Good news - ERIC DOLPHY "Out To Lunch" lives! 45 RPM Music Matters upcoming release!

It's certainly music that requires attention (not that most music couldn't be characterized this way). My main observation has always been that it is a cerebral album, which works against one of my main reasons for listening to jazz, namely its emotional quality. Regardless of this, there is something in the angular ideas here that is still compelling, and I'm such a fan of Dolphy's work before Out to Lunch that I can find a thread to hang on to even when he's at his most abstract (sort of like being anchored by Soultrane when hearing Sun Ship). I would imagine that this album is extremely well-suited for the kind of audiophile release we're talking here because of its cerebral quality. What better way to engage the listener with difficult music than to put him or her in the room with the players.

So yes, a very exciting prospect, I'm very much looking forward to this one.

 

Exciting news!

I agree it is amazing -- the King pressings generally are. I bought a King when I heard it wasn't going to be released. This'll be the first title where I do a head-to-head with a King Pressing -- we'll see how it goes. My sense is that Kings sound like really, really good versions of the original pressings, whereas these sound like really, really good versions of the master tapes.

 

What's it with scaring people away from anything remotely arty? This record has plenty of swing and groove, some of it mock, but several of the tracks sound like spy jazz (the jazzy incidental music in movies and tv from the 50s and 60s), just with quirky accents thrown in. There's a real sense of wit and personality in it.

Frankly, there are few Blue Notes that would be a better introduction to jazz, in my opinion. I listened to my 90s 180 gram of it last night, and Mobley's Soul Station this morning. Which one is more samey? Which one has a less distinctive soundscape? Which one has less distinctive melodies? Which one has less compelling rhythm? Yes, the Mobley is the more homogenous, boring one.

The Dolphy is not difficult at all. It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but it is easy and whimsical. Oh, and guess what I was doing while I played it? Yup, I was cleaning my house.

P.S. Is there any way we'll ever see an audiophile release of the Live at the Five Spot records? Those are my favorite records in the whole Fantasy catalog, I think (Monk's Music would be the only competition for me). They are unbelievably soulful and interesting. And, they are amazing sounding already. Please Joe, Chad, Marshall, do these!

 

I agree. There are parts of it I think would fit right in with "West Side Story." I can just imagine the Jets and Sharks dancing to it at times, and fighting to it at others.

 

From your lips to Blue Notes ears.

 

Interesting. I find it hard to believe any jazz fan would find it hard to enjoy "Out To Lunch" as it's an avante garde album for the masses. Dolphy used both the lessons he learned from Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane together with his Mingus period and meshed them nigh on perfectly on this album. It is, without a doubt, one of the top ten best Blue Note's available. That Music Matters will be reissuing this is some of the best news of 2008/2009. I'd definitely recommend you give er another try.

 

No.

 

Pardon the pun, but it's kind of like a kid at christmas huh?

 

Guess it's time to buy that turntable since I doubt it'll be reissued on either format (especially SACD) in the near future. Guess it really does pay to have stuck with that old, outdated (but infinitely better sounding) format all these years.

 

Yeah, I'll defintiely be giving it another listen. My jazz tastes tend to lean more toward the bop/swing end of things and less toward the avant stuff, but there are always exceptions. Also, I find that when the sound quality is better, I'm more apt to enjoy something more - even if it isn't necessarily my cup of tea. In fact, that's how I started getting into 'real' jazz (as opposed to 'progressive' and/or fusion stuff) in the first place.

Back when I was writing more music reviews, I used to get a steady stream of product from Classic, DCC, MFSL, etc and it really opened my ears to all sorts of music that I otherwise might not have been exposed to.

Steve

 

Great news. I'm glad I Pre-Ordered this one a couple of months ago. It should go quick.

 

hey, great post!

 

I have never understood this distinction.

I've never heard decent jazz that wasn't extremely cerebral, and I've never found that something being cerebral made it less emotional.

There's music that I just don't like, so I hear only the "cerebral" part of it. But I don't really think you can say that Beethoven isn't cerebral, or that he isn't emotional, and ditto for Eric Dolphy.

