Striving . . .

In a pocket-neighborhood sandwiched between the rolling hills of a 100 acre cemetery and a can manufacturing factory stood the rows upon rows of little brick houses joined at the hip, providing shelter for a multitude of lower, middle-class and mostly blue-collar families, straddling the border of the 'big' city to the west. It was here that our protagonist lived the initial twenty-two years of his life learning about the world, in general, and learning about music. It's only now, after the passing of an additional thirty-eight, and additional learning about the world, in general, and about music, that he speaks through the music, as if it were second nature or even purely instinctual, about events, observations, people, places, emotions, wants, needs, pleasures and pains that have transpired throughout the entire period. Only now, the process of codifying, recording or documenting, if you will, the vignettes of music and lyrics, has somehow become more difficult whether due to a dearth of uncommitted hours or simply an impediment brought about by advancing years or even waning talent. It's not that a desire does not lie beneath the surface of a, what some may label, mundane existence, because surely he does not view his presence on this orb mundane by any means.  It seems that the entire process is interrupted, more often than not, by other things and that although the intent is to return to that divine pass-time to complete individual, pre-meditated works, the reality is that only on rare occasions is completion now actually accomplished. He does, however, spontaneously create constantly and prolifically, telling tales of bold, juvenile adventures, characters of shady as well as honorable reputations, encounters with wonders of nature, lessons culled from a multitude of days now spent an memories which elicit a gamut of emotions both mature and not. 

Way It Is

©2016 Raymond M. Jozwiak

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Striving . . .

. . . for something . . . but not always being able to explain exactly what . . .



(from http://www.furious.com/perfect/ericdolphy2.html)
 . . . "Eric was a very, very gifted musician and a very nice guy on top of it," McCoy Tyner told me in a recent interview. "He had a very personal approach to playing and enjoyed expanding the limits of imagination. Eric played so many instruments, his pockets were bulging with all these mouthpieces," McCoy said chuckling at the memory. "He was the first guy to come on as a guest with the band. At the time he came along he was doing his own thing and made a tremendous impression. We felt that the quartet was self-contained. Jimmy, Elvin and I felt that we had built something and were still on that journey. We didn't exactly understand where John was going in terms of adding Eric. We were like little kids in a sense like this is our band and we want to keep it that way. But then again it wasn't like we didn't want to share our experience. John was the leader and he was the one that made the final decisions. He decided that maybe if I do this, this will cause something else to happen. And it did! They played so differently. Eric added another dimension to the sound. John never rested on his laurels. He was like a scientist in the laboratory always searching for something new or different. By adding Eric he was expanding the music. John and Eric had a very different type of life experience. Eric had a very academic approach. He studied a lot. John coming from the South had that real gutsy approach. His father was a minister and his grandfather was a minister. He spent a lot of time in church and you could hear that in the music. At the same time there were points where the two met and could make something very interesting happen."

"Eric added a very interesting component to the music," McCoy continued. "John believed in what Eric was doing. He wanted to help him. At the same time he wanted to open the music up. It was a very good experience for Eric as well, being surrounded by the quartet. Ole was one of the highlights of Eric's presence. He had his own approach to the bass clarinet. He had personal things he would do on the instrument and got sounds out of it that you normally didn't hear on a bass clarinet. He was very animated and very enthusiastic.". . . (Note:  Be patient. Eric's solo starts at about 4:07)

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