The Blues and the Abstract Truth de Eric Dolphy

The Blues and the Abstract Truth és l'àlbum de jazz més aclamat d'Oliver Nelson gravat el febrer de 1961. Inclou una formació plena de grans músics: Freddie Hubbard, Eric Dolphy (en la seva última aparició a un àlbum de Nelson d'una sèrie de colaboracion gravades per Prestige), Bill Evans (en la seva única aparició amb Nelson), Paul Chambers i Roy Haynes. El saxofonista baríton George Barrow no fa cap solo però és una peça clau en el subtil joc de veus dels arranjaments de Nelson. L'àlbum és una exploració del mode i l'estructura del blues, tanmateix només alguns dels talls estan escrits en la forma convencional de 12 compassos del blues. In this regard, though it is not modal jazz, it may be seen as a continuation of the trend towards greater harmonic simplicity and subtlety via reimagined versions of the blues that was instigated by Miles Davis's Kind of Blue in 1959 (Evans and Chambers played on both albums). Of the pieces on Nelson's album, "Stolen Moments" is the most famous; it is a sixteen-bar piece (in an eight-six-two pattern), though the solos are on a conventional 12-bar minor-key blues structure in C minor. "Hoe-Down" is built on a forty-four-bar structure (with thirty-two-bar solos based on "rhythm changes"). "Cascades" modifies the traditional 32-bar AABA form by using a 16-bar minor blues for the A section, stretching the form to a total of 56 bars. The B-side of the album contains three tracks that hew closer to 12-bar form: "Yearnin'", "Butch and Butch" and "Teenie's Blues". Nelson's later album, More Blues and the Abstract Truth, features an entirely different band and bears little resemblance to this record. In 2008, pianist Bill Cunliffe released "The Blues and The Abstract Truth, Take 2", a tribute to the original album featuring new arrangements.