Eric Dolphy Tribute Concert

Bassist Antar Martin has a thing for music.  All kinds of music, but specifically for the music Eric Dolphy.  On a rather normal night in San Diego, CA, The Antar Martin Aggregation took the stage at The UCSD Loft.   In the band that was Antar Martin – Bass, Matt Smith – Drums, Ian Harland – Vibes, Derek Cannon – Trumpet, and man in the hotseat, Jesse Audelo on all the wind instruments.  The group was tight, well rehearsed, and clearly motivated.  I feel their goal was to provide a fun, honest and high energy tribute to originator.  I arrived a little after 9pm and found the room filled near capacity.  Almost every table and booth was filled with patrons.

For those who are not familiar with the music of Eric Dolphy, he was an American musician during the 1960’s.  He is commonly associated with the avant gardé and considered a master multi-instrumentalist.  Other than that, the best thing I can offer you is to go listen for yourself! Here is what Antar Martin, a man of few words, had to say about Eric Dolphy.

“The thing that I think sets Eric Dolphy apart fart from other musicians is his seriousness about music. He helped people the same way they helped him music grow.  Out To Lunch really opened my imagination. The last three songs on Out To Lunch have no form outside of the melody, which really leaves the music entirely up to the moment and it’s yours to do whatever you want with it. 

My approach for recreating his art is simply in honoring his music by playing it and giving our interpretation of his music, based on what we know about music and how he approached it. I was telling my guys the other night when we were rehearsing, there is no need to imitate anyone’s sound. Take what you’re hearing, use that as inspiration to help you along the way to make the music sound awesome.”   Antar Martin, 2015 ©

The Antar Martin Aggregation performs at The UCSD Loft.

As I’ve said before, a good litmus test of the musical integrity is who is in the crowd.  There were plenty of local musicians in the room to check out the musical happenings and support Antar.  Pianists Ed Korhouser and Jarrit Sheel, bassist Mack Leighton, and guitarist Louis Valenzula to name a few.

Do you have anything you would like me to check out?  Leave a comment below and I’ll try to feature it on the blog.  Please subscribe to my Youtube channel and thanks for reading.

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