WATTS FESTIVAL HONOR : TAPSCOTT PLANS TRIBUTE TO JAZZ GREAT DOLPHY

Horace Tapscott’s performance at the 10th annual Watts Towers Music and Arts Festival on Saturday will be a tribute to the late Eric Dolphy, the gifted alto saxophone/flute/bass clarinet player who died in 1964 at age 36. But the veteran pianist hopes to do more than celebrate the music and spirit of a departed jazz giant and close friend.

“The dedication and tribute will be to Eric and those that are still alive,” said Tapscott, 52, in his Crenshaw District home. “We’re trying to put that point over because Eric’s teachers and people who influenced him are still around here playing, alive and well.

“We shouldn’t have to wait until these people have died before we start listening to their music. It seems so strange to me that you can reach out and touch somebody but you wait until that seat is vacant before you reach out. Let’s give the roses to those who can smell them now.”

Acknowledging the ongoing contributions of the local jazz community is a longstanding campaign for Tapscott, who prefers the term Afro-American classic to describe his music. He was approached last year by festival organizers about staging the Dolphy tribute for this year’s two-day event reuniting many of the jazz and R&B; artists who participated in the first event a decade ago.

Tapscott’s performance with a 13-piece version of the Arkestra will feature two well-known Dolphy compositions, “Miss Ann” and “Les.” Another selection, “Jessica,” was written by Roy Porter, the first big-band leader to hire the youthful saxophonist in the late ‘40s.

Dolphy and Tapscott grew up in a tight circle of young musicians--including saxophonist Frank Morgan, trombonist Lester