ERIC DOLPHY

While you are listening to his performance, I find something in his bogus phrase and feel it. Compared to him, the performance of big players at the same free jazz dawn is easy to understand. For example, Ornette Coleman is blowing as he wants to blow at that time. People who listen to Ornette's performances do not think "Oh, I do not understand anything anymore", "I do not know what it is but I do not know what he wants to blow like this now anyway." But listening to the music of Dolphy I think that you are playing based on some theory. But you do not have any idea what that theory is, so I think it is difficult. So, the performance of Dolphy says, "I do not know what he is saying, but there surely exists a strong theory, and I think that the meaning of music will definitely be transmitted to myself."

At The Five Spot vol.1　　　　　１９６１年７月１６日録音 Fire Waltz Bee Vamp The Prophet   Eric Dolphy（as & bcl） Booker Little（tp） Mal Waldron（p） Richard Davis（b） Ed Blackwell（ds）   What an aggressive performance of the first song "Fire Waltz"! This performance contrasts with the flexibility and humorous aspects of Ornette Coleman. Eric Dollfie, Booker Little and other members' performances are full of serious enthusiasm I feel. An intro by a piano like an out of tune ragtime piano is the beginning of a performance. Soon he will start playing bluntly the saxophone. The theme he plays seems to be a rhythm pattern with almost no melodic up and down movement, "Dara Lara, La Rala · Pappaler". After this, he will perform an ensemble with the trumpet for a short time. And he tried a leap of sound which is completely unrelated to the theme, and then started ad-lib performance like free jazz. Here, derail slightly. Because the word "free" I mentioned now requires some explanation. We intend to read and understand the word "free" in jazz commentary and liner notes of the album. But we do not know what is free in their actual performance. Here, almost all phrases that they are performing improvisely are fragments that are not terminated. Compared to this, the impromptu phrases of the performers like Charlie Parker before them, in principle, the listener feels that the melody is over. Let me explain it clearly. For example, when we are talking, we judge in an undisputed manner that the other party has finished talking. In conversation, we follow it according to an implicit rule. If we do not follow that rule, we will only speak one-sidedly to each other, they will not listen to the other's story. It is called nodal form in music theory. We recognize the movement of the sound on the system of tonality and judge that the melody is over when we return to the fundamental tone. That is an implicit rule. In accordance with the rule, we grab the melody and judge it to be beautiful. Even Charlie Parker sometimes violates the rules, but he is aiming at temporary effects such as surprise the listener and prompt the imagination of the listener. However, Eric Dolphy and Booker Little here throw out, ignoring the rules and not taking the end form that ends the phrase. So we do not know whether the phrases they play are melodies. It is the same as we are in a state of dangling that we do not understand when we talk about whether the story is ended. And yet, while Eric Dolphy was not able to judge the phrase as a melodious, Eric Dolphy set it aside and started already the next phrase. This is his wonderful place. We feel that we cannot keep up with his performance there. That is the speed of his performance. Besides, he keeps the regular rhythm and shakes the rhythm sharply. If other players do this, their performance will collapse musically. However, their performances are likely to collapse musically and they will not collapse. Their performance is on the demarcation boundary line. So, the tension is abnormally high. It is the achievement of the rhythm section that did not let their performances collapse. The drum made a snare fine noise and made a mechanical beat. The piano mechanically repeated a minor chord block heavily using the midrange. They carved the beat regularly like a machine. It was not a flexible rhythm in the bebop. Eric Dolphy and Booker Little are sometimes playing themselves independently of their beat. That's free of their performance. Moreover, their performance did not collapse. I think the real value of their performance is in the second half. That's amazing! Filled by Dolphy and Little, the rhythm section mechanically beating beats will change free rhythm like free jazz. For example, Mal Waldron is a pianist who plays the piano like a percussion. Here, he especially carved the beat mechanically, but in the second half he will change to a melodic solo performance while breaking the rhythm. And he finally plays solo like Free Jazz like Dolphy and Little. I think it is a miracle that their late performance did not collapse. Furthermore, I still cannot believe that their performance was over. The second song "Bee Vamp" is a song written by Booker Little. The composition of this song is ABACABA, and the measure division is 8-4-8-8-8-4-8. In the middle of solo correspondence such as delivery of trumpet and piano theme and accompaniment, snare of drums is fragmentarily inserted. We can hear the multilayered rhythm composition like Polyrism. We can find elaborate compositions like this modern classical music for this performance. And in the third song "The Prophet", Alto Sax of Dolphy repeats a unique phrase like an alien on a composite beat that produces different rhythms between the base and drum unit and the piano. On the other hand, trumpet of　Little is outright. Repeat the solo performance for two people to compete.

