Don Byron, Matthew Shipp and many more gather for Eric Dolphy: Freedom of Sound festival in New York

In May 2014, just shy of the 60th anniversary of Eric Dolphy’s tragic (and completely preventable) death in Berlin at only 36, Seed Artists, a presenting arts organisation founded by drummer Pheeroan akLaff, presented a two-day festival, Eric Dolphy: Freedom of Sound, fêting the seminal saxophonist/flutist/bass clarinetist/composer.           

A decade on and Seed Artists reprised the event at The New School’s Tishman Auditorium with some original participants – akLaff, composer James Newton, clarinetist Don Byron, pianist Angelica Sanchez and tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis – alongside a new cohort of players. It should be noted that the dates, 1 and 2 June, are significant as they were when Dolphy was in Netherlands shortly before his death, producing his final studio recording.

Dolphy’s legacy continues to fascinate. Apart from some early documents with big bands in 1949 released long after his passing, he was active on record for less than six years. But his contributions in that short span were enormous: not only his handful of albums for Prestige and Blue Note but also his mammoth input to the groups of Chico Hamilton, Charles Mingus and John Coltrane and appearances on classic albums by Ornette Coleman, John Lewis, Oliver Nelson, Ron Carter, Gil Evans, Andrew Hill, Booker Little, Abbey Lincoln, George Russell, Max Roach, Mal Waldron and others.

The festival curation deftly and creatively investigated all aspects of his artistry. The instrumentalist was conjured by the Don Byron Bass Clarinet Quartet and The Dolphy Trio of alto saxophonist Darius Jones, flautist Nicole Mitchell and bass clarinetist JD Parran. The composer came via The New School Dolphy Ensemble, vibraphonist Patricia Brennan, The Dolphy String Quartet of Tom Chiu, Conrad Harris, Kimberly Foster and Mariel Roberts and banjo player Eugene Chadbourne. Jam sessions Dolphy had with Cecil Taylor (in the pianist’s therapist’s office no less) were commemorated twice with alto saxophonist Rob Brown and pianist Matthew Shipp and Mitchell and pianist Craig Taborn. His spirit inspired a new work by Lewis and a performance of the late Geri Allen’s “Celebration Ensemble Suite for Eric Dolphy” led by Sanchez. One of Dolphy’s surviving collaborators, bassist Reggie Workman, presented a musical theater piece and he, Mitchell and Newton led a symposium on Dolphy’s music and influence. In between sets, short video testimonials from Dolphy’s peers, heirs and admirers were screened.

The first day began with The New School Dolphy Ensemble, led by akLaff and including dancer Mio Yamasaki, straightforward and admiring but elevated by the unique voice of bassist Kayla Kessler and a duet of Mehrnam Rastegari on kamancheh and Jay Rodriguez on flute.

Brown and Shipp (pictured above - photo by Robert I. Sutherland-Cohen) improvised two pieces for their half-hour slot; neither bear much resemblance to Dolphy or Taylor stylistically so it was more a continuation of a conversation they started nearly 40 years ago, one marked by intimacy, abstraction and even the occasional romantic flair.

The oddest inclusion on paper turned out to be one of the festival highlights. While Dolphy had worked with vibraphonists, most notably Bobby Hutcherson on Out To Lunch, having a solo performance felt odd but only for a few moments before Brennan’s entrancing, completely non-idiomatic approach to her instrument transfixed the room. For 31 minutes, Brennan planted tiny seeds of Dolphy’s themes and watered them with expert control of dynamics, compelling electronic embellishment and, most importantly, reverence for the spirit of the creator.

The bass clarinet quartet, on the other hand, completed by JD Parran, Rob DeBellis and Todd Marcus, felt too rigid with six pieces in short, very arranged interpretations, constraining somewhat the wonderful textural possibilities though Byron did expand the proceedings by including one of his works and two by another noted saxophonist/flutist in Pixinguinha.

The Dolphy Trio was a brilliant idea, splitting up the dedicatee into his component instruments, played by three of the best modern proponents. Jones, Mitchell and Parran played two Dolphy pieces within an improvisation, combining the gravitas of a chamber recital with the grit and extended techniques of avant garde jazz, passages of both beauty and pain, Mitchell chanting “Eric” and “Dolphy” between her lines at one point.

The final performance of the evening was Workman (who also played percussion) with Jen Shyu on gayageum (Korean zither) and vocals, Jason Kao Hwang on violin and viola and daughter Ayana Workman (pictured above - photo by Robert I. Sutherland-Cohen) reciting and acting out texts by her mother Maya Workman. While the musical aspect was quite interesting – an interdisciplinary variation on a string trio – it was hard to connect it to the words and movement, which felt like it was happening in front of rather than within the band.

On the second day, Chiu presented string quartet arrangements of three Dolphy scores housed in the Library of Congress to which he was given access, moving from delicacy and angularity to folksy ballad and an almost regimental dance, capturing so many of Dolphy’s facets and extrapolating directions he may have taken if he had lived.

Chadbourne was also given the opportunity for direct study via Dolphy’s notebooks. These included chromatic scales he used for practice and that Chadbourne adapted as tunings for his banjo and melodic sketches he transmogrified into frenetic readings, most notably the theme from the ‘50s TV show Sea Hunt.

Lewis with cornet player Kirk Knuffke, bassist Chris Lightcap and drummer Chad Taylor played his ‘For the Love of Eric Dolphy’, which began with a line reminiscent of Dolphy’s famed solo readings of ‘God Bless The Child’ and wove in other fanfares and intervallic explorations into a nearly-40-minute exposition made extra special by the leader’s Archie Shepp-like intensity.

Mitchell and Taborn made for a more direct connection to Dolphy and Taylor without mimicking either, channeling spirit rather than style. Extended flute techniques and stabbing piano were applied to bluesy stretches and raucous dialogues, one piece gorgeously closing out with unison trills.

To close the festival, Sanchez presented only the third rendition of Allen’s composition (the first two came in 1989). With no scores to be found, Sanchez had to transcribe the entire thing from a YouTube video. The band included one original member in akLaff, plus Lewis, Taylor, Rodriguez (bass clarinet, flute), Jaleel Shaw (alto and soprano), TK Blue (alto, flute), Amir ElSaffar (trumpet), Kalia Vandever (trombone) and Devon Gates (bass). The piece was driven along by the two drummers, whose approaches were so different as to feel like an entire drum line, included a great flute duet between Rodriguez and Blue, Lewis evoking Interstellar Space with Taylor and akLaff as his partners, the opportunity to hear ElSaffar in a strict jazz context, Gates unable to stop smiling with all the firepower around her and a full-band blowout to close.