American Record Guide
Joe Goldberg : December, 1960

Dolphy has been described as being midway between John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman, which is something that can be accepted as long as it is clear that no special idea of progress is implied. He plays alto, bass clarinet, and flute, and is extraordinarily proficient on all of those instruments. Let it be clear right away that there is no lack of technical ability. And there is no both-feet-first jumping off, as with Coleman, either. The point of departure is always kept in mind. The blues, 245, sounds surprisingly more like Jackie McLean than anyone else. (The accompaniment, by the way, is trumpet and rhythm, with trumpeter Freddie Hubbard in the Miles Davis vein, and pianist Jaki Byard a cross between, if this is possible, Cecil Taylor and Lennie Tristano, leaning heavily toward Taylor, and making one anxious for further hearings. George Tucker, the bassist, seems, at least on G.W. – Dolphy tune that is also reminiscent of Tristano – seems to have picked up some of the country-and-western style of Coleman’s bassist, Charlie Haden.) This is an exciting record, while having little of the solar-plexus punch of Coltrane or Coleman at this best (perhaps an association with Chico Hamilton gave an unwonted restraint to Dolphy). And there is an important achievement on it. I am increasingly unwilling to talk about new directions in jazz, since there are so many – some spurious – but I will say that Dolphy’s flute solo on Glad To Be Unhappy, which is reminiscent less of jazz than of the night quality of Charles Griffes‘ Poeme, is the best jazz flute solo I have ever heard. The fact that most of the others have been very poor makes it no less impressive a performance.

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Audio
Charles A. Robertson : October, 1960

Although playing around Los Angeles for a good fifteen years, Eric Dolphy was first heard by more than a limited audience when he toured with the Chico Hamilton Quintet in 1958. The job required him to play chamber jazz and affect an almost legitimate tone. Sounding and looking like a recent conservatory graduate, he played a number of instruments with great proficiency and restraint but little fire and imagination. This album presents him for the first time on his own and reveals what was concealed before, along with anything added since he decided to remain in New York.

A quick hearing is likely to leave the impression that here is Ornette Coleman‘s first disciple to lay alto sax also. The two met in 1954 and Coleman’s recent rise to prominence undoubtedly has encouraged Dolphy to exhibit greater abandon. As his development is still underway, it is much too early to assign him a definite role, especially when many of the formal characteristics which Hamilton drilled into him remain. It is enough, for the moment, that Dolphy is confounding those individuals who scoffed at Coleman and doubted he would influence jazz in any way.

Dolphy owes a debt to others who helped him get started, and pays his respects to Gerald Wilson in G.W., and to Les Robinson on Les. He plays lyrical flute on Richard Rodgers‘ Glad To Be Unhappy. His most impressive number, Green Dolphin Street, involves a switch to bass clarinet, and the sounds extracted from this multi-toned instrument are colorful and unique. Freddie Hubbard is on trumpet, and an exceptional rhythm section consists of Jaki Byard, piano, George Tucker, bass, and drummer Roy Haynes. To attain full expression of his capacities as player and writer, Dolphy needs to head a similar group for a period of time. But what he says here is important and worth hearing.

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Hackensack Record
Douglas Hall : 08/06/1960

Eric Dolphy is a refreshing multiple jazz talent. Whether playing his soaring alto sax, his warm flute, or his bass clarinet (played with such verve that it might be best described in a hip vernacular as crazy), Dolphy shows himself to be much at home on the six tunes offered here. Freddie Hubbard should also be commended for his fine Miles Davis-like trumpet.

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Down Beat : 09/01/1960
Don DeMichael : 5 stars

This album is the first extended exposure I’ve had to the remarkable talent that is Eric Dolphy‘s. On the strength of what I experience in the course of absorbing the release, I firmly believe that this man will be one of the most rewarding jazzmen of the coming decade.

It’s possible to draw a parallel between Dolphy and Ornette Coleman – similar harmonic conceptions being the most cogent – but, to me, Dolphy’s message is the more coherent, and his is the greater talent. Drawing parallels, however, can get out of hand; in the end, the artist must be judged on his own work, though comparisons and contrasts play an important role in shaping any judgement.

