Bobby Hutcherson made Out to Lunch about the weirdest vibraphone showcase ever. Williams isn't the only one avoiding the obvious. On "Hat and Beard," the title a nod to Thelonious Monk, Williams finds myriad ways to provoke Dolphy's yawping bass clarinet, an instrument Dolphy had pretty much to himself as a soloist. Williams is already testing that idea on Out to Lunch, rethinking the drum set's components his hi-hat alone makes this one of his classics. The following year, Williams would propose to Davis' band that they play "anti-music" - the opposite of what anyone would expect. The heart of Out to Lunch is its singular vibes-bass-and-drums rhythm trio, starting with Miles Davis' 18-year-old drum wonder Tony Williams. He improvised with that same kind of angular energy, and an excitable tone like a goosed goose. His composition " Straight Up and Down" was inspired by the careful walk of a drunk striving to stay upright. The organized mayhem starts with Dolphy's tunes, often featuring wide, wide leaps in the melody and ratchet-gear rhythms. Half a century later it still sounds crazy in a good way. But none sounds as far ahead of its time as Eric Dolphy's masterpiece Out to Lunch, recorded for Blue Note on Feb. 1964 was a great year for cutting-edge jazz records like Albert Ayler's Spiritual Unity, John Coltrane's A Love Supreme and Andrew Hill's Point of Departure.
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