Eric Dolphy

speaking of "Free Jazz," nobody has mentioned Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation By The Ornette Coleman Double Quartet

I haven't heard a ton of Dolphy, but love everything I've heard. Ingenuity, Integrity, Soul.

Brian Case once (approvingly) described Dolphy's bass clarinet as "snorting like a happy hippo" which I think entirely apt.

I attended a Cecil Taylor workshop a year or two ago where he talked about the sole time he played with Dolphy, in a loft on 14th street. CT admitted that he was not able to figure out what Dolphy was doing, and therefore not able to play with him effectively.

...This confounded me and my expectations.

In a way, I can see what Cecil means. Dolphy often made big harmonic/melodic leaps, whereas someone like Jimmy Lyons stayed within certain harmonic regions for longer periods.

I agree with you, Sarax3, considering Lyons plus some of CT's other reed-playing sidemen of the era. Lyons was definitely of a Charlie Parker mold, Shepp was awfully blues-based, and Ayler, though clearly steeped in his own conception, didn't exactly have an impenetrable system.

It makes sense that two artists with such developed and unique methods of playing and composing may have trouble being compatible.

Still, when I think of the skill, imagination, and vitality of both artists, I easily imagine them finding common ground. (Hence, the confounding...)

Curious how Dolphy seemed to fit into the music of that other renegade/revolutionary pianist Little Richard fairly comfortably (have a look at the horn section the next time you watch The Girl Can't Help It - there he is, complete with trademark goatee).

Also his successful spell with Chico Hamilton probably indicated that more space was an advantage for him - note how on Out To Lunch he uses Bobby Hutcherson's vibes instead of piano.

Dingbod--that's insane!

Are we sure?

I've never heard of Dolphy with Little Richard, I can only find a blog entry mentioning it, and if memory serves, the Simosko bio/disco makes no mention. I even tooled around on Youtube, to no avail...

He's definitely on there, though.

I remember watching the film as a kid on Saturday afternoon BBC2 and my dad pointed him out (first on the left?) and it was definitely him. Dolphy's presence was confirmed in the NME about ten years later.

Neat!

Is the sound on the RVG edition of Out to Lunch significantly better than the original issue CD (which I have)? Some of those RVG's can be a bit hit and miss. I'm in Tokyo right now so perhaps I should consider picking up one of the Japanese edtions...

I think the sound might be why I was so turned off by it the first time!

It was my first RVG and I was horrified. Then I realized it was a trend, but I haven't gone back to OTL since.

yeah, we had the RVG discussion on one or two other threads. Short version: avoid them

thanks for the advice :)

fwiw it took me a while to realize. it was totally "doth my ears deceive me?" b/c I knew RVG had engineered so many originally great-sounding records. I think it was the Maiden Voyage that pushed me over the edge, but I only felt sure of my opinion once I realized that others were experiencing the same

some of the RVG's that i've heard have been a bit on the bright side. and an overly 'bright' sounding OTL would be too tiring for my ears.

Charles Mingus said, "Usually, when a man dies, you remember—or you say you remember—only the good things about him. With Eric, that's all you could remember. I don't remember any drags he did to anybody. The man was absolutely without a need to hurt".

buy everything you see with his name on it.

― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, July 14, 2005 6:34 PM (7 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

DOLPHY PO5:

At the Five Spot vol. 1 w/Booker Little
Coltrane - Ole
Mingus Town Hall 1964
Out There
Coltrane - Village Vanguard

Dolphy was the first jazz musician whose soloing I instinctively responded to, and remains foremost for me...

Out To Lunch! was recorded 50 years ago today, the same day Ali beat Liston in Miami for the Heavyweight Championship.

Just picked up Out There over the weekend for my first ever dip into his solo work. I'm excited.

Out There is incredible - one of our house's most played LPs. The cello / bass combo is something more people should have done.

otm. Ron Carter's Where? has a similar lineup: Carter, Duvivier, Dolphy, but with Charlie Persip and Mal Waldron.

i'm still waiting for more cello/guitar recs!

http://ecmreviews.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/improvisations-for-cello-and-guitar1.jpg

I kinda don't like Eric's solo on the "Out There" title cut very much - he keeps playing that one dipsy-doodle lick over and over for several bars at a time, like he's killing time while thinking of what to play next. Maybe it wouldn't sound that way if Haynes/Duvivier weren't so committed to 4/4, I dunno...

