Eric Dolphy is one of my absolute favorite musicians. I’ve started to really dive into his catalogue. This led me to this wonderful LP on the superb New Jazz label which I’ve been exploring a lot lately. Ron Carter is the leader here but it’s just as much a Dolphy record for me. It’s very interesting jazz, like it always is when Dolphy is involved, you can always be sure of that.
The other musicians are Mal Waldron, who is one of my favorite pianists, George Duvivier on bass (Carter plays both bass and cello here) and the great Charlie Persip on drums whom I dig a lot. I love that Carter plays cello on this. I appreciate this instrument which is rarely used in jazz. I have another LP on which the cello is featured prominently and that would be the Doug Watkins led album “Soulnik”, also on New Jazz. I wrote a post about that record some months ago. Also, Eric Dolphy’s “Out There” on New Jazz features Ron Carter on cello exclusively. That one is high, high on the want list.
Like I mentioned, I’m exploring the New Jazz catalogue and there are a lot of gems to be found there. A lot of albums featuring Dolphy, Waldron, Byard, Haynes, all these wonderful musicians. So I can highly recommend browsing through all those records. Jaki Byard is another cat who has fast become another one of my absolute favorite pianists in jazz. His playing is so unique, interesting and brilliant. You never quite know where he’s going to take the music. A bit like Monk in that sense. He’s on several New Jazz titles and I’ve already secured one of the best just a week ago. Looking forward to trying to find the other stuff as well. I have the Dolphy album “Outward Bound” on New Jazz which he’s on, and also a couple of Mingus albums on Impulse!. Excited to explore his output further.
This album is truly great, consisting of a type of jazz which I really enjoy. It’s not your standard hard bop date. I can highly recommend this one and I hope you’ll look it up if you haven’t already. And please let me know your thoughts on it. Maybe you have some other favorite Ron Carter albums that you can recommend?
It’s difficult to find an original 1st pressing of this title with the beautiful textured cover, the wide deep groove, the Abbey pressing die ring on one side and Van Gelder stamps. So I’m extremely happy to have found this amazing copy.
I have been quite busy in securing some new titles lately so stay tuned for those coming up. The shipping dilemma during the pandemic I discussed previously has worked out great so far. I’ve been using FedEx, UPS and other express options and all the records have arrived fast and safe. I’ve stayed away from USPS.
Stay safe guys, enjoy the summer and your collections. Have a cold one and just enjoy some jazz. Cheers!