If anyone deserves the "gone too soon" hashtag it's Eric Dolphy. Sure, there's lot of jazz musicians out there who died young, but the sheer genius of the few Dolphy solo albums as well as his frequent contributions to the work of others during the early 1960's have to make one wonder what could have been. Although he's generally lumped with the free jazz types, Dolphy appears on jazz recordings of all stripes, though his best known appearance include work with Charles Mingus and leading the rival quartet on Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz.
Dolphy was an extremely versatile horn player, not content to just play the saxophone. On this album he divides his time among bass clarinet, flute, and tenor sax (shades of Roland Kirk!). On top of this, his sidemen have a distinct style of their own. Drummer Tony Williams was old enough to drive but not drink here and his free drum style is very much in display here. Bassist Richard Davis occasionally starts the bow his instrument, which creates a truly eerie effect with combined with Bobby Hutcherson's vibes (presents in lieu of piano). Freddie Hubbard lends his services in the leads department, and while he isn't doing anything too crazy he keeps things anchored to the freer end of the hard bop spectrum.
Blue Note had hoped this would be the first of many releases for the label from a long and prosperous career, but Eric Dolphy died just a few months later from acute diabetes complications. Gone too soon, indeed!
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