Customer Reviews

Out To Lunch (The Rudy Van Gelder Edition)

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1 star:		(3)

 

 

I never used to listen to very much jazz, but lately it has been a big interest of mine. _Out to Lunch_ was one of my first important jazz purchases in my current exploration, despite some admonitions saying that if one is new to jazz this isn't a good album. Compared to most of yas I'm still a jazz neophyte, but I think this album is AMAZING.

Eric Dolphy has one foot in the compositional richness of Mingus and another in the avant-garde -- at the time, Dolphy was boldly stepping beyond tradition. So perfect are these pieces that it can be difficult to tell where composition ends and improvisation begins, and that ambiguity is part of _Out to Lunch_'s hook. Solos build out of the written arrangement and overlay the rhythms; melodically and rhythmically, this is tougher and sharper than most of the jazz I have heard so far. The playing is absolutely great.

"Hat and Beard" is a skittering, tense work. Dolphy's solo trades off with the trumpet, while furious drumming seems to dare Freddie Hubbard to become more aggressive, and he must finally concede to a quiet tintinnabulation of vibes. Here vibist Bobby Hutcherson seems to face conflict of its own as the nervous rhythm continues to exact a stretched eagerness until the main theme makes a return. Mwahaha, I like it. On "Out to Lunch", Tony Williams' playing is like an entirely new drumming language, superlatively intuitive and subtly emphasizing the perfect notes. In Dolphy's words, "Tony doesn't play time, he plays pulse." (Might not really make sense until you hear it though.) In fact, the rhythm work on this whole album is all astonishing and very easily some of the best I've heard. Players scuffle around the a repeated theme with tense solos, baiting other players and everyone takes the spotlight somewhere, occasionally at the same time. "Straight Up and Down" is a metrical labyrinth, but very swingin' with silvery melodies, achieving accessibility despite complexity. Williams and Richard Davis (bass) are very intense here. The best part is the end, where the initial theme returns with a pendent hum on the vibes -- it's almost disorienting coming out of the tricky stuff, like spinning in circles for a minute or two then stopping and being hit with dizziness. "Gazzelloni" starts with a catchy harmonious lilt then spirals into free territory that sounds more neatly arranged than it does random -- a testament to the skill of these masters. "Something Sweet, Something Tender" is a dulcet piece, mellow but rhapsodic. This one uses some deep harmonic languages to convey its feeling.

VERY sad that Eric Dolphy passed away shortly after recording _Out to Lunch_, because he probably could have gone on to some amazing work after this. I'm probably still a jazz-dummy and this review may be shoddy, but this is one of the best jazz albums in my collections. I know what i like!

The irony about Out to Lunch is that despite the controversy it generates, it is still one of the most popular, accessible, and downright TUNEFUL albums to come out of jazz's 60s avant-garde. (And it has absolutely classic cover art.) If the avant-garde really isn't your thing, it may horrify you; but if you have any sympathy for this kind of stuff, even if you don't know it yet, you'll probably love it. I second others' suggestion to listen to Monk (Brilliant Corners) and Mingus (Mingus Ah Um) first. If you like those two, then Dolphy's ideas here will make a lot more sense.

Onto the music: this isn't really a free jazz record, as in a bunch of instruments all playing at the same time without reference to harmony or rhythm. Every theme is composed (with strange, but very catchy melodies) and despite the fact that the improvisation goes all over the place, it somehow manages to stay entirely within the context set by the composition. The solos all seem to make perfect sense and sound completely natural. Dolphy is terrific both as a composer and an instrumentalist -- bass clarinet on the first two tracks, flute on "Gazzelloni", and alto saxophone on the last two tracks. Freddie Hubbard, a guy known primarily for playing hard bop, fits in really well here. And the rhythm section is stellar and downright telepathic: Bobby Hutcherson's spacy vibes, Richard Davis's solid yet stretchy bass playing, and Tony Williams's hyper-aware drumming. There's a classic sequence in "Hat and Beard" when all three engage in an amazing percussion discussion.

