In March of 1960…”Elliott Carter’s Second String Quartet received its premier
performance while were we there (the Juilliard School in New York City) and it was
considered very questionable by some members of the faculty. Some liked it , some
didn’t, but it was on the very edge of respectability.”
- Steven Reich
I’m probably making this up, but I swear the owner of Logos Bookstore in Santa Cruz was actively leading me on my jazz journey. As I have written before, every Saturday when the store opened, I’d be the first one there and go right to the small record bin. The story goes like this...
I always found these sweet, old jazz records in the front of that bin. They were not cheap, but impossible to find in those days - and always in nearly mint condition. I’d buy them all. Early on, the albums were West Coast Jazz, stuff like Art Pepper’s Surf Ride on Savoy, Dexter Gordon’s Dexter Blows Hot and Cool on DooTone, and lots of Norgrans and Verves with the cool David Stone Martin Covers.
All pretty mainstream stuff. But then, as time went on, I’d find some harder bop Blue Notes, like Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers’ Mosaic. One week, it was Jackie McLean’s One Step Beyond, which took me to a new place. The next week, Eric Dolphy’s Out To Lunch! And that one made me realize where one step beyond actually was going….
In the late 1960s, the American classical music norm was a tossup between European serialism and the American aleatory music of say John Cage and Aaron Copland, both of which came out sounding atonal and non-rhythmic. The old, atonal, Post-Webern sound had become institutionalized. The assumption was that after Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, tonality was dead and repetition was frowned upon. Elliott Carter’s Second String Quartet was proclaimed a masterpiece by musical experts. In fact, it won a Pulitzer Prize in Music in 1960. Honestly, I can’t even listen to it. I find the music unsettling and somewhat self-indulgent.
Clearly, Elliot Carter, along with his contemporaries John Cage and Aaron Copland, defined American sound in the early to mid-20th century, not only in classical music, but also in Jazz.
It is in this sound environment that some adventurous jazz musicians, mostly in New York City, took one step beyond and revolutionized jazz. These musicians were not living in a vacuum. They were highly influenced by artistic sounds and sights swirling around New York City’s avant-garde community. Therefore, as we look at how Eric Dolphy and other avant-garde jazz musicians rejected traditional tonal boundaries and pushed their music toward unconventional harmony and even atonality, we must keep in mind the spirit of the times. You hear that spirit on Eclipse, from Dolphy’s 1960 Prestige release Out There, played by his pianoless quartet with a young Ron Carter playing cello - one of his earliest recordings:
You can also see that spirit on the album cover, which displays a surrealistic painting by Richard Jennings.
Comparisons
Music, Jazz music in particular, is a pretty slow moving art field compared to painting and sculpture, which during the 1960s moved very quickly. You can see how the jazz music studio heads tried to push jazz ahead by displaying Jackson Pollock’s 1954 abstract expressionist painting White Light on the cover of Ornette Coleman’s 1960 Atlantic album Free Jazz, which included the 31 year old Eric Dolphy.
However, in the end, I still find Coleman’s Free Jazz right there with Carter’s Second String Quartet – just plain hard to listen to and not my bag. That is not to say, however, that I don’t like Pollock’s painting. I do like it. It’s just a different form of communication. With each form of communication, what you see and hear comes at you at various levels of accessibility. For example:
· Comparing two Pulitzer Prize in Music winners: I like much of Lukas Foss’s 1961 Time Cycles – in particular, IV. O Mensch, gib Acht; however, Carter’s 1960 Second String Quartet, while curious, is a bridge too far and difficult to listen to
· Comparing two mid-20th century sculptures, I can deal with David Smith’s 1956 Sentinel I; however, Robert Rauschenberg’s 1955 Monogram is difficult to look at
· Finally, comparing two abstract expressionist painters, I like Jackson Pollock’s 1954 White Light; however, I wouldn’t hang Robert S. Neuman’s 1961 Pedazos del Mundos #6 on my wall
These various levels of accessibility exist in the jazz avant-garde music of the 1960s, and I find much of it inaccessible and self-indulgent. There is a lot of energy, but it seems the soloists gets lost in the intensity of making the sounds. It’s that energy that makes for a better live musical experience, which does not always show through on vinyl. Alexander von Schlippenbach, the German jazz pianist and composer most notably associated with European free jazz, said that most improvisational music should not be recorded, much less released for public consumption. I find much of the jazz avant-gardist music falls into that category . However, if you look hard enough, you can find those moments of accessibility in all of them. This week, we’ll focus on Eric Dolphy.
