The Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbecue

The myth or sensation surrounding a number of players is often more important than what the individual actually achieved. It’s difficult to figure when and where this applies and I can’t say that Eric Dolphy’s career is one of these instances or not, but due to his death at a rather young age, it can surely be said that the spate of inconsistent reissues bearing his name wouldn’t have occurred other wise.

The myth or sensation surrounding a number of players is often more important than what the individual actually achieved. It’s difficult to figure when and where this applies and I can’t say that Eric Dolphy’s career is one of these instances or not, but due to his death at a rather young age, it can surely be said that the spate of inconsistent reissues bearing his name wouldn’t have occurred other wise.

And while his appearance on Looking Ahead, led by Ken McIntyre, has nothing to do with the scattering of Dolphy’s discography, it can be said to fit in rather well with the first few dates the multi instrumentalist had as a session leader.

Released in 1960 Looking Ahead has more than a passing similarity to Dolphy’s set on Outward Bound. The line-ups on both feature some big names – and only on keys would I give the edge to the McIntyre date. But I have an affinity of Walter Bishop Junior, so I’m biased. But even the title of each of these dates portends some sort of ingenious giant step forward. The title of neither is an action, just a perspective. These players are either looking to do something or on the way to it – not necessarily in the middle of whatever change they both saw coming.

Dolphy’s set on Outward Bound is still pretty tied to bop ideals and even his switching between sax, flute and clarinet can’t really change that. But that could be said for McIntyre’s date as well. While each is still rooted in this passing stage of jazz history, the next evolution in the medium can easily be picked out on occasion. More often than not, though, it’s Dolphy who displays this as opposed to McIntyre.

Pairing the two seems odd. Each plays alto and switches to the flute, but again, Dolphy is more given over to the next big thing. Bishop on Looking Ahead is the only player that really gets a chance to solo in addition to the principals here, but even when he’s give that chance on “Lautir,” he’s easily bested by Dolphy. It’s obviously not a competition – maybe it was to some – but in the solos taken on this disc alone, it’s plain to hear why most haven’t more than a passing knowledge of McIntyre and why there are scores of Dolphy devotees.

Probably most singular solo is Dolphy’s turn on “They All Laughed.” At this early date in his career, he hasn’t quite arrived at what he would become. And occasionally, it’s difficult to differentiate the two sax players, but given a moment to get into his solo, Dolphy’s abilities become plainly clear. It is impressive, though, to hear McIntyre almost keep up with his musical companion on this date.

There’s enough early Dolphy put to tape that his set isn’t really necessary to hunt down. But it is comparable to his other works from the very early ‘60s. Hearing this, though, it’s shocking to think about how quickly he conceived of Out to Lunch.