Freddie Hubbard (trumpet); Eric Dolphy (alto sax/bass clarinet/flute); Bobby Hutcherson (vibes); Richard Davis (bass); Anthony Williams (drums)
I have to own up, despite the high regard this record is held in by many, it's never been one of my favourites and I hate to think how many years it is since I bought it. If I have played it twice in that time then this is the second time.
Listening again I can understand my initial revulsion. What I can't understand is why it now seems acceptable to me! Possibly because what seemed outrageous in 1964 or whenever I actually bought it has, in the ensuing years, become, for better or for worse, firmly embedded in the contemporary jazz vocabulary. Indeed there are fleeting moments when it sounds almost mainstream.
Dolphy is without doubt a fine instrumentalist capable of holding his own in more conventional settings e.g. Oliver Nelson's Prestige album Screaming the Blues being a good example. On this one he is much more outré.
The others are all A-listers and, once I got my head around it (or out of the sand some might say), I found myself wanting to listen again - Damascus here I come, I'm only 56 years late!
Lance
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