| Out to Lunch! | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | August 1964 (1964-08)[1] | |||
| Recorded | February 25, 1964 | |||
| Studio | Van Gelder Studio,Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey | |||
| Genre | Avant-garde jazz | |||
| Length | 42:31 | |||
| Label | Blue Note | |||
| Producer | Alfred Lion | |||
| Eric Dolphy chronology | ||||
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Out to Lunch! is a 1964 album byjazz multi-instrumentalistEric Dolphy. His only recording onBlue Note as a leader, it was issued as BLP 4163 and BST 84163. Featuring Dolphy in a quintet with trumpeterFreddie Hubbard, vibraphonistBobby Hutcherson, bassistRichard Davis, and drummerTony Williams, it is considered by critics as one of the finest albums issued on Blue Note and one of the high points of 1960savant-garde jazz.[2] The album cover designed byReid Miles features a photo of a "Will Be Back" sign displayed in a shop window showing a seven-handed clock.
Dolphy declared "Everyone's a leader in this session",[3] and he was fortunate to be joined by four sympathetic musicians, three of whom had previously performed and recorded with him.Freddie Hubbard had roomed with Dolphy when they both first arrived in New York,[4] and was featured onOutward Bound (1960), Dolphy's first album as a leader. Dolphy and Hubbard also appeared together onOrnette Coleman's 1960 albumFree Jazz.Bobby Hutcherson had participated in the July 1963 recording sessions that produced the Dolphy albumsIron Man andConversations. Dolphy expressed his excitement regarding the opportunity to work with Hutcherson again, stating: "Bobby's vibes have a freer, more open sound than a piano. Pianos seem to control you, Bobby's vibes seems to open you up."[3]
BassistRichard Davis had also participated in the July 1963 sessions, during which he recorded a number of duets with Dolphy ("Come Sunday", "Ode to Charlie Parker", and "Alone Together"). Davis was also the bassist on Dolphy andBooker Little’s datesat the Five Spot in 1961. One reviewer stated that the pair "had one of the more meaningful connections in jazz; they communicated almost telepathically, as if completing each other's thoughts."[5] Dolphy commented: "Richard doesn't play the usual bass lines. He plays rhythm with his lines. He leads you somewhere else."[3] DrummerTony Williams, listed as "Anthony Williams" on the album, had turned 18 in December 1963, and was a member ofMiles Davis' quintet at the time of theOut to Lunch! recording session. Regarding Williams, Dolphy stated: "Tony doesn't play time, he plays pulse."[3] Dolphy biographers Vladimir Simosko and Barry Tepperman praised the musical chemistry of this group, observing that "the other musicians match and support [Dolphy's] conception with a truly fantastic sense of freedom and interplay."[6][7]
Roughly a month after theOut to Lunch! session, Dolphy, Davis, and Williams participated in the recording ofAndrew Hill'sPoint of Departure. Shortly afterwards, he moved to Europe following the completion of a European tour withCharles Mingus: "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."[3] Dolphy died from adiabetic coma inWest Berlin on June 29, 1964, at the age of 36.[8]
The title of the album's first track, "Hat and Beard", refers toThelonious Monk, about whom Dolphy stated: "He's so musical no matter what he's doing, even if he's just walking around."[3] The piece features wild bass clarinet playing, and contains a percussive interlude featuring Williams and Hutcherson. "Something Sweet, Something Tender" also features Dolphy on bass clarinet, and includes a scored duet between Dolphy and Davis on bowed bass.[7] Dolphy commented: "The group got just the lyrical feeling that I wanted, and, taking it out, Richard and I really got together in the unison duet."[3] The third composition, "Gazzelloni", which showcases some of Dolphy's most advanced flute work,[7] is named for classical flautistSeverino Gazzelloni, under whom Dolphy had studied the instrument.[3] This track features the album's most conventionalbebop-based theme; Dolphy noted that "Everybody holds to the construction for the first 13 bars, then - freedom."[3]
The second side features two long pieces with Dolphy on alto saxophone. On the title track, the pulse is implied rather than being stated explicitly, which lends a sense of freedom.[6] Dolphy commented: "Notice Tony. He doesn't play time, he plays. Even though the rhythm section breaks the time up, there's a basic pulse coming from inside the tune. That's the pulse the musicians have to play."[3] The final track, "Straight Up and Down", was intended to evoke a drunken stagger.[3] Dolphy's solo contains swaggering, voice-like lines on which he employsmultiphonics and smears.[7] Regarding the group's contribution, he stated: "It gasses me that everyone was so free. I wanted a free date to begin with. All rhythm sections are different, but this one was really open..."[3]
In late 2013, two previously unissued performances were released on Toshiba EMI TYCJ-81013 in Japan. These are alternate takes of the two bass clarinet tunes "Hat and Beard", and "Something Sweet, Something Tender".