But yeah, still a very cool-sounding lineup in total.

thissss
https://vimeo.com/105420482

Woah.

did any other jazz musicians ever get into the bass clarinet? or did they just stay away from it because dolphy was so amazing.

that's the track that got me into him, love it

did any other jazz musicians ever get into the bass clarinet?

Byard Lancaster has some stunning moments on Bill Dixon's Intents and Purposes. And Harry Carney, John Gilmore, and Peter Brötzmann have all used it at one time or another, but none as their primary instrument.

cool, will have to seek those out... i really like the sound dolphy gets out of it! was listening to "spiritual" from coltrane's village vanguard box yesterday too, so good.

Bennie Maupin on Bitches Brew!

oh yeah that's right! guess maupin breaks it out w/ hancocka bit too.

hancocka!

David Murray on a buncha stuff, but especially Jack DeJohnette's Special Edition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4m9RsRucuM

jfc I only today learned how the man died. Now I'm fucking angry.

In 1964, Dolphy fell into a coma due to undiagnosed/untreated diabetes in Berlin. He was a teetotaler who didn't smoke, but docs, hearing he played jazz, assumed he'd OD'd and didn't even take a blood test. He died at 36 for absolutely no reason https://t.co/CiAlZYeTzA

— jo livingstone (@Jo_Livingstone) June 29, 2020

jeez

Shocking waste of a life. Monk and Powell also had some very rough treatment by cops and doctors who decided a few rounds of electroconvulsive therapy might make them better!

I forgot to add the clubs to head therapy from the cops as well.

cops & their psychiatric equivalents basically destroyed monk’s career and life, it’s amazing he got anything done

on dolphy, he gets respect but still feels underrated somehow, maybe bc he didn’t start an obvious “movement”, falls somewhere between bop and “free” with most of playing, recorded lots of his best stuff as sideman. had he lived he would have certainly gone to wilder places, was planning collaboration with ayler, would have done ascension etc. I would also have liked to hear him with/against mid-60s sonny rollins, maybe in the band with don cherry. and an anthony braxton style solo album with all his instruments would have been amazing

dolphy solo recordings: inner flight 1 & 2 (flute), tenderly (alto), various god bless the childs (bass clarinet)- any more?

also did he play regular clarinet anywhere except for that one track on “out there”?

I dunno about solos, but i'll always rep for Where and The Quest which are others albums with a lot of Dolphy greatness on them

not had a good Dolphy listening spree for years now, sounds like a plan!

also did he play regular clarinet anywhere except for that one track on “out there”?

He plays clarinet on "Warm Canto" on "The Quest". There's a Dolphy docu on YouTube called "Last Date".

on dolphy, he gets respect but still feels underrated somehow, maybe bc he didn’t start an obvious “movement”, falls somewhere between bop and “free” with most of playing, recorded lots of his best stuff as sideman. had he lived he would have certainly gone to wilder places, was planning collaboration with ayler, would have done ascension etc. I would also have liked to hear him with/against mid-60s sonny rollins, maybe in the band with don cherry. and an anthony braxton style solo album with all his instruments would have been amazing

― If you choose too long a name, your new display name will be truncated in (Left), Tuesday, 30 June 2020 11:04 (eight hours ago) link

I don't usually get too hung up on artists who passed early & wondering what could have been but Dolphy does feel like for all of the greatness he produced in his lifetime he was only getting started and he that he set a template for so many horn players who followed him (playing multiple different instruments for inst) and that he already had formed a relationship with the early Euro free scene (Mengelberg & Bennink on Last Date), who knows he could've been making records with Derek Bailey & Brotzmann as well.

so damned sad

"Jazz on a Summer's Day," a concert film of the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, has a couple of brief scenes of Dolphy playing with the Chico Hamilton Quintet ... it was on TCM recently

He has always been my favorite jazz soloist.

another great album with some prime Dolphy is Max Roach's Percussion Bitter Sweet.

the lyrics to the vocal track Mendacity (with nice Dolphy solo) still ring true (politicians are a bunch of cunts).

Eric Dolphy is definitely one of the great tragedies in an art form that's had far too any. It's very possible he hadn't reached his full potential which is simply astonishing when we have a masterpiece like Out to Lunch. With the loss of Coltrane and Dolphy and what they were beginning to explore with the possibilities opened up by free jazz, the loss is pretty immense. It would've been fascinating to see how things would've played out in the coming decade.