Outward Bound: Rudy Van Gelder Remasters [Original recording remastered]

Eric Dolphy | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 12, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Prestige
• ASIN: B000H0MNNU
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #37,306 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars April fool's!, December 24, 2008

By 

Matthew Watters (Vietnam) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Outward Bound: Rudy Van Gelder Remasters (Audio CD)

Due to the sad circumstances of his early death, a sort of earnest gravity always seems to surround the work of Eric Dolphy, or discussions of it anyway. That makes this album--along with Dolphy's many musical "conversations" with Charles Mingus--a welcome reminder of how witty and sly Dolphy could be. Fittingly, the music here was recorded on April Fool's Day in 1960, with another musical comedian (and Mingus veteran), Jaki Byard, proving a superb prankster-at-arms. The music here joyfully sends up everything from the "new thing" of Ornette Coleman to the stately seriousness of the Miles Davis Quintet. The band here even does a humourous deconstruction of the Davis group's beloved "On Green Dolphin Street." The Coleman-like Dolphy originals like "Les" and "G.W." will get your feet moving and erase any idea that "avant garde" has to mean "self-important". Throughout, drummer Roy Haynes is his usual, tasteful self, and only trumpet player Freddie Hubbard doesn't seem to be entirely in on the joke, playing with an earnestness that makes the rest of the proceedings all the funnier. Outward Bound is a joyous record that takes all the jazz styles then current and takes them for a ride.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars classic, May 10, 2010

By 

Bill Your 'Free Form FM Handi Cyber Print DJ ... (Mahwah, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Outward Bound: Rudy Van Gelder Remasters (Audio CD)

Eric Dolphy is always grouped with Free Jazz and to a huge degree it makes sense. He played on Ornette Coleman's album of the same name in 1960. His solos were also pretty "out" as jazz heads term dissonant playing

But Dolphy died in 1964, and it was not until 1965 that John Coltrane released Ascension. This is vital to know, because that album made free jazz far louder, and acidic. If Coleman's Free Jazz was a hot coffee, Ascension was napalm.

Dolphy most likely would have been in Coltrane's fire bomb had he lived, but he missed the big change in the jazz avant gaurd.

But we have Outward Bound: this is not free jazz, although it absolutely sticks more than a foot in that door. The truth is, Dolphy loved chords and what could be played both with and against them.

If you listen to Outward Bound, it is really not the music that is free .Most of the tracks are twisted hard bop: great compositions with loopy chord substitutions that pressed the band into thinking on their toes. These have an almost classical grandness.

What goes on top is what is "out": Dolphy and his players solo anyway they want. What Dolphy in particular plays goes contrary to the grain of the chords, but it always works. His angular solos provide fresh pepper to what, in some respects, is pretty traditional music

Free jazz was not yet totally free when Outward Bound was made, but it sure is amazing listening to the album pushing jazz a few leaps more out there.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Stellar album from one of the great's......., December 16, 2008

By 

Gregory Gross (Columbus, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Outward Bound: Rudy Van Gelder Remasters (Audio CD)

Eric Dolphy is one of this countries least appreciated genius, and his music and performances continue to awe and inspire. Mastering alto sax is a job in itself, but to add clarinet and flute to his arsenal is quite an accomplishment. Eric Dolphy has to be heard to be "understood". Words simply won't do.