Above all else, his playing and writing have life. Sometimes sounding as if it is boiling with rage, Dolphy’s music is filled with sharp, jagged lines that lift the listener as they spiral to peak after peak of raw emotional expression. The impact of his work is in his startling display of these emotions. I know of no word that would neatly categorize the emotional content of Dolphy’s work, but it would have to encompass fury, frustration, and all the other twisting emotions.

Of the three horns he uses on this date, his bass clarinet is the most intriguing. I’ve never heard a sound quite like the one he gets on this neglected instrument. In the upper register, the sound is best described as being close to an alto’s, but this doesn’t catch the flavor of its uniqueness. In the lower register, the sound doesn’t vary too much from the timbre usually associated with the instrument, but Dolphy produces a more tortured tone than one is used to hearing from bass clarinet.

Several times on the bass clarinet tracks, his solo attack – and it’s best described as an attack – is preceded by a yelp from the instrument. This may be a characteristic of the horn when played hard, or it may be a quirk of Dolphy’s. But whatever the reason behind this yelp, the effect is marvelous.

Although Dolphy varies his conception on all three instruments – his flute is less like his bass clarinet than his alto – there is a taut wire binding them all together: the power to transmit an emotion from the player to the listener. And that’s the mark of a real artist.

Hubbard displays a lyrical ability and firmness that belie his relative youth. His clear tone and excellent execution enhance his logical ideas. His solo on 245 catches the melancholy spirit of deserted streets, but he brightens it with sly asides that keep it from becoming moribound.

Green Dolphin finds him in a Miles mood, mute in mike and all. But the similarity is a surface one; Hubbard’s work is happier than is Davis’. His playing is shot through with this exuberance, which only once, toward the end of his solo on Les, gets the upper hand.

The man who best catches the spirit of Dolphy is Byard. His playing is as craggy as the leader’s, but I get the feeling that his instrument is impeding his fullest expression. After all, there are things you can do on reed instruments that are impossible on piano. For example, ins his G.W. solo he plays on dissonant passage in which the voices are moving every which way, as if he were trying to get more out of the piano than is possible.

Tucker, although in the main confined to section work, sounds like the freshest bassist to come along since Sam Jones. Not content to just keep time, he involves himself with each soloist as if he were carrying on a conversation with him and underlining his statements.

And Roy Haynes! What can you say? That he swings? That he kicks everybody on the date? Mere platitudes. He’s more like the source from which the others draw sustenance – a well of life.

Life. That’s it. This album is life.

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Liner Notes by Ron Eyre

Much of the excitement in Jazz is created when a new name comes to light. Sometimes it is carried from lip to lip with forest fire speed and soon everyone is talking about this new name. Sometimes the fire is quenched as quickly as it began. Other times it persists, steadily burning and increasing in intensity, the name continuing to be mentioned and discussed wherever jazz is the topic. The latter analogy describes the effect Eric Dolphy has had since he came east from California in 1958 as part of the Chico Hamilton Quintet. Eric immediately began to make his presence in N.Y. felt. Noted critic-writer and broadcaster Ira Gitler heard Eric play at an after hours session at Newport in 1958 and the fire was started. It was Ira who started the thought process turning here at Prestige to the direction of producing an album by Eric. On the day this session was recorded, Martin Williams (co-editor of the Jazz Review) called us up to tell us he had heard a young man playing with the Charlie Mingus group and that we must hear him. It was Eric and when we told Martin we were doing a date with Eric that afternoon, well, he flipped.

Eric Dolphy was born in Los Angeles on June 20, 1928 and had started on his first instrument, the clarinet, before his ninth birthday. At sixteen he took up the saxophone. He studied music with Lloyd Reese. His first gigs were in L.A., and it was here that Eric got his first professional job, with Charlie Mingus!

