The trumpet and flugelhorn player Dr. EDDIE HENDERSON (also known in Mwandishi circles as Mganga) received his first casual trumpet lesson from Louis Armstrong when he was nine years old, then went on, as a teenager, to study at the San Francisco Conservatory of music and performed with their symphony orchestra. MILES DAVIS was a friend of the family (his step-father being Davis' doctor), and Henderson first met him in 1957. Davis, who was impressed, encouraged Henderson to pursue a career in music.
Out to Lunch stands as Eric Dolphy's magnum opus, an absolute pinnacle of avant-garde jazz in any form or era. Its rhythmic complexity was perhaps unrivaled since Dave Brubeck's Time Out, and its five Dolphy originals - the jarring Monk tribute "Hat and Beard," the aptly titled "Something Sweet, Something Tender," the weirdly jaunty flute showcase "Gazzelloni," the militaristic title track, the drunken lurch of "Straight Up and Down" - were a perfect balance of structured frameworks, carefully calibrated timbres, and generous individual freedom. Much has been written about Dolphy's odd time signatures, wide-interval leaps, and flirtations with atonality. And those preoccupations reach their peak on Out to Lunch, which is less rooted in bop tradition than anything Dolphy had ever done…
Out to Lunch stands as Eric Dolphy's magnum opus, an absolute pinnacle of avant-garde jazz in any form or era. Its rhythmic complexity was perhaps unrivaled since Dave Brubeck's Time Out, and its five Dolphy originals - the jarring Monk tribute "Hat and Beard," the aptly titled "Something Sweet, Something Tender," the weirdly jaunty flute showcase "Gazzelloni," the militaristic title track, the drunken lurch of "Straight Up and Down" - were a perfect balance of structured frameworks, carefully calibrated timbres, and generous individual freedom. Much has been written about Dolphy's odd time signatures, wide-interval leaps, and flirtations with atonality. And those preoccupations reach their peak on Out to Lunch, which is less rooted in bop tradition than anything Dolphy had ever done. But that sort of analytical description simply doesn't do justice to the utterly alien effect of the album's jagged soundscapes…
Norman Connors delivered some of the finest jazz fusion of the 1970s, often integrated with vocalists and soloists he would discover and send on their way to significant solo success. After touring as drummer with Pharaoh Sanders and featuring on five of his albums, Norman landed at Buddah Records in 1972 then after the acquisition of Buddah by Arista in the late 70s he arrived at the main Arista imprint in 1980 and delivered these two classic albums Take It To The Limit and Mr.C, the pinnacle of his work as a musician, co-ordinator, and producer of live music pre the dawn of programmed drumming and keyboard replicaters.