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |  [9] |
| The Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [11] |
| The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings | [12] |
| The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide | [10] |
The Penguin Guide to Jazz selectedOut to Lunch! as part of its suggested "Core Collection" and awarded it a "crown", stating, "If it is a masterpiece, then it is not so much a flawed as a slightly tentative masterpiece."[12] The album was identified byChris Kelsey in hisAllMusic essay "Free Jazz: A Subjective History" as one of the "20 EssentialFree Jazz Albums".[13]
WriterMartin Williams stated that onOut to Lunch!, "we hear a full development of [Dolphy's] talent, in its five, finely crafted compositions, and in his equally well-conceived solos."[14] In a review for AllMusic, Steve Huey described the album as Dolphy's "magnum opus, an absolute pinnacle of avant-garde jazz in any form or era. Its rhythmic complexity was perhaps unrivaled sinceDave Brubeck'sTime Out, and its five Dolphy originals... were a perfect balance of structured frameworks, carefully calibrated timbres, and generous individual freedom."[9] Writing forThe Wire,Brian Morton describedOut to Lunch! as "Dolphy's most adventurous album and his most self consistent attempt at freedom within some, at least of the confines established by bop writing." Morton praised Dolphy's playing, deeming him "an instant composer rather than a strict improviser."[15]
Kevin Whitehead, writing forNPR, referred toOut to Lunch! as Dolphy's "masterpiece", stating: "Half a century later it still sounds crazy in a good way. The organized mayhem starts with Dolphy's tunes, often featuring wide, wide leaps in the melody and ratchet-gear rhythms...in time you could hear its influence inAnthony Braxton's orRoscoe Mitchell's zigzag solos and odd timbres, inDavid Murray's yawping bass clarinet andJason Adasiewicz's clanking vibes. You can also hear it in ambitious music by all sorts of modern composers who grapple with the same kind of contradictions Dolphy did."[16] In an essay for Jazz History Online, Thomas Cunniffe wrote thatOut to Lunch! "was an effort to break our expectations about the very nature of jazz", and stated that "In addition to dispelling the notion that improvised solos should maintain the mood of the melody, Dolphy called for his sidemen to rethink their preconceived notions about improvisation", noting that "Dolphy and company re-examined the very framework of this music."[17]
Trevor Maclaren describedOut to Lunch! as "one of the finest records of its kind" and "easily at the caliber ofA Love Supreme andThe Shape of Jazz to Come". He stated that "Dolphy shows himself as solid bandleader and arranger who opens up plenty of room for his players. Much in the ideology of his fellow avant-garde players, the solos exude experiment. Yet Dolphy's control is masterful and no matter how far out he gets, you can feel his passion and know his path has been well articulated."[2] Greg Simmons ofAll About Jazz called the album "undeniably brilliant" and "an essential watershed in the jazz canon, representing a creative peak for the soon-to-be-gone Dolphy". He praised Dolphy's bass clarinet playing on the opening track as "as complete a statement of musical independence—from fashion, commercial concerns, and tradition—as is likely to be found."[18]
All compositions by Eric Dolphy.
Bonus tracks on 2013 Japanese limited SHM-CD:
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