD4 - Time Changes (1964)
01. Iberia [3:00]
02. Unisphere [5:43]
03. Shim Wha [4:03]
04. World's Fair [2:45]
05. Cable Car [3:00]
06. Theme from Elementals [3:09]
07. Elementals [16:35]
CD5 - Time In (1965)
01. Lost Waltz [3:54]
02. Softly, William, Softly [5:41]
03. Time In [4:00]
04. Forty Days [4:42]
05. Travellin' Blues [5:59]
06. He Done Her Wrong [2:16]
07. Lonesome [7:12]
08. Cassandra [4:22]
09. Rude Old Man [2:24]
10. Who Said That? [3:35]
11. Watusi Drums [2:23]
