From Amazon.com
Eric Dolphy was working as a sideman with Charles Mingus when he recorded this in 1960, his debut as a leader and the first masterwork in his tragically brief career. It's a startling extension of the language of bop and an introduction to one of the most remarkable instrumentalists of the twentieth century. Dolphy's originality as a composer is apparent from the opening bars of "G.W.," with its mix of dissonant fanfare and off-kilter melody, while his alto playing is a revelation, a cauldron of snaking lines running from one register to another and liable to dart in any direction. For all his virtuosity, though, it's the intensely human passion of Dolphy's playing that is most riveting, felt particularly in the blues "Les" and "245." A gifted multi-instrumentalist, Dolphy developed a distinctive voice on each of his horns, apparent on the standards here as he plays "On Green Dolphin Street" on bass clarinet and "Glad to Be Unhappy" on flute. Apart from the leader's assortment of reeds, the band follows the format of a standard bop quintet, but the performances of trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, pianist Jaki Byard, and drummer Roy Haynes are all exceptional, and there's something very new in the collectively improvised chatter amongst the horns that concludes "Les." --
Stuart Broomer
Album Details
Japanese only SHM-CD (Super High Material CD - playable on all CD players) pressing. Universal. 2008.