On this album you will hear Eric playing alto-sax, bass-clarinet and flute. He also plays tenor sax. When we asked Eric about his early career on the west coast he was quick to express his gratitude to the people who had taken an interest in his career. If you think the young jazz musician doesn’t get any encouragement from the experienced guys you would do well to listen to Eric.

“I was helped greatly by Gerald Wilson. Here is a man who has been making the modern sounds since the war years. he had a band in 1944 that would still be considered modern today.” We had asked eric whether modern jazz had slowed in progress between the years 1950 and 1960. “A lot of people don’t realize that what they hear on records are not the only sounds being played. A lot of guys have been trying to put forward a new approach and a different sound, something in which they honestly believe in. But they’ve been put down. Nobody wants to listen so the cat goes back to the popular sounds, he loses heart and gets discouraged. This is particularly true on the west coast, a guy doesn’t have much of a chance to be heard anyway, the clubs come and go all the time. The sounds the guys play among themselves are a lot further advanced that what is heard in the clubs. The new sounds are there if somebody wants to listen.”

Returning to his influences, Eric went on; “Gerald did a lot for me, he would take me around to hear all the musicians and explain things to me. I owe an awful lot to this man.”

Eric then went on to tell us of the many others who had helped him; “Walter Benton, who plays tenor sax on the coast, influenced me greatly. We played together a lot and we were in the army together. Then there’s Lester Robinson, a trombonist. We were very close and Les was in the band I had for a while which consisted of ten pieces. There is Buddy Collette who got me interested in flute.” … “I met Clifford Brown out there too and he and Harold Land, Max Roach and Richie Powell used to come over to the house to play. Oh there were lots of guys that helped me, Red Callender, now there’s a man who influenced me.” Going back to an early influence Eric recalled; “I remember seeing the show Sweet And Hot and I couldn’t watch the show for listening to the Ellington band and that wonderful Jimmy Blanton.

We asked Eric how he’s felt since being in the east; “I had always wanted to come to New York but you have to be pushed. Things are so bad on the coast I guess you get to feeling it’s the same anywhere… and then you know you are going to meet a lot of competition. I’m glad I came and since I have been here I’ve been able to expand and develop. Working with Chico did a lot in this respect. I met Freddie Hubbard when I was with the Chico Hamilton group and Freddie was with Sonny Rollins, and George Tucker and I meet when we worked together at Minton’s. John Coltrane has been very helpful, and encouraged me to stay. I admire John’s work, he keeps going forward all the time, always fresh and new sounding.” It is interesting to note that similarity of backgrounds between Eric Dolphy and another multi-instrumentalist who is well represented on the Prestige label and the New Jazz label, one Jerome Richardson. They both are from the West coast, both started on their first instrument at the age of eight and started playing professionally around the same time, both play a range of instruments and both have creative writing ability. When we asked Eric about Jerome he said “I call him my secret teacher.”

The effect on us when the group went into the first take at the session is difficult to describe. The number was G.W.; written by Eric in 1957 as a tribute to Gerald Wilson. Our immediate thoughts were that these five amazing musicians were right at that moment adding a new dimension to modern jazz. We were taken back to the first time wee heard the Kenton crew back in 1945 with guys like Vido Musso, Ray Wetzel, Conte Condoli and “Boots” Mussulli. The comparison may sound strange but the Kenton band in those days opened a door for this listener who was then living in England and the “new” sounds being made by people like Parker and Monk were just not being heard across the Atlantic.

As we listen to G.W. we thought; “This is what we have been waiting for, this is jazz one step ahead.” We know there are going to be the cries of criticism and alarm, as there was with the printing press, the steam engine and the automobile. As there was with Parker, Monk, Coltrane and now Ornette Coleman. (Eric met Ornette in L.A. in 1954. “He taught me a direction.”) This is right out of the Coleman dynasty, this is the sound of tomorrow, the sound of the Atlas missile, the sound of the Pioneer radio blip from outer space. It is beyond, searching and probing and full of the blood tingling excitement of a jet taking off, or when a bathysphere records the sound of subterranean inhabitants several miles down on the floor of the deepest trench.

