In Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond, I told of having heard Desmond’s “Take Five” on a music box in a Prague gift shop and in a number of other unlikely places including the Mexico City subway and my neighborhood gas station.
There are sheet music arrangements of “Take Five” for solo piano, brass band, chorus, accordian, guitar, flute choir, string orchestra, drum and percussion and–I swear–hand bells.
To the list of unusual performances of “Take Five” you may now add the 12 Girls Band live at Budokan. The short solo beginning a minute and four seconds into the performance seems truly improvised. As I watched this, I imagined Desmond’s grin if he could see it.
Thanks to Iola Brubeck for pointing out this treasure.