I hear this kind of adjective all the time and I guess I really don't know what it means. You can't be saying that a computer could have written the music on Out To Lunch using some sort of abstract principle (e.g., some Xenakis - and even with Xenakis there is the emotion you get from pure beauty which is kinda like the major chord representing death to the Romantics, etc.)

 

I will say this, Out to Lunch! has a wonderful groove to it, there is a real flow to this album that I absolutely dig.

 

Can't wait for this one!

 

What is the proposed release date of this title?

Admittedley, I'd never heard of it before yesterday, but after seeing so many enthusiastic people, I went and downloaded a copy. All I can say is "WOW!" I had an initial "WTF?" moment but within two minutes I was hooked in and loving absolutely every second of it! What do they mean by a diffcult album? Difficult to play, mix and master, maybe, but it's an absolute pleasure to listen to! I want to play it again!

That's my verdict based on an MP3 copy! Screw finding a CD of it, I want the vinyl, and I want it now!

[edit] Yes, I am aware that it's expensive - not including postage, it will cost AU$76

 

As a huge Dolphy fan, I am really looking forward to this. Thanks for being so dedicated and passionate about this BN project. I am sooooooo glad I subscribed!

 

I think a lot of Dolphy's work is emotional but Out to Lunch has long seemed to me weighted toward the intellectual. Not that it doesn't have an emotional side, just that it's not as pronounced as that intellectual side. This is simplifying things, of course -- saying something is either "cerebral" or "emotional" is a little too black and white -- but if you follow this line of argument then I assert that there is a continuum of this balance in all music. In some, the intellect dominates, in others the emotional dominates, and in others it's more balanced. Not that any of this is better than any other, just an observation, and pretty subjective at that I would guess. So one man's "cerebral" can be another man's "emotional."

 

So true, so true. I find that Out To Lunch is a little of both. Dolphy was attempting to create an album full of a type of music that he's rarely approached in more than fits and starts here. But he created it with both his heart and his mind. I find his playing here full of emotion, but a channeled emotion, as if he wanted to show the world that avante garde music could still contain all the improvisational emotion that the usual jazz of the day displayed.

 

OUT TO LUNCH is pure magic. It's just one of those records that documents a jazz session where everything went just about as well as you could possibly hope for. Michael Cuscuna has talked in print about how terrible (in his opinion at least) the outtakes from the session are, when asked by collectors and fans why there have been no alternates included in reissues of this record. I think this illustrates well how music like this, involving mostly on the fly, collective improvisation, is balanced on a very fine point - it can either really hit the highest heights, like OUT TO LUNCH does, or completely fall flat. Dolphy was really laying things on the line and taking a major risk doing a date like this for Blue Note.

One thing I have to say also is that I don't hear this as a record that is weighted more toward intellect than emotion. Everyone's playing sounds highly impassioned to me, if appropriately controlled - again Dolphy and colleagues were really laying their names on the line and they delivered big time - that takes passion. Maybe the lack of conventional, overtly "swinging," hard bop rhythms (a la Blakey or Taylor) on most of the tracks is somehow being equated by some listeners to reflect a colder, more intellectual stance? It's true this isn't music for dancing or even necessarily snapping fingers, but I don't think that equates to lack of emotion in any way.

 

digging out this thread 3 months into the year...anyone out there having a faint idea when Out To Lunch is going to be released? I have a batch order idling over at Acoustic Sounds, waiting to be shipped in full, due to the disproportionately high overseas shipping costs involved for small orders. In this light, what about Lee Morgan's Sidewinder?

 

Can't tell you when, only that it will definitely be worth the wait - however long it is. Out To Lunch is KILLER!!!

 

Thanks for digging up this thread. I had no idea that Out To Lunch is no longer out to lunch. I'm ordering straight away! This is my all time favorite record to not roller skate to. It's not for squares!

 

You're going to love it. Dolphy and the gang are alive in your room. This is the album to show off why we love audio so - it brings dead people back to life (if only for a while).

 

My Liberty era lp already does that. I'm looking forward to hearing this mastering. I'm sure it will smoke all other versions. Heck, I bought the McMaster lp version of Lee Morgan's Sidewinder, cut from the tape that Steve found, and I've been blown away by it's sound. I think I'll like Steve's version of both titles.