This was one of the first jazz albums I bought as a rock fan who enjoyed Frank Zappa and King Crimson. I was hooked instantly, and to this day it remains one of my very favorite jazz albums. Even in a catalogue as star-studded as Blue Note, this is a milestone. If you like Out to Lunch, other records you may appreciate are Andrew Hill's Point of Departure (with Dolphy, Williams, and Davis) and Bobby Hutcherson's Dialogue (with Hutcherson, Davis, and Hubbard).

I'm afraid that this, my first review on Amazon, is primarily aimed at the 'music fan from Carlisle, PA USA'. I was actually searching for info on Dolphy boxed sets when I noticed that there is a newly remastered version of this incredible work now available...and thought I might check out some reviews. Then I read the drivel written by said 'music fan'. Now, I would just like to say firstly that the comment that all people who like this album (and by implication, all post hard-bop jazz) are 'elitist pseudo-snobs' is insulting and moronic. Secondly, the remark that this is 'the kind of music that has contributed to the slow death of jazz as a mainstream American artform' is about as wide of the mark as any kind of supposedly intelligent comment I've ever read by any one about music, ever. Indeed, it seems far more likely to me that it is the very conservatism of mainstream jazz and its refusal to continue to explore and experiment that has lead to the 'death' of Jazz. Anyway, had to get that off my chest. For anyone else, I really think you should buy this album. If you don't like it, at least you will have heard something unique. In any case, this is really not totally 'free' music - I think that Dolphy shared with Mingus an interest with tonally centred improvisation with occasional moves 'out'. As such, it is a good introduction to the early avant garde jazz of the 1960s. Finally, the rhythm section is, for my money, one of the finest ever assembled in Jazz history.

When I think of all the great tragedies in jazz, Eric Dolphy's sudden death just months after recording this breakthrough document of progressive jazz has to rank up there as one of the most tragic. It is evident to even the casual listener (and compared to some of more sophisticated reviewers below, I would have to count myself as one of the casual types) that "Out To Lunch" stands alone, with no real precedent nor successor.

The unique sound Dolphy has crafted for this session originates first from his apparent desire to carry forward Monk's and Mingus' unorthodox visions of jazz, while sharing their deep respect for jazz's roots. Unlike some other free jazz records, the blues is very much in evidence here throughout.

To play these original compositions, Dolphy employs a star-crossed lineup: 17-year-old Tony Williams, whose contributions are well-documented in reviews below, Freddie Hubbard, a talented mainline trumpter as a leader who once again shines on someone elses'free jazz record, underrated bassist/celloist Richard Davis, and revolutionary vibrist Bobby Hutcherson. It is Hutcherson's contributions worth noting here, for the vibraphone has probably never before been employed for this type of jazz, and it is so unusual to hear this light, cheerful instrument being used so effectively to help provide the dark mood that pervades this record. His interplay with Williams on "Hat and Beard" borders on psychic. Dolphy's own playing is not his very best, IMHO, but he provides the right notes at the right time, whether via bass clarinet, flute, sax, whatever.

There are some people who aren't affected the same way by "Out To Lunch" as myself and others are, but this is one of those rare records that leave the listener little choice between being judged completely awe-inspiring or completely offputting. If you are inclined toward music that thrives in uncharted territory while never forgetting where it came from, "Out to Lunch" will bestow many rewards upon your ears.

This Blue Note album represents what I feel is Eric Dolphy's most revolutionary work on disc. Throughout most of his career, Dolphy had one foot in the avant-garde and one foot in the bop tradition. In many ways, Dolphy was the most Bird-like saxophonist of his generation, but Bird with a twist. Much of his output as a leader was done with rather traditional rhythm section ensembles. Out to Lunch marked a break with that.

The rhythm section work on this album is exceptional. Richard Davis manages to play with the time and still keep it grounded. Tony Williams was at his best in this kind of music, creating landscapes with his drums. Listen to his interplay with Davis and Hutcherson. They are all over each other and yet the groove never gets lost.

