Dolphin Dance

George Coleman (tenor sax), Freddie Hubbard (trumpet), Herbie Hancock (piano), Ron Carter (bass) and Tony Williams (drums). From the album Maiden Voyage (1965).

Tony Williams was an American jazz drummer whose musical career lasted almost 35 years. He became famous with the Miles Davis Quintet and was a pioneer of jazz fusion. He first played with Sam Rivers and in 1962 moved to New York to play with Jackie McLean. In 1963, at the age of 17, he joined the Miles Davis group. With his creative interpretation he redefined the role of the jazz rhythm section using polyrhythms and metric modulation. In 1964 he participated in Eric Dolphy’s album Out to Lunch and in 1969 he left Davis.

Williams liked avant-garde and rock, so that same year he formed the jazz fusion group Lifetime, a trio with John McLaughlin and Larry Young who recorded their first album Emergency! and dissolved. In 1975 he formed the band again with other components and recorded two more albums. In 1976 he joined Herbie Hancock’s V.S.O.P. group with his former colleagues of the mid-1960s Miles Davis Quintet, except that the latter was replaced by Freddie Hubbard, and toured and recorded for several years. In the mid-1980s he created his own hard bop band and continued playing until the early 1990s. He died in 1997 of a heart attack at the age of 51.

This is a friendly and carefree theme that puts a smile on your face from ear to ear. Hubbard enters with a dynamic and inspired solo with expressive phrases. Coleman follows him with a captivating improvisation and very good ideas that he conveys through the saxophone with amazing clarity. Next Hancock comes in with a sweet and melodious solo that makes you feel good about yourself. To conclude, the group re-exposes the theme with as carefully as before and Williams plays the cymbals at the end.