ERIC DOLPHY IN EUROPE vol.1　　　　　　１９６１年９月８日録音 Hi Fly  Glad To Be Unhappy God Bless The Child Oleo     Eric Dolphy (fl,bcl) Bent Axen (p) Chuck Israels (b) Erik Moseholm (b) Jorn Elniff (ds)   This album is a live recording board where Eric Dolphy went to Europe and made a live performance together with the local musicians by improvising members. With this album, we can hear Dolphy playing flute and bus clarinet. If you want to listen to Alto sax played by him, listen to vol.2. In the introduction of "At The Five Spot vol. 1" I wrote that the rhythm section carved a regular beat. The members at this time were people whose sensation of a soft rhythm of black jazz is stuck in the body. They played with a mechanical beat so as to disobey the rhythmic feeling of the body. It was impossible to imagine there, and I think that Dolphy was not satisfied. However, European white musicians are cultivated in an ensemble tradition where individuals like orchestras do not comply unless they comply with the rules. They have different musical roots from black performers. In this series of European record boards, the rhythm section has different members but its regular beat is strictly engraved as it normally is. Most of them keep 4-beat of constant speed, but not only that but they are making various changes. Dolphy is away from the beat and is playing freely. The musicians in the rhythm section will play the rhythm sometimes away from the beat if someone of them maintains a beat. The resonance like polylism created by them can be heard more remarkably than "At The Five Spot vol. 1". Furthermore, we can also touch the static part of Dolphy with this album. In the first song "Hi Fly", Dolphy's flute and Chuck Israel's bass play in duet. Dolphy starts playing the flute without accompaniment. He plays an incredible melody fake. His flute performance seems to fly lightly with a thick core tone. When the accompaniment of the base is added from the middle, the beat gives driving force to the performance. In his flute, in the ad lib part, the phrase unique to Eric Dolphy plays afterwards. The base keeps the rhythm strictly so that it stiffens the flute's scaffold. For this bass performance, I feel a spiritual spirit. On the other hand, the performance of the flute is indifferent but it is pleasant. The ensemble of two people keeps moderate tension, while a quiet euphoria rises up. In the next "Glad To Be Unhappy", Dolphy relaxes and plays a flute with accompaniment of a piano trio. He plays the theme thoroughly with a flute that is impressive with a gentle melody. However, we receive the theme he plays as a creepier tension, rather than gentle. This tension is analogous to the breath of a lion who is breathtaking to pretend to prey with his eyes in paraphrase. In the ad lib part, the performance changes and it becomes development which is raging. From the third track "God Bless The Child", he switched the flute to the bus clarinet and shows solo  with no accompaniment. He will not play the original melody of this song, perhaps, on purpose. He repeatedly plays the scale like an arpeggio using the bass clarinet's low range, as if to search for something loud. When we started to get bored with the performance of the bass scales, he played the original melody in the high range with full. This effect was enormous. The impression of the tone color of the high range of the bus clarinet that he plays seems to be crowded with a little distorted feeling of texture that is different from the fat tone pressure rich tone coloring in the lower range until then It is such a painful tone. We feel there contrast, static, abstract and concrete. And in the last "Oleo" exciting performance.