Two players on this album are not usually associated with the avant-garde of the 60s, Freddie Hubbard and Bobby Hutcherson. And yet both deliver what might be considered their best work, especially Hutcherson. He plays with the adventurousness of Herbie Hancock and yet, because of the unique properties of the vibes, the sound is lighter, freer and less modal than a piano based ensemble would be.

Last but greatest of all is Dolphy. In this album, his unique abilities really shine, both as a composer and as a soloist. Dolphy was bridging the supposed gap between the "New Thing" players and the boppers long before people like Arthur Blythe, or Anthony Braxton started playing standards again. Dolphy is wild and wooly one minute and swinging the next. Dolphy was always master of his musical situation, even as a sideman. But with him in front of a band of his own choosing, the results are incandesent.

If you only get one Dolphy album, this is the one to get. It shows were jazz might have gone, had he not died so young. It would have been amazing!

Ah, the places Dolphy could have gone had he lived longer. As it was, he would die later in the year of a diabetic condition, and Out to Lunch would remain his last masterpiece (to some his only, but to me one of many.) This is his most iconic recording, his grandest vision, and shows the places he would have gone.

First of all is the concept. Eric Dolphy was an avant-gardist of the highest degree, a musician of the same scope as a John Coltrane, an Ornette Coleman, an Albert Ayler, a Cecil Taylor. What ultimately set him apart from these other revolutionaries, though, was his view of freedom WITHIN form, within meter (or a least pulse) within tonality, whilst his colleagues were often disgarding these conventions. But Dolphy, rather than throwing down barriers, would push them, constantly straining to see how far they could go, while always leaving a foot, or at least a toe, in the tradition. Why is this such a great approach? Because it makes his music so eminently approachable! Dolphy doesn't leap ahead, so eager to explore that he leaves his comrades, or his fans behind. He revolutionizes the music in small, methodical steps, allowing us all to follow his progress, and remain right next to him the entire time. Out to Lunch is the culmination of this. Dolphy doesn't limit himself rhythmically or harmonically, experimenting with both to the utmost. But he relies on witty, catchy compositions, and a pulse so steady it would straighten the leaning tower of Pisa, to propel his explorations.

Of course in this he was helped by a world-class band. The most crucial sideman is undoubtedly Tony Williams, responsible for that afore-mentioned pulse. But he doesn't just keep time...or pulse, but almost provides sonorities with his drums, using it almost as an array of orchestral percussion equipment, to spur on, and interact with, the soloists. Everyone reading this knows he is brilliant, knows how young he was...I'd have to say this might be his finest moment. Also check out his own Lifetime for drumming very close to that of here.

Also was Richard Davis, a name not mentioned much in the history BOOKS, but absolutely critical in the actual history. He sounds particularly good on this record, due to a very fine engineering job by Van Gelder...his bass is more visible then ever, and, as you will hear, plays a really important role in the sound of the album, varying up the rhythms, using plenty of double-stops and wide intervals. This has some of the best mixing for a bass player I've ever heard. His work on Hat and Beard, with a brilliant improvised bass vamp, and on Sweet/Tender is particularly noteworthy.

Hutcherson has the piano role on the vibes, but he doesn't function like a piano player...he never does. He doesn't play vibes like a Milt Jackson, but more as a percussive instrument, getting a really ringing sound...creating layers of sound under the soloing rather than throw-away chords, which just wouldn't do on an album like this. His solos are also more subtle than Dolphy or Hubbard, more impressionistic.

Then there's Hubbard, the perfect trumpeter for this kind of thing (although one wonders what Booker Little would have sounded like!) His solos, not as exotic or esoteric as Dolphy's, are nevertheless the perfect complement. His improvisation is equal to that of the leader's on a technical level, his tone is burnished, even lovely, and he fits right in, proving he's not JUST a hard bop groovemaker like some foolish critics seem to think. He was also on Free Jazz, Ascension, and Dialogue, after all. What's interesting about his playing here is it's a bit more contained; his tone, rather than the normal fire-spewing, is more concentrated, like, as another reviewer said, a bumblebee. You'll understand when you hear. An interesting contrast to his other work.

