''Out There'' is an album by
Eric Dolphy
Eric Allan Dolphy Jr. (June 20, 1928 – June 29, 1964) was an American jazz alto saxophonist, bass clarinetist and flautist. On a few occasions, he also played the clarinet and piccolo. Dolphy was one of several multi-instrumentalists to gai ...
which was released by
Prestige Records
Prestige Records is a jazz record company and label founded in 1949 by Bob Weinstock in New York City which issued recordings in the mainstream, bop, and cool jazz idioms. The company recorded hundreds of albums by many of the leading jazz music ...
in September 1961.
It features Dolphy in a quartet with bassists
Ron Carter
Ronald Levin Carter (born May 4, 1937) is an American jazz double bassist. His appearances on 2,221 recording sessions make him the most-recorded jazz bassist in history. He has won three Grammy awards, and is also a cellist who has recorded nu ...
(here playing
cello
The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...
) and
George Duvivier
George Duvivier (August 17, 1920 – July 11, 1985) was an American jazz double-bassist.
Biography
Duvivier was born in New York City, the son of Leon V. Duvivier and Ismay Blakely Duvivier. He attended the Conservatory of Music and Art, where ...
, and drummer
Roy Haynes
Roy Owen Haynes (born March 13, 1925) is an American jazz drummer. He is among the most recorded drummers in jazz. In a career lasting over 80 years, he has played swing, bebop, jazz fusion, avant-garde jazz and is considered a pioneer of jazz ...
. It was Dolphy's second album as a leader, released following his time with
Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus Jr. (April 22, 1922 – January 5, 1979) was an American jazz upright bassist, pianist, composer, bandleader, and author. A major proponent of collective improvisation, he is considered to be one of the greatest jazz musicians and ...
.
The album features four original compositions by Dolphy, one of which is a collaborative effort with Mingus. The album also features three covers, "Eclipse" by Mingus, "Sketch of Melba" by
Randy Weston
Randolph Edward "Randy" Weston (April 6, 1926 – September 1, 2018) was an American jazz pianist and composer whose creativity was inspired by his ancestral African connection.
Weston's piano style owed much to Duke Ellington and Thelonious M ...
and "Feathers" by
Hale Smith. The cover features a painting by
Richard Jennings, known as "Prophet".
Dolphy's group on ''Out There'' resembles the late 1950s ensembles of
Chico Hamilton
Foreststorn "Chico" Hamilton (September 20, 1921 – November 25, 2013) was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He came to prominence as sideman for Lester Young, Gerry Mulligan, Count Basie, and Lena Horne. Hamilton became a bandleader, ...
, with whom Dolphy played and recorded during that time, in that it features both a cello and a bass; however, unlike Hamilton's group, Dolphy's does not contain a guitar or other chordal instrument. As a result, Dolphy and
Ron Carter
Ronald Levin Carter (born May 4, 1937) is an American jazz double bassist. His appearances on 2,221 recording sessions make him the most-recorded jazz bassist in history. He has won three Grammy awards, and is also a cellist who has recorded nu ...
solo over bass and drums only, helping to give the album a freer, more open sound when compared to Dolphy's previous album, ''
Outward Bound
Outward Bound (OB) is an international network of outdoor education organizations that was founded in the United Kingdom by Lawrence Holt and Kurt Hahn in 1941. Today there are organizations, called schools, in over 35 countries which are att ...
'', which featured pianist
Jaki Byard
John Arthur "Jaki" Byard (; June 15, 1922 – February 11, 1999) was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer, and arranger. Mainly a pianist, he also played tenor and alto saxophones, among several other instruments. He was known for hi ...
. On the other hand, the presence of the cello lends the album a chamber music feel.
"Eclipse" from this album is one of the rare instances where Dolphy solos on
B clarinet. ''Out There'' is one of Carter's earliest appearances on record.
Reception
The contemporaneous ''
DownBeat
' (styled in all caps) is an American music magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond", the last word indicating its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chi ...
'' reviewer identified an improvement in Dolphy's bass clarinet playing and described him as "one of the few uncliched flute players in jazz".
Reviewing the album for
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
, Michael G. Nastos noted the presence of "a depth and purpose that were unprecedented and remain singularly unique," and states that "
e music reveals the depth of
olphy'sthought processes while also expressing his bare-bones sensitive and kind nature." He concluded: "''Out There'' explores Dolphy's vision in approaching the concept of tonality in a way few others -- before, concurrent, or after -- have ever envisioned."
In a review for the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
, Peter Marsh wrote: "Throughout, the instrumental combinations throw up beautiful clashes and consonances... There's a sense of a proper Third Stream being mined here, and it says much for Dolphy's vision that such combinations are still the stuff of surprise 40 odd years later. While ''Out There'' is neither the compositional masterwork of ''Out to Lunch'' or the improvisational firestorm of the Five Spot sessions with Booker Little of the following year, it's nevertheless a worthy record of one of the most innovative jazz musicians ever to have walked the planet."
'', Will Layman called the album "a dream come true", and noted how Dolphy and Carter are "free to explore harmony above the minimal barriers of George Duvivier's bass lines and Roy Haynes' snap-crackle-pop stick work." According to Layman, "'17 West' is irresistible, with the boys playing playful unison, then the flute grooving while the cello plays a hip double-stop figure in counterpoint." Regarding "Eclipse", he wrote: "there is a wonderful classical vibe as the strings play as an ensemble behind the leader. Then, as Dolphy plays a stately melody, Carter plays a wide-ranging improvisation ''around'' him. It's a rare example of a jazz musician finding a new way to package a tune other than the usual melody-solos-melody format that was tired even in 1960."