The More Accessible Dolphy
I have picked out four of my favorite Dolphy songs from what I find his more accessible side. First, Miss Movement is Eric Dolphy’s first recorded composition. It appears on Chico Hamilton’s 1959 Warner Brother’s release The Three Faces of Chico. His tone on alto is already very distinctive.
What I find most interesting about this album is the pianoless make-up with Dolphy on alto sax, Dennis Budimir on guitar, Wyatt Ruther on bass, Nathan Gershman on cello, and Chico Hamilton on drums. The pianoless format would feature prominently into many of Dolphy’s future dates with Charles Mingus, Ron Carter, and on his own masterpiece, Out To Lunch!
Here’s another nice song from the same Hamilton pianoless unit, also released in 1959 on Warner Brothers with Dolphy playing both clarinet and flute. I like the nice cello interplay:
While I like his pianoless music, I think his playing within the cello and bass format is where I find most of my favorite Dolphy recordings. For example, here is a wonderful track with Dolphy on clarinet from Mal Waldron’s in 1961 Prestige album The Quest.
Again, nice cello and bass score, with Ron Carter on cello and “Crazy” Joe Benjamin on bass. I think within this distinctive cello/bass set-up is Dolphy’s sweet spot.
Finally, I find that many of my favorite Dolphy songs feature his flute playing. For example, I like his flute on Yes, Indeed from Ron Carter’s 1961 New Jazz release Where?, which we’ll feature next week on our journey. I also like this classic from Oliver Nelson’s 1961 Impulse! release The Blues and The Abstract Truth.
Soon after this release, Dolphy joined John Coltrane’s band and recorded on some of Coltrane’s heaviest recordings, like Olé Coltrane (Atlantic, 1961), Africa/Brass (Impulse!, 1961), Live! at the Village Vanguard (Impulse!, 1962), The Complete Copenhagen Concert (Magnetic 1961), and Impressions (Impulse!, 1963).
Too many steps beyond?
With Coltrane, Dolphy moved much further than one step beyond and was met there with critical reception. In his November 23, 1961 DownBeat article, John Tynan wrote, “At Hollywood’s Renaissance Club recently, I listened to a horrifying demonstration of what appears to be a growing anti-jazz trend exemplified by these foremost proponents [Coltrane and Dolphy] of what is termed avant-garde music.
I heard a good rhythm section… go to waste behind the nihilistic exercises of the two horns.… Coltrane and Dolphy seem intent on deliberately destroying [swing].… They seem bent on pursuing an anarchistic course in their music that can but be termed anti-jazz.”
Undeterred, Dolphy recorded prolifically in the next few years. In 1964, he recorded Out To Lunch!, recognized by many as his masterpiece. It would be his only album as a leader for Blue Note. I wouldn’t call it “anti-jazz”, but I have to admit, it is not totally my bag - I find most tunes a little inaccessible and at times slightly self-indulgent. Nonetheless, on the recording Dolphy stayed with the pianoless unit, but added Bobby Hutcherson on vibes. This album features some of Dolphy’s best bass clarinet and flute work and makes for perhaps the best listening from the avant-garde jazz style popular at that time - a little goes a long way though. At the moment, Dolphy’s composition, Gazzelloni, is my favorite from this album:
On the album’s liner notes, A.B. Spellman wrote that Dolphy was going to live in Europe for a spell “because I can get more work there playing my own music, and because if you try to do anything different in this country, people put you down for it.” I find it interesting that he chose Berlin rather than say hip Paris or jazz-conscious Scandinavia.
In 1995, Brian Morton commented in The Wire magazine: “It seemed a significant choice, a divided city, still redolent of defeat and crisis, on one side constrained and dogmatic, on the other, westernised and apparently given over to pleasure and play. The contradictions of the place were already in Dolphy's bloodstream.” Well put Brian.
Finally, one more for the road. Here’s an awesome chance to actually see and hear the innovative Eric Dolphy in his prime, playing with the Charles Mingus Sextet in Belgium in 1964:
He would never make it back to the states. On June 29, 1964, while in Berlin, he died after falling into a coma caused by undiagnosed diabetes. It was just days after his thirty-sixth birthday.
Next week, we’ll follow the sound of Ron Cater’s bass as we continue to paddle down that Big River Called Jazz…
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Feel free to contact me at any time to talk shop. I welcome and encourage that….
Until then, keep on walking….