And Dolphy, is, of course, a literal genius. With less of an allegiance to bebop than ever, his work here (on alto) contains the next logical step from his magnificent five-spot recordings (which everyone should own.) His flute gets a one-track showing, but his bass clarinet may be the most famous thing...his growls and snarls on Hat and Beard and his interplay with Davis on Something Sweet, Something Tender make up the most radical core of Out to Lunch. But on whatever instrument, he is probing, testing, pushing walls, bending rules, stretching borders, playing both inside and outside the rest of the band both rhythmically (Hat and Beard) and harmonically (the title-track and the ending blues.)

This really is not only one of the greatest avant-garde recordings ever, but one of the greatest jazz albums in general, and it NEEDS to be in your collection. And I all but guarantee: listening to this a few times will give you a real good headstart in not only understanding, but liking, the free jazz that was to come. The magnum opus of a true genius of jazz, who could have gone so, so many places.

Out to Lunch! is one of the most important jazz albums of the 1960s.

The clarity of the recording, the individual space accorded each instrument, the meticulous attention to the nuances, the refined texture of the overall sound, the sheer presence of each recorded moment - these were the hallmarks of its sound. The coming together of Eric Dolphy, Freddie Hubbard, Bobby Hutcherson, Richard Davis and Tony Williams on Out to Lunch! was a momentous event. Dolphy had made a clutch of records for Prestige in the years leading up to this record, the most significant probably being the famous Five Spot live sessions with Booker Little that would promise so much but be cut short by Little's death from uraemia. Out to Lunch! was to be his single, most unsettling masterpiece.

It's not an easy album to become fond of. It insinuates melodies before it cuts them short, it ruthlessly breaks up harmony into fragments and it stretches the limits of tonality to extremes, but perhaps its triumph is that it brings swing into a new era. By giving Davis and Williams space and freedom, Dolphy let swing become a by-product of interaction, not a conscious contrivance. The rhythmic complexity of the record knew no precedent.

Tragically Dolphy was do die in Europe a few months later from an attack brought on by diabetes. He says on the liner notes, "I'm on my way to Europe to live for a while. Why? 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."

It shocks me that some of the other reviewers have referred to this album as an example of "free jazz". "Free jazz" this isn't. This is clearly a painstakingly arranged collection of pieces and Dolphy displays his vivid and quirky imagination fabulously. I don't know how anyone listening to this could get the idea that this is "free jazz". Avant-garde, yes, "free", no.

To enjoy this album, you do NOT need to be a highly-skilled musician; you do, however, need to shed some of your preconceptions about what makes good music. Perhaps the 5/4 metre intro and overall 9/4 feel of "Hat and Beard" don't immediately set your toes a-tapping. Perhaps the bass playing doesn't strike you as what you've usually heard in jazz. Maybe the horns scratch, screech and whinny a little too much in between their snippets of almost conventional lyricism. "Is this music?" you ask.

Yes it is, if you are willing to listen to it on the playful terms Dolphy gives it to us. He didn't name the record _Out to Lunch_ because he was a dour intellectual. PLAY in the child's sense of the term is what often comes to mind when I listen to these tunes. Remember when you were a kid and you couldn't skip to a 4/4 beat because it wasn't ingrained in your psyche yet? Have you ever listened to a child's sense of musical time and pitch before he/she has been exposed to much music or musical teaching?

On this record it seems to me that Dolphy has harnessed and arranged that magical time. The record reminds me at turns of Mingus, Monk and Rahsaan Roland Kirk, all of whom had that magical ability to deliberately play like children albeit with the technique and intellect of adults. The PLAYING on this record is at times lyrical, does go "outside" often and is PLAYFUL in the extreme. This is kids music for grown-ups. It is hard to listen to only if you have lost that sense of play within yourself.

