It’s still out there, and nowhere near hard bop, but it isn’t the squeaks and squawks of our friend Eric Dolphy, either. As is throughout the album, Hubbard plays decidedly more traditionally. After Eric Dolphy’s solo, Freddie starts his.
Tony’s accompaniment during Eric’s solo is great, and Bobby’s listening real hard and placing his vibe hits in all the right places. A disturbing, gutteral blast of beautifully atonal sound, dedicated to Thelonious Monk. After that, it’s Eric’s first solo on the record.
In comes the main melody, which is a jarring line that seems to be slowly rolling off a cliff. First Eric and Richard Davis do it, then Bobby Hutcherson takes that little line himself for a few bars. It sort of sounds like the whole band is doing a walking line. Hat And Beard (8:24) A loud, short note by Freddie and Eric opens up the album, and in come the rest of the band. Whether it’s Hubbard’s flurries of slurred notes in the forefront or Hutcherson’s strategically placed splashes of dissonance deep in the mix, it’s all an integral part of what makes this record what it is: a masterwork. All the musicians are top notch, and none provides a lesser contribution. The level of tension created by these musicians is absurd, and the loose, sensitive interaction of the band members is something to admire. It basically sounds like it is from another planet. This is basically the top of the heap as far as Eric Dolphy albums are concerned, and arguably the best example of avant-garde jazz. Whether you’re a jazz theory expert, or a casual listener, his music will speak to you nearly the same. While I could go on and on discussing his playing style and some of his unique ideas, it’s the music that speaks it the best. For example, he may arpeggiate a minor chord to correspond with the rhythm section playing a major. Though he did not disregard chordal improvisation as some of his contemporaries (e.g., Ornette Coleman) had, his idea of chordal improvisation is quite distant from that of the beboppers. His joyful, humorous playing style is undeniably Dolphy. His voice on any instrument calls out loud and clear. This multi-instrumentalist, whose main instrument could either be called alto saxophone or bass clarinet, depending on who you ask, was one of the forerunners in the world of avant-garde jazz. Whether a fan of avant-garde and free jazz, or on the side of the naysayers that were so common in the 1960s, it’s pretty much universally accepted that the contribution that Eric Dolphy made to jazz music were and are incredibly important. Little did anyone know at the time, that little Eric would grow up to be one of the most controversial figures in jazz. Eric Dolphy, a California native, was born in 1928.
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