Out To Lunch (vinyl)

Out to Lunch! is a 1964 album by jazz multi-instrumentalist Eric Dolphy. His only recording for Blue Note as a leader, it was originally issued as BLP 4163 and BST 84163. Today it is generally considered one of the finest albums in the label's history, as well as one of the high points in 1960s avant-garde jazz and in Dolphy's discography. Tony Williams had turned 18 a few months (75 days) before this recording, and is listed as "Anthony Williams" on the album cover. A few months after recording the album, Dolphy completed a European tour with Charles Mingus. He died shortly thereafter of diabetic shock.

The title of the album's first track, "Hat and Beard", refers to Thelonious Monk; the song contains a famous percussive interlude featuring Tony Williams and Bobby Hutcherson. "Something Sweet, Something Tender" includes a noteworthy duet between Richard Davis on bass and Dolphy on bass clarinet. The third composition, "Gazzelloni", was named after classical flautist Severino Gazzelloni, but is otherwise the album's most conventional, bop-based theme. The second side features two long pieces for alto saxophone: the title track, and "Straight Up and Down", intended, according to the original liner notes, to evoke a drunken stagger.