An Apex of Innovation: John Coltrane & Eric Dolphy Together in 1961

An Apex of Innovation: John Coltrane & Eric Dolphy Together in 1961

By Fritz Byers

You – we -- can’t imagine the stature John Coltrane had in jazz and the broader culture at the dawn of the 1960s. His defining mythos would eventually be formed by how he would use the seven years he had left – he passed in July 1967, at the age of 40 – and the overtly spiritual quest he undertook as he pushed the limits of jazz tonality and harmonic logic further and further out. Late Coltrane is not for everyone, but it is a crucial part of the evolution of the music.

But I’m thinking now of how John was positioned at the outset of that decade: having defined hard-bop as part of Miles Davis’s first great quintet; having played a central role in the pathbreaking recording Kind of Blue; having composed and recorded “Giant Steps,” an intricate a masterpiece that, all these years later, music theorists still struggle to explain and rising saxophonists still labor to assay; and having revitalized both the soprano saxophone and a previously dissed show ditty with his wildly popular recording of “My Favorite Things.”

If ever it could be said that someone as culturally marginal as a jazz musician stood atop Olympus, surveying a bountiful world both above and below, it was John Coltrane in 1961.

But one of the marvels of the man is his restlessness, his ceaseless pursuit of growth, innovation, transformation. So for an extended stint at the fabled Greenwich Village club, The Village Gate, John invited the multi-reed great, Eric Dolphy (a near contemporary of John’s, but nowhere near his prominence other than among the cognoscenti, who revered him), to join his quartet, which comprised, in addition to John, the pianist McCoy Tyner, the nonpareil drummer Elvin Jones, and, on the bass, Reggie Workman. On the record, bassist Art Davis joins for one tune.

The quintet settled into the Gate for an extended stay in August and early September 1961. For the sixty years since, fans both casual and expert have wondered what in the world those geniuses must have gotten up to. Happy news: not long ago, recordings of the performances were discovered in the vast holdings of the New York Library for Performing Arts. Lovingly engineered at the time by Rich Alderson, they have now been released. Any analogy I could draw – a legendary lost Picasso; a new deep-sea scroll; you pick – would misdirect the discussion. Let’s just say this: Evenings at the Village Gate: John Coltrane with Eric Dolphy is an artistic treasure not to be missed.

Five tracks, eighty minutes. Not a wasted second, note, or beat. John reprises “My Favorite Things,” as he did so many times in performance. I can never get enough of the tune in John’s hands and this version is special, with Eric’s lightly dancing flute providing a prelude that seems to occupy a parallel universe from what we’ve become accustomed to hearing John tease out of the tune. But once John and the band enter, you’ll be on familiar terrain, although it’s well worth listening to how they traverse it.

The date concludes with John’s “Africa,” from his too-often-neglected Africa/Brass session. I’m not aware of another live recording of the tune, and we’re lucky to have this one. It presents one of McCoy Tyner’s most enthralling solos on record, and a Reggie Workman solo that conveys both his mastery and his questing nature, which, having seen him in performance several times late last decade (he’s now well into his 80s), continues to drive him.

Eric Dolphy defined and then constantly redefined jazz vocabulary on bass clarinet. On “When Lights Are Low,” Benny Carter’s evergreen, Eric earns his pride of place with a solo of great inventiveness. Every time I hear a recording of Eric, I feel a renewed sadness at his needless death in 1964 at the age of 36. I can’t bear to recount the absurd tragedy again. Everything Eric did was in furtherance of his beautiful and challenging conception of the future paths available for jazz. These 80 minutes are precious, and they add measurably to a legacy already crammed with Eric’s imaginative brilliance and virtuosity on all three of his chosen instruments, alto saxophone, bass clarinet, and flute.

Everyone knows about ‘Trane. You may already have heard enough to have formed your opinion. This spectacular release may not change your mind. But it documents one of the most important and fertile moments in the long history of the music. It left me feeling melancholy, giddy, and thankful.