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On this session, he teamed up with drummer Roy Haynes, bassist George Duvivier and cellist Ron Carter. Carter's cello lends the proceedings an intimate chamber jazz feel, and his arco double stops bridge the gap between chordal and melody instrument. The leader shows his prowess on clarinets and flute as well as alto and his choice of weapon unsurprisingly determines the character of each piece, though not in predictable ways; his flute solos (particularly on Randy Weston's ballad "Sketch of Melba") are every bit as muscular and colourful as those played on the other horns. The opening title track features tight ensemble work from Carter and Dolphy, leading into a typically pyrotechnic alto excursion from the leader. Here he settles on a series of phrases that are all slight variations on each other, like a Philip Glass arrangement of a Charlie Parker solo.
The other alto feature is "Feathers", a mournful ballad which comes on like a cross between one of Mingus's ballads and a Coleman dirge. Carter's pizzicato chording shadows Dolphys' statement of the melody before the leader lets rip with a solo crammed with trills, soulful cries and mercurial bop runs. Mingus's "Eclipse" is in similar mode; Carter's mournfully sour cello meshes with the leaders clarinet and Duvivier's bowed bass, ending up with a wonderfully atmospheric coda. Haynes manages to propel without overpowering; on "17 West" he manages to power proceedings with just brushes and snare, erupting into a brief solo before the unexpected long fadeout.
Throughout, the instrumental combinations throw up beautiful clashes and consonances; much like Henry Threadgill's work with cellos, tubas and so on. Theres 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, its nevertheless a worthy record of one of the most innovative jazz musicians ever to have walked the planet. --Peter Marsh
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The band is a pianoless quartet. Dolphy (alto sax, bass clarinet, clarinet and flute) is joined by George Duvivier (bass) and Roy Haynes (drums) and, most unusually, Ron Carter on cello, who performs a variety of roles: second horn, piano substitute, bass reinforcement. (The exception is the second track, 'Serene', which adds piano and trumpet - probably Jaki Byard and Booker Little, from Dolphy's third album, also released in 1960?).
The result is a unique sound that I find very engaging. Dolphy is excellent throughout. The sticking point, if any, is likely to be Ron Carter's cello. Cello isn't a traditional jazz instrument, and Carter plays very freely with his intonation - sometimes perfectly accurate, at other times significantly inaccurate. I find it hard to believe that Carter, a very fine bass player and musician, couldn't hear that he was playing 'out of tune'. I think this is an example of 'expressive', 'personal' or 'vocal' intonation, and as such is part of jazz's tradition of the importance of the individual voice. Certainly, it's more likely to be a problem for the classically-trained listener. For me, Carter's playing here blends very effectively with Dolphy's vocal and expressive sound, and the absence of fixed-pitch harmony instruments and the sparse ensemble setting means that Carter's expressive departures from concert pitch can be heard clearly without affecting the ensemble sound.
The choice of material is excellent, and the variety of moods is reinforced by Dolphy's habit of switching instruments. The music continually holds the interest, to the point that the relatively short total running time of 34 minutes goes almost unnoticed.
This is probably not the recording for the complete Dolphy neophyte, but it deserves to be heard, and perhaps deserves a higher place in the Dolphy canon than it has had before.
It was recorded in New Jersey on August 16, 1960 with Dolphy(alto sax, flute, B-flat and bass clarinets) with a superb rhythm section of Ron Carter(cello); George Duvivier(bass) & Roy Haynes(drums).
The seven memorable tracks include four Dolphy originals plus impressive versions of Charles Mingus's 'Eclipse), Randy Weston's 'Sketch of Melba' and Hale Smith's 'Feathers'.
The atmospheric and exploratory jazz on 'Out There' is an excellent representation of Eric Dolphy's unique talents.
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