ERIC DOLPHY IN EUROPE vol.2　　　　　　　　　１９６１年９月６日、８日録音 Don't Blame Me  Don't Blame Me (take 2) The Way You Look Tonight  　 Miss Ann　(Les)　 Laura　   Eric Dolphy (as,fl) Bent Axen (p) Erik Moseholm (b) Jorn Elniff (ds)   In the first song "Do not Blame Me", the rhythm section regularly plays a regular 4-beat. He shakes the rhythm with a feeling of distance not too far from their beat. Based on that, he plays a mysterious theme by flute, twisting and entangling phrasing. He uses improvisation within the framework of the hard bop style by utilizing the element of free jazz like a hidden taste of spice. Therefore, those who cannot listen to free jazz will be amenable to this performance. In the second song "The Way You Look Tonight" he switches flutes to Alto saxophone. From this song, his alto sax with a technique of manipulating freedom of gravity wanders through the music space in a row. He plays high speed ad libs like Charlie Parker at full speed from the beginning of the song. His fast improvisation emanates tension and energy without instantaneous loosening. However, I feel stylistic in this performance. When he was surrounded by European crowds and members that were different from the United States, he was strongly aware of the music climate and the physicality that he thought of as a matter of course in the performance in the United States. He realized that the music climate and physicality differed with skin sensation. He was not able to use jokes and parodies that were unnecessarily explained in front of the American audience in the same way in front of a European audience. Please compare his performance with his performance at "At The Five Spot vol.1". He also plays parodies and high-speed ad libs in the performance at "At The Five Spot vol. 1". In comparison, his performance here is calm without the heat like the performance of "At The Five Spot vol. 1". He feels the musical discommunication with the rhythm section and is playing precisely to trace formally on the music. In addition to the third song "Miss Ann (Les)", he plays a speedy feeling to fly at the accelerator full speed from the beginning of the song. Although he was never playing free jazz, he was taking a stance closer to that, in fact, he played that kind of style. I explained the word "free" in the introduction of "At The Five Spot vol. 1". In Europe with a culture different from the United States, though not related to jazz, missing 20 th century classical music already existed. In Europe, he should have noticed that the music he is playing is not necessarily "free". Rather, he noticed that Bebop, who tried to get out of there when he was in the United States, was freshly accepted by European people. So, I guess he tried to grasp his own performances objectively. That's why his performance is more conspicuous than the heat he had in 'At The Five Spot vol.1'. He meets a heterogeneous music culture called Europe, and he confirms each of his own phrases one by one. In the fourth song "Laura", the phrase he plays is not simply diverging and radiating like drawing a complex helical curve, but music that will feed back to himself and returning music It is a sign of appearance. That is the opportunity to become calm music in his early later years, this is around the performance. He closed the boundary with other jazz by making the world self-contained with the first album "OUT TO LUNCH". After that, I imagined that he grabbed the opportunity to open the door which was closed by "OUT TO LUNCH" here.

OUT TO LUNCH　　　１９６４年２月２５日録音 Hat And Beard Something Sweet,Something Tender Gazzelloni Out To Lunch Straight Up And Down   Eric Dolphy（as,bcl,fl） Freddie Hubbard（tp） Bobby Hutcherson（vib） Richard Davis（b） Tony Williams（ds）   This album is a studio recording, we can touch the possibility of Eric Dolphy which is totally different from live recording. In this album he is making a performance that is exactly opposite to the centrifugal direction of spreading of music, which is quite different from live recording. He is playing in a direction that seems to fill the space in a closed world rather than spreading, which is a self-contained music space that cannot be realized at the live stage. When you listen to this album, you will receive the impression that you are wrapped in space like a fetus in the womb, blocked from the outside world, and integrated. The sound that distinguishes the drum that cuts the space sharply and the vibe that resonates cool is precisely calculated and calmly constructed by him. And in this sound, he plays his distinctive twisted phrases at Alto Saxophone and Bass Clarinet. You must have the impression that for this album, the world is "an exactly crazy clock." It's just like an album jacket. The first song "Hat And Beard" is a song that was inspired by a split variation of the composite beat which becomes 9 beats in total. Trumpet, bass clarinet and vibraphone give a rhythmic accent with a big band backing. Among them, the bass and drums begin playing the introduction section at 9/3 time signature (3, 3, 3). And, they play the presentation part of the theme and the ad lib part with the metaphor of 9/4 beat (5 · 4). Even if I say this, you may not know what it is. Try to beat the first place by hand. Then, you will have extra clapping on its way. Or, since each instrument is playing with a different rhythm, you do not know what instruments you should clap to. Basically, Dolphy is playing solo in accordance with the rhythm of the bass and drum. However, you will feel that he flies freely over their rhythm with a small fake. Moreover, he plays a phrase that does not become a fragmentary phrase like his unique twist. Moreover, he plays with a mysterious tone that I cannot imagine from Alto sax. You will have the impression that the space distorted from the beginning will move further in the direction of distortion with this solo and that the vibraphone stabs the stop. In the second song "Something Sweet, Something Tender", with a bass-based accompaniment, he plays a melody with chromatic elements. It sounds like a hard avant-garde of 20th century classical music. For example, an irregular and diverse development of a composition method in which 5/4 beat or 6/4 beat is short inserted in the middle of a song, or theme ─ solo ─ after a theme with a short buscra break in between again. However, this song is super slowly ballad. You will wonder. This song is free-form composition and expansion, but is the performance free? The performances of the members are played on the score as classical music. People who listen to the impromptu performance of Bebop listen, it is a breathtaking performance. The number after this is on parade of metaphor. However, the performance of that metaphor is not so much related to the body that the body moves unexpectedly like the groove or swing feeling born from the flexible rhythm of the conventional jazz, the mechanical time . It saturates with romantic music that the composers of 20th century classical music around 1950 appeal to the human emotions, making music like intellectual composition like mathematical calculations It is similar to it. Especially, at the expense of jazz 's physicality and improvisation, this work pursued the freedom of making music and composing, in a sense it is possible to play music that is ringing in the imagination of Dolphy I tried to reproduce as much as possible, I think.

