Jazz Giant Dresses For The Cold

very cool and very warm

This cold weather theme continues.

Even in my cold state, I remembered a great photo of Eric Dolphy and thought "Here's a man who knows how to dress for winter."

A jazz giant, and knows how to rock the knit sweater and hat.

I could talk at length about Dolphy, and I will do so soon. I wrote about his integral role in Oliver Nelson's "Blues and the Abstract Truth", which was one of the albums I discovered and fell in love with very early in my jazz journey. It could also be the best album title of all time.

The guy was a shocking talent. He excelled at the flute, bass clarinet, alto saxophone, soprano clarinet, baritone saxophone and piccolo. I'm sure he could have made great jazz on any woodwind that came his way. He played with most of the giants before setting out on his own, including playing on some of my favourite Mingus recordings including the brilliant but oddly titled  album Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus (Impulse! 1963).

I also love his recordings with Chico Hamilton and that California sound is called cool jazz, but maybe it will warm us with thoughts of beaches and margaritas and bright sunshine.

His playing on "Beyond the Blue Horizon" is lovely. 

Happy Birthday, Mr. Mingus

want to listen to Mingus and smoke cigars?

Today Charles Mingus would have turned 90. He didn't even make it to his 60th birthday. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis robbed the world of one of the great musical geniuses of the 20th century.

I will try not to get too emotional (but you know how I can be...) so instead lets have a listen to one of his great tracks, Fables of Faubus, which features one of the several excellent bands Mingus ever put together, including the great Eric Dolphy on saxophone!

I will always love Mingus for being the musician that first introduced me to jazz a all those years ago in my parent's living room, and if you haven't heard the man's music, I encourage you to seek him out.

Wait! I can't stop at just one track. Mingus is so great that you should enjoy two. How about the incredible basswork on Haitian Fight Song? I am in awe of his talent as a composer and musician and I could post twenty songs for you and it would barely scratch the surface. If Mr. Hypothetical told me I could only listen to one jazz artist's recordings for the rest of my life, it would be Mingus.

Poor Eric

It's been a busy day of babies with each spare moment dedicated to Emmerson Street Press and friends, there's been no time for jazz.

Sadness, yes, yes.

But jazz has been on my mind. I am trying to decide what I will listen to in a couple of hours once babies go to sleep.

Okay, I've made a snap decision.

yet another wicked Blue Note cover

I will listen to 'Poor Eric' as recorded by Jackie McLean's killer band from the mid-60s. It's on the album Right Now! (1965, Blue Note) 

The song, with it's oddly slow dirge-like tempo, was written by the band's pianist, Larry Willis, as an elegy to Eric Dolphy who at age 36 died suddenly from undiagnosed diabetes.

Sounds like a fun song, right?

Perhaps you think it odd that I would choose a song that seems so sombre after such a lovely day; and there is no shortage of sadness in this track, my friends.

Here: listen.

 Be honest, how many of you stopped listening after the first ten seconds?

Wait until 2:33 when Jackie starts his alto sax solo.  He's a genius at melody isn't he?
Bob Cranshaw's bowed bass.  Surely you loved that.  You gotta love a great bass player.
Larry Willis plays an exquisite solo before Jackie takes another solo (and when you can play like Jackie McLean you can solo as much as you want and trust me no one is complaining).

The skill with which this song is played transcends any sad motivation behind it.  By the end of the 10:13 min track, you travel from the sombre to the sublime to the divine.

Yes, friends, it's a great track played by a top-notch band and I look forward to it.

Albums That All Humans Should Own #4

My fourth pick is one of the first jazz albums I ever bought.  My cousin Glenn and I used to listen to it driving around town in his old Chevelle.

Not only does it have one of the best album titles of all time (okay, I know the name of the album shouldn't affect the music therein but it does, doesn't it?) but it also features one of the greatest bands ever assembled and it's a shame that this all-star unit never recorded more.

'The Blues and the Abstract Truth' (1961) by Oliver Nelson is my third pick of essential albums that all humans should own.


Check out the names on that album cover.

• Bill Evans - Piano
• Roy Haynes - Drums
• The multi-instrumentalist-who-died-too-young Eric Dolphy
• Oliver Nelson - Alto
• My man Paul Chambers - Bass
• Freddie Hubbard- Trumpet

Few bands have that kind of talent and the music is diverse and has incredible flow. It's a sextet that sounds like an orchestra.  Take a listen to Stolen Moments, one of the all-time great songs in the history of jazz. After that slow build-up, Freddie Hubbard plays some nice trumpet, but then comes one of my favourite moments in all of recorded jazz: Eric Dolphy's flute solo.

It is spectacular stuff.  Spectacular flute solo? Is that what you're thinking? 


Trust me, in the right hands the flute can be great. Admittedly, there are only a few masters of the instrument in jazz other than Eric Dolphy. (Yusef Lateef for one... I'll have to think to find a third. Sonny Red maybe?)


If you were sitting here with me drinking a martini as I am, I could hum it to you as it is a passage I know by heart. The consummate skill with which he plays astounds me even after countless listens.

I ask my wife who is sitting across from me doing some work she brought home from the office -Would you like me to whistle Eric Dolphy's flute solo from Oliver Nelson's masterful Stolen Moments?

-Tempting. Thanks but no.

Trust me friends, even if you don't want to splurge for the entire  disc, download that one track and brace yourself for the magic that comes at the 3 minute mark.  Eric Dolphy is a jazz god.

On a parting note I will mention that Oliver Nelson not only recorded one of the greatest jazz albums of all-time, but in the 70's he got a lot of work scoring for film and TV (which the snooty jazz community poo pooed him for) and some say that this hard work drove him to an early grave. One of the highlights of this second career? Writing the music for that classic series of my childhood, The Six Million Dollar Man.

If you are thinking that I mention that fact just so I had an excuse to post this great photo of the great Lee Majors, you may be right.

I mean, the theme song is written by Oliver Nelson and take a listen. It's not Stolen Moments, but it is pretty cool. 


PS: Okay, I can't resist: you can watch the $6,000,000 man battle Sasquatch here. Dig that Oliver Nelson score!