It is all here on this first track, from the opening unison of alto and trumpet, into Eric’s intense and electric solo and Freddie following with some beautiful trumpet. There is so much to notice and hear in this one, for us it was a lesson in driving cohesion from a quintet. The tremendous drive of Roy Haynes and the great power of George Tucker’s bass. His solo is masterful and one of the finest we’ve heard. Then there is the punching attack from Jaki Byard‘s piano throughout, just listen to that guy “blow.” On this showing George and Jaki are very big threats for top honors on their respective instruments.

The fantastic technique of Eric Dolphy on a reed instrument is brought into sharp focus on Green Dolphin Street. His bass clarinet solo is full of ideas and rich with movement and color. Note the contrast of bass-clarinet and muted trumpet. The pendulum ending is a real ear catcher. The range of the bass clarinet is such that one almost feels there are two different instruments with the trumpet.

The next one was written by Eric in honor of trombonist Lester Robinson. Les is a torrent of sound that opens with a roar as Roy Haynes’ drums lead Eric and Freddie in. The solo order is alto, trumpet, piano. Bass and drums come in fast before the ensemble. The close is a kaleidoscopic patchwork of colors. The fire of the group is astounding and we should point out that none of the rhythm section had seen the charts prior to the session. They sound as though they had been playing them all their lives. This was one of those rare occasions where a quintet was formed for a recording session and absolute harmony was achieve immediately.

245, (Eric’s street number in Brooklyn) is next. We like Freddie Hubbard’s open horn on this one, particularly when he growls. Eric picks up his alto again and his solo is a blending of the old and new, still Outward Bound, but the foundation of the blues is strong. This is part of the excitement that Eric Dolphy is creating, the major fact that his seeking of new vistas is not just blind groping, but a forward movement with a firm hold on jazz’ conception. We wonder if you will have the same feeling as we on listening to these examples of the Dolphy writing, that is that they would make fine big band arrangements. This impression is probably heightened by the wonderful sound the group has.

Richard Rodgers‘ Glad To Be Unhappy, (from the Broadway production of On Your Toes of 1936) is used as a vehicle for Eric on flute. His breathing control is shown to good advantage and he doesn’t find it necessary to “cover up” with flourishes on this tricky instrument. He constructs with charm and feeling, setting the mood with lyrical phrasing. Miss Toni is a light swinger with the bass-clarinet again. Eric gets a richness of tone and a clarity in the upper register that is not easy on this cumbersome reed instrument. Freddie comes in with some strong horn and the Jaki, George and Roy have some fun at the bridge before the out chorus.

This then is Eric Dolphy and some of his many sides. We hope you enjoy listening to his work here as much as we did in producing it. We would like to give you some brief particulars on the other four members.

Freddie Hubbard was born in Indianapolis on April 7, 1938. He studied music at the Jordan Conservatory of Music. he is at the time of writing with the J.J. Johnson Quintet. Although only 22 he has already worked with such greats as Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Philly Joe Jones, Charlie Persip and Slide Hampton.

George Tucker was a perfect choice for this date, having worked with Jerome Richardson during 1959. George was born in Palatka, Florida some 33 years ago. He has been very active in the East during the last few years and is a much respected bassist. We think he is one of the finest on the scene today.

Roy Haynes needs little introduction, one of jazz’ most tasteful modern drummers, Roy has swung behind such names as Lester Young, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Stan Getz and many more. He is famous for his association with Sarah Vaughan. Roy currently has his own trio and at this writing has recently completed an engagement at the Five Spot in New York.

Jaki Byard has been dividing his activities between New York and Boston. He did much of the writing and preparation for the famous DJ John McLellan and his History Of Jazz show in that city. Jaki taught music for seven years and his own studies were under Grace Johnson Brown. He comes from a very musical family and plays the trombone and saxophone as well as piano. He has been with the Maynard Ferguson band for about a year. His fellow musicians are aware of his great jazz piano, we think the jazz fans will be getting the message in a very short time.