It's been a long time... many things have driven me away from what had become second nature to me, writing. I am returning to the fruitful garden of creation with a quality post about one of the most avant-garde jazz albums in the lifetime of music... The name of the masterpiece which I will make an effort to review is OUT TO LUNCH and it is a record of Eric Dolphy's five original compositions...

For those who run into Eric Dolphy for the first time I am obliged to say that this great musician died at a very young age on the year 1964. The loss of such a tremendous musician led the jazz community to an era of deep grief when some of the best free & cool jazz compositions were written. That period extended from 1964 to 1973. Eric Dolphy was a flute and alto sax performer and his distinctive abstract tunes made him famous in a society where modal jazz was just a toddler. Along with Ornette Coleman (i wouldn't mention John Coltrane for his impact on music is more massive than the universe itself) they set the foundations for what was supposed to be the shape of jazz to come: a more abstract and free sum of sounds that were not what ragtime or classic jazz had provided people with. So to cut a long story short , the album is a 5-track record (I've got the digitally remastered eddy van gelder edition so I do not know how many tracks the original had) and the names are :
-hat and beard
-something sweet,something tender
-gazzelloni
-out to lunch
-straight up and down
hat and beard is a very mysterious and dark tune which could easily be the teaser for a hitchcock movie. Bass' walk is like tiptoeing on the edge of mount rushmore while being chased by the gangsters from "North by Northwest"... There is where Dolphy enters with an alto sax (if I'm not mistaken) and the madness starts... The solo of the man is SICK SICK SICK. There are no words that can withhold the dark energy that the solo conveys. It might seem too spontaneous but it is not. The scales used are structured in a way that only Dolphy could have imagined... Just amazing... as the tune unravels the other musicians take turns to show off their talent...
the responses of each player reveal what was possible when each participant was thoroughly conversant with traditional techniques yet in no way felt shackled by them...
something sweet,something tender is not at all what the title proposes. In my opinion it is a bass based composition with a violin-like sax. The track starts with a furious scale which lasts for a few seconds but is a proof for the evolution of music at that time. Dolphy here has incorporated elements of bossa and downtempo in his music...
Gasselloni is a flute session. It is quite rare in jazz standards for the artist to use only flute as a means of expression. This act shows Dolphy's classical approach to jazz music. The name of the song is the name of a great modern flautist. Everything holds to the flute pattern for the first 13 bars, then... FREEDOM!!! Although traditional and old-fashioned flute is adopted in the most beautiful way.
Out to lunch : This is a recurring figure round an improvised chorus. The figure sets the rhythm section up with a definite solo feeling. In the improvised section the rhythms overlap. The bass follows no bar line at all. Tony Williams is completely free. He doesn't play time, he just plays! Even though the rhythm section breaks the time up, there's a basic pulse coming from inside the tune. That's the pulse the musicians play...
Straight Up and Down : According to A.B. Spellman who wrote the original liner notes "this one reminds me of a drunk walking"... the keyword for this tune is freedom. The basic chords are introduced but from then on nobody follows something established. no rhythm section,no bar leading music, no nothing... just freedom...
my favorite tune is featured on straight up and down. I believe that I like this pattern so much for it bears a strong resemblance to "245" from outward bound.
I am going to close this review with the words of Eric Dolphy after finishing the recording of out to lunch. He said: "I'm on my way to Europe to live for a while... Why? Because I can get more work there playing my music, and because if you try to do anything different in this country, people put you down for it."
kisses vibes blisses vibes
vibes vibes vibes vibes vibes