Warning! Those who do not like free form or anything like it should keep away. This record is free-form throughout, and moreover contains some startling sound effects, like the choking bass-clarinet passages in Something Sweet, and the bumblebee flute flights of Gazzelloni.
This is one of those records, there are plenty by now, which so infuriate some people that they can find no merit in them at all, not even as a source of humour. On the other hand, it is the work of formidably competent musicians – Freddie Hubbard we know a good deal better now than we did; Anthony Williams is a very impressive, hard working drummer; Hutcherson a vibes player who appears to do almost nothing obvious.
The leader, the late Eric Dolphy, is a man who displayed two completely different musical faces, and who, whatever we may feel about most of his work, forced himself by merit and musical personality rather than gimmickry, into public attention.
This record also forces attention. I do not like much of it, there is a curious corniness in some of the oriental effects, and the curious tonal sounds lack the humanity and verve of Roland Kirk, but all the same some of it is gripping. It calls out for attention and insists on it.
Discography
Hat And Beard; Something Sweet, Something Tender; Gazzelloni (21½ min) – Out To Lunch; Straight Up And Down (20 min)
Freddie Hubbard (tpt); Eric Dolphy (alt/flt/bs. clt); Bobby Hutcherson (vbs); Richard Davis (bs); Anthony Williams (d).
(Blue Note 4163 12inLP 45s. 3d.)
