I was 8 years old. This is the song that opened my eyes to the fact that there was more out there in the musical world than the classics I was listening to.
 
Check out the drummer...tell me he was not a pot smoker in 1959.
 

Remarkable. Paul Desmond's jazz brain might be one of the best ever. Also, the band is integrated, which is huuuuge for something filmed/broadcast in 1959.
 
Dave cancelled many concerts in Southern states and nixed many filmed/televised appearances when they refused to allow the bass player Eugene Wright on stage.
 
Perhaps the drummer (Joe Morello?) just got back from cataract surgery. Sure looks happy, though.
 
thanks for the post!
-Tom

Wow!  I had no idea that you're that ANCIENT 

Dave (bit that is) is ~2 years older than me and I'm older that dirt.

"Dirt + 2" would be  great name for a band.

Coincidentally I started reading this last night;
 

 
Radcliffe takes one song from every year since he was born as the cornerstone of each chapter, and 'Take Five' was his choice for 1959.
 
 

Joe ... one of the greatest drummers of the 20th century and probably the most musical soloist ... had vision problems from childhood and always wore glasses or dark glasses.
 
Here are a couple of minutes of Joe soloing (there is a little glitch in the audio at one point):

 
This is 1961 ... 8 years before LZII's Moby Dick.

"1959, The year that changed jazz"
Nice doc of happenings of that year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dou3aSZmEg0

Just bumped an old thread of mine ... I studied with Joe for many years.

Always loved Take Five.