I suppose the freedom-of-speech approach Amazon supports in these user reviews is a good thing overall, but it bothers me when listeners who don't like or understand a music genre can post reviews ranking alongside those of veteran fans. It's possible their comments might turn a jazz neophyte away from what might have been the most prized disc in their collection. Dolphy, and other "free" artists like Ornette Coleman, Sun Ra, Archie Shepp, and Captain Beefheart are too often maligned by those who bought the CD's on a lark and didn't get what they expected.

For some, "free" jazz is an acquired taste that requires knowledge of the player's influences and the norms of the day; others--even new jazz-listeners--seem to pick up on it right away with no introduction necessary. In either case, Dolphy definitely ranks among the greats of the genre, and "Out to Lunch" demands a listen by any fan of "free" or moderately unorthodox jazz. He's a technical master on several instruments, and brought to '60s jazz a new sense of humor drawing from Monk's odd chordal "pokes" and Ornette Coleman's knack for quoting riffs from "straight" tunes in the middle of a wildly free solo.

On this session Dolphy assembles contemporaries who were closer kin with his musical vision than any on his previous Prestige outings. The young Tony Williams in particular sounds as if his drumming has been finally freed from the mainstream cage. As he would on later records with Miles Davis, he lets the bassist keep time while he explores polyrhythms and "stop-time" beats, all the while keeping things musical rather than technical.

Dolphy's tune writing owes plenty to Monk, but his soloing points the way to a new jazz that has never been realized since his death. In the period of this recording, small-group jazz was still at the point where an experimental artist could still sell a few records even with an avant-garde approach. Modern jazzers don't have this luxury and are often forced to compromise their vision in the interest of pleasing their label.

The capsule review: If you're not yet a fan of "free" music, don't risk your hard-earned cash on this disc until you've first developed a liking for Monk and Mingus. On the other hand, if your ears have already been attuned to artists who dare step outside conventional forms, this CD may spend more time in your player than even the incredible "Conference of the Birds."

It could certainly be argued that multi-reedsman Eric Dolphy had finer moments as a player than OUT TO LUNCH, his last studio date as a leader and the only one he recorded for Blue Note Records. But as the only entirely self-composed Dolphy session and one of the most famed avant-garde jazz recordings ever, this set has little if any competition as the most comprehensive expression of a tragically short-lived artist's very personal vision.
Dolphy had barely four months to live when he recorded OUT TO LUNCH in February of 1964 with trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, bassist Richard Davis and drummer Tony Williams - indeed, he would not live to see the album's release. By this late date the Maestro's normally sublime blowing had taken on some of the harsher, squeakier, squawkier and gruffer qualities then in vogue among many of his "free" progeny, though Dolphy manages with admirable tenacity to keep at least one foot on firm sonic soil throughout most of this session. The leader's best performances are probably on his two alto saxophone workouts, "Straight Up and Down" and the title tune, while "Gazzeloni" is a skittering flute race quite unlike any of Dolphy's earlier efforts on that instrument and "Hat and Beard" and "Something Sweet, Something Tender" showcase, respectively, the most raucous and most genteel aspects of his legendary bass clarinet playing.
OUT TO LUNCH is less remarkable for Dolphy's solos, however, than for the stunning manner in which it manages to skirt the very edges of chaos for most of its forty-two minutes without once falling in. Regardless of one's opinion of this sort of music, there is no denying the internal cohesion and conceptual/compositional integrity of this remarkable date. Much of this is undoubtedly due to the superb rhythm section, particularly Hutcherson, who manages to hold all of the wildly swirling parts around him together on the most unlikely of instruments. Hubbard, for his part, provides the essential link to more mainstream jazz which helps keep OUT TO LUNCH as curiously accessible as it is, and proves as perfect a foil for the leader here as he had been on Dolphy's very first album, OUTWARD BOUND, four years earlier.
As a huge Eric Dolphy fan, I necessarily love OUT TO LUNCH, but less than I do several of the Maestro's more traditional sessions. Nevertheless, this album's seemingly impossible refusal to implode, shatter or just float away qualifies it as a singularly spectacular moment in progressive jazz history, and an absolutely essential part of any comprehensive collection.