Eric Dolphy Rediscovered

The last album Coltrane recorded for Atlantic was Olé Coltrane, an underrated, and rarely played recording. Coltrane played with a sextet, the same size group which Miles had led when they recorded, for instance, Kind of Blue. Trane was still experimenting with different ensembles—for Africa Brass he used a large horn section; for the Village Vanguard sessions, he added an alto; and eventually he settled into the famous quartet that recorded much of his groundbreaking work of the early sixties.

In any event, this sextet features a terrific alto and flute player, reportedly named George Lane, who was otherwise unknown to me. And how exactly did an unknown horn player first get to record with John Coltrane, and then entirely disappear from the planet? It should have occurred to me much earlier, but I only recently learned that George Lane was, in reality, Eric Dolphy, who apparently was contractually prohibited from recording on Atlantic, at least under his true name. This is an especially exciting discovery, because there are very few recordings of Dolphy’s work. He is perhaps best known as the alto player on the Vanguard sessions, and there he seemed to push Coltrane to new and more creative frontiers. He also recorded around three albums in his own name. But because he died soon thereafter, he did not leave a large body of work; and I was happy to discover that I actually had another great example of his playing right there on the shelf, alongside all the other Coltrane CDs.

Meanwhile, it was another aggravating night in the Dome, notwithstanding the narrow win over Cincinnati. How exactly do we have a game where the team shoots over fifty percent from the field, and over eighty percent from the free-throw line, yet wins by only one point? When shooting that well, how did we surrender a nineteen point lead, and find ourselves down by three with around thirty seconds to go? One way to accomplish that is to commit lots of turnovers, and for the third time in only five conference games, the team had twenty or more turnovers. The leading turnover artist, perhaps even the turnover master, is our point guard Josh Wright. It’s so discouraging to watch him in these games, because his play is so selfish. His idea of running the offense is to dribble the ball seventy-five times before even attempting to pass. (That’s only if he doesn’t launch a three.) His passes are so infrequent that when he finally decides to give up the ball, he can’t quite get it to his teammate, at least not where the guy can do anything with it. D-Nic is open on the wing, but the pass is off the mark, so by the time he moves for the ball, and sets his feet again, the defender is all over him.

The other thing that has happened much of the year is that the team does not play with intensity for forty minutes. Early in the year, they had a pattern of falling way behind, and then struggling to catch up. Tonight, they were on fire for much of the first half, and then went to sleep for the final twenty minutes. They stopped pounding the ball inside; they settled for threes too easily; they stopped getting steals; and they let Cincinnati back into the game.

However, the good news was that, for the first time this year, they were able to win in the final couple minutes. They actually trailed by three with around 35 seconds to go, yet managed to win in regulation. When they had that chance against Wichita State, they couldn’t finish. When they fought back against Pitt, they couldn’t close the gap. So even though this game shouldn’t have been close, these close games help prepare the team for tournament time. Now I certainly don't want to jinx them, but it’s only the middle of January, and they have 15 wins; and if they keep playing well, they should have a chance to play in March. Now, if they can only figure out how not to turn the ball over so regularly.