Eric Dolphy- Hat and Beard (1964)
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- Опубликовано: 30 сен 2024
- From the album "Out to Lunch"- incredible drumming from a young Tony Williams, who had just turned 18 prior to the recording.
Eric Dolphy- composer and bass clarinet
Freddie Hubbard- trumpet
Bobby Hutcherson- vibes
Richard Davis-bass
Tony Williams- drums
Here's a story from Bobby Hutcherson as they were rehearsing for the album:
"I’m rehearsing with Eric at his loft - myself, Tony Williams, Richard Davis and a trumpet player named Eddie Armour. We were rehearsing for about an hour and a half. It was a cold winter day. All of a sudden, right in the middle of the tune, the trumpet player, Eddie, starts cussing and packing up his horn. We get to the end of the tune and Eddie says to Eric, “You’re nasty.” And Eric was real sweet, just like Trane was - you know, a real sweet cat. Eric said, “What?” Eddie says, “I don’t like you, I don’t like your music, and I’m not going to play this gig. I’m out of here. F you. F this band. That’s it. How do you like that?”
We’re all standing there thinking, “My God, how can this cat say this?” And he continues to put his horn away, clip the fasteners on his trumpet case. He grabs his coat, pulls his hat down and goes stomping to the door. He gets to the door - I mean, just yanks it open. The door hits the wall. Bam! He’s just about to go out the door.
Eric had just been sitting there with his head down. We’re all thinking, “Eric must feel horrible. What’s he going to do?” All of a sudden, Eric says, “Hey, Eddie.” Eddie turns around and says [in growling voice] “What?” Eric, with the most conviction and love, says, “If I can ever do anything you need, please don’t hesitate to call me. I’ll be there for you anytime.”
Whoa! And Eric was serious. With that, this cat really got upset - he slammed the door and stormed out. We just stood there all quiet. It was like he Sunday punched him with love. The lesson was, “Love conquers all,” you know? It’s like the devil couldn’t take that love, and this is what Eric was showing him. He went out that door with so much hate, but with a message that Eric still cared about him. This was one of the biggest lessons Eric showed me - that if you can forgive somebody right when they do the most horrible thing they can to you, you just immediately take the weight of what they did off your back and just make it this beautiful experience, so that you can go on and do the things you want to do during the day and not waste time with negative feelings and negative thoughts.
Well, we sat there quiet for two or three minutes - didn’t say anything. Then we went on with rehearsal and we never played so hard in our lives. We were just overcome."
Eric Dolphy
So many cool discoveries can be made here, like having same bass melody at the start played but then prominently by the vibes, just a tonal contrast but it sounds like something else basically, that's an interesting idea. And after the intro where the bass and bass clarinet play this same low melody Eric's bass clarinet has a counter melody coming in that he plays, playing in sync and volume with richard davis but different intervals, watching the soundscape change. It kind of sounds like with Davis's bass like by Eric changing his melody in counter melody, it changes the rhythm, the rhythm sounds different, which by having this contrast, like a mad nursery rhyme/merry go round (also especially title track has this effect), the feeling of things going in and out, hovering, which is probably part of why this album can really take you somewhere like being in a dreamlike state, it just fascinates me, things counteracting each other, even when they are in basically unison, because I guess in this style Dolphy created each instrument is it's own personality, it's not another part of the unison but a live being in itself, therefore the player. Definitely is still amazing, fascinating music, so many ideas that could lead to interesting places, and for some reason I think of rite of spring, in there all these instruments are flurrying/'interacting', speaking, that is still amazing in that way that each new instrument that plays a brand new melody is a personality responding to the previous 'person's' mood, or beings in a contained world, all the worlds in Stravinsky's piece are contrasting but are just 'different' things in the 'same' world. And maybe I think this because one of the early bass clarinet melodies in rite of spring sounds similar to Eric's style on the instrument, either that or part of the natural bass clarinet sound is Eric's style since he was the first person to solo on it. So I guess studying the score of the rite of spring at school has brought this to mind.
What a great story, thanks for sharing here!
That's sounds great, well said. 👍
Cujo needs to sample this