ERIC DOLPHY — Far Cry (with Booker Little) (review)

ERIC DOLPHY — Far Cry (with Booker Little) album cover Album · 1962 · Post Bop Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
js
“Far Cry” is an often overlooked gem in the all too brief Eric Dolphy discography. Eric’s fans tend go for his more outside work such as “Out to Lunch”, and although “Far Cry” may not be quite the visionary piece that “Lunch” is, there is still some great playing on here and a real unique take on jazz during the transitional early 60s. The music on “Far Cry” is not what you could call avant-garde, but its hardly business as usual either. Dolphy and his cohorts were all reaching for new things, and because of the time period, in ways that were unpredictable and naively fresh. In a few short years after this album’s release, the avant-garde itself would begin to establish its own predictable routines. The efforts to stretch jazz on “Far Cry” don’t have much to do with what will become known as ‘avant-garde’, but have more to do with five very unique musicians trying out new things in conversation with each other.

It is an all-star cast on here; Byard and Haynes are the veterans who can handle anything from bop to free, Carter was one of the first bassists to adapt to the new freer drumming styles and Dolphy and Little were brilliant rising stars with Dolphy providing the connection to the new avant-garde world. The music on here reflects the diversity of the musicians; based in the difficult bop of Charlie Parker, but influenced by the abstractions of the new post bop mindset and driven by a fun recklessness taken from the new ‘free’ players. The end result is a music that would be hard to re-create as this era of naïve exploration has long since passed.

There are plenty of virtuoso performances on here, but two particular standouts are Doplphy’s flute solo on “Left Alone” and his unaccompanied alto solo on “Tenderly”. The under-rated Booker Little also shines throughout, reminding us again how unfortunate his early passing was and how much potential he had. The four original compositions by Byard and Dolphy provide the best material on here, with Byard’s bizarrely arranged melody on “Miss Parker of K.C.” starting the album off with a real attention getter.
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