There are musicians that expand not only what an instrument can sound like, but what music itself can sound like. Eric Dolphy was one. The instrument in question was the bass clarinet (although he also played alto sax and flute), and during his too-short career, he played it in ways that no one else had even imagined. He created a vocabulary that sounds adventurous even today. His 1964 recording Out to Lunch is rightly considered a jazz classic, as he and a stellar band (Richard Davis on bass, Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, Bobby Hutcherson on vibes, Tony Williams on drums) find just the right balance between freedom and discipline.

Records like this one remind us that jazz is a very open type of music in concept, and personally, I hope it stays that way. The extraordinary achievement that is this album proves that jazz can't (and shouldn't) be defined.

The album's opener, "Hat and Beard" with its 9/8 theme, is a tribute to Thelonius Monk (another musician to whom today's first sentence applies). Dolphy's solo is first: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tnPkQufnZY