The Out to Lunch Quintet @copy; Andera Canter

Eric Dolphy was a masterful composer, arranger and performer on multiple reeds. A favorite of Mingus and Coltrane, he was perhaps best known as the composer of avant-garde compositions using odd time signatures further pushed outside by his dissonant and unpredictable blowing style. Yet, Dolphy is not a popular icon of modern jazz, perhaps because musicians find his compositions difficult to play and because audiences find the music challenging to hear. But always up for a challenge, vibraphonist and St. Olaf instructor Dave Hagedorn brought a Dolphy chart to a performance at the Artists Quarter in early 2005. In the audience, Berryman was intrigued by sound of “Hat and Beard” (a favorite since his college days) and suggested that the entire Out to Lunch set would make an exciting performance, leading to a concert at St. Olaf (“Still Out to Lunch”) sponsored by the Twin Cities Jazz Society the following winter.

Dolphy was a particular virtuoso on bass clarinet and flute, and his “sidemen” were equally legendary—Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, Bobby Hutcherson on vibes, Richard Davis on bass and Tony Williams on drums. But that was then, and this is now. As Berryman emphasizes, the new ensemble does not exist “to try and duplicate Dolphy's band, but only to keep his music alive in live performance.” And the OTLQ brings together five Minnesota-based masters who individually and collectively give this project life, liberty, and the pursuit of 21^st century hipness: Dave Milne (reeds), Kelly Rossum (trumpet); Dave Hagedorn (vibes); Tom Lewis (bass); and Phil Hey (drums).

It is said that jazz is “never played the same way once.” Clearly that fits the original Out to Lunch, and just as clearly, it fits the new Out to Lunch Quintet. You can be sure that in Antonello Hall at MacPhail at 8 pm on April 16^th, the music will as fresh as it is hip.

Antonello Hall is located in the MacPhail Center for Music at 501 S. Second Street, Minneapolis; www.macphail.org. Tickets at the door, $10/$7 TCJS and students. CD available at www.otlq.com