LAST DATE　　　　　１９６４年６月２日録音 Epistrophy South Street Exit The Madrig Speaks,The Panther Walks Hypochristmutreefuzz You Don't Know What Love Is Miss Ann   Eric Dolphy（as,bcl,fl） Misja Mengelberg (p) Jacques Schols (b) Han Bennink (ds)   After listening to Dolphy's first recording "OUT TO LUNCH", let's continue listening to this album. You feel as if you are wrapped in a kind of gentleness, not in this album, as if you were feeling as if you were breathtaking enough in "OUT TO LUNCH". He recorded this album a few days before his death. Certainly, from that episode, we will fabricate a story of a desperation that made this album ahead of his death. I do not think such things. However, for example, in the past he was sounding and resonating instruments so strongly that the instruments are likely to be broken by strong sound pressure, but here it is time to exhale, like the reverberation of the instrument's reverberation Ringing instruments to take advantage of skillfully. Also, at "OUT TO LUNCH" he was playing with a complex rhythm like on parade of metaphor, but here he is keeping constant 4 beats all the time. Therefore, you can get a sense of security. However, he is not only keeping 4 beats, but also makes various changes in it. For example, his play itself is free from the beat, and if someone keeps the beat and the musician who is backing, others will be away from there as well. Through the combination of them, they are producing poly rhythmic sounds. This fascination is inherently his original charm. In the first song "Epistrophy", in the gentleness mentioned above, he plays a phrase which flies unique. This makes us distinctive features of him. Moreover, it is less likely to cause incongruity and strangeness. A surprise of the first roar and an ad lib like grotesque, as if it is a ringer of an alien. Unlike it has ever been, it has relaxed because of form power. Besides, since the drums and the base firmly keep 4 beats and do not fuck dolphy too much, it keeps backing, so Dolphy is comfortably playing saxophone. It makes you understand it as nature. And backing of the piano. Chirped and choked, occasionally repeating an effective riff, backing and rare harmony of free jazz and modern music-specific coordination. Discordant clusters reminiscent of Thelonious Monk. It is also different from the "sticky weight" of the piano played by the black people, "heavy heaviness". Although it is dull, it is a mysterious piano that can feel the edge somewhere. This piano is effectively coloring his bus clarinet. In the fifth song "You Do not Know What Love Is", he plays a chromatic melody with a flute with a duo with a bow playing base. The melody seems to be a chromatic melody by Debussy's "Prélude à" L'après-midi d'un faune "by the flute solo at the beginning. And he is improvising for 12 minutes based on that phrase. There, he plays a beautiful, moist and beautiful moist, playing a game with a phrase, almost without mixing a free-key tone that makes me remember the roar of my own patent. There are not a few people who say this performance as a white eyebrow of this album. The final "Miss Ann" is not a feeling of free jazz, but an unexpected phrase unique to he is contained in the hard bop. Finally, there is a famous his monologue, but there are lots of people arguing that it is likely to be about that, so I think that you can create a story and enjoy it. However, when playing is finished and a short fade out of clapping is done, it becomes a truncated dragonfly, so I think that it is finished quietly and has the effect of leaving a finish by sounding a calm voice. I do not care little whether he is talking.