1962 · Album
Far Cry
Recorded 1962 · New Jazz Records · Produced by Not verifiable from provided source
Three Sessions, One Extraordinary Day
Dolphy recorded Far Cry the same day he played on Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz—a snapshot of jazz at a crucial moment.
In 1962, Eric Dolphy was everywhere. He'd just played on Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz session, and that same day he went into the studio to cut Far Cry (1962). The day before, he'd been working on the Jazz Abstractions project. This wasn't scattered energy—it was a musician at the center of everything happening in jazz, moving between the avant-garde experiments and the hard bop world without breaking stride.
Far Cry is a quintet date co-led with trumpeter Booker Little, and it matters because recordings of these two together are rare. The rhythm section—Jaki Byard on piano, Ron Carter on bass, and Roy Haynes on drums—had worked with Dolphy before, so there's an ease in the pocket even when the music gets exploratory. Byard's always got something interesting going on, restless and inventive. Carter's bass is clean and modern. Haynes keeps things moving without overdoing it. The real point is watching Dolphy and Little talk to each other: Little had a sharp, biting tone and wasn't afraid to play angular lines, and Dolphy meets him there with the same willingness to color outside the lines.
This album sits in the middle of Dolphy's catalog—not his most famous work, but important for what it shows about his range. If you're coming to Dolphy fresh, start with something like Out to Lunch or Out There—those are easier entry points. Far Cry is solid, inventive small-group jazz that rewards attention, especially if you care about how hard bop was starting to flex and bend in the early sixties. It's the sound of a moment when the music could go anywhere.
Who's playing
Where next?
More by Eric Dolphy
All 12 albums →
The musicians on this record
At the Five Spot, Volume 1 1961
Booker Little
plays trumpet here
plays trumpet here
Where? 1961
Ron Carter
plays double bass here
plays double bass here
Cracklin’ 1963
Roy Haynes
plays drums (drum set) here
plays drums (drum set) here
Parisian Solos 1971
Jaki Byard
plays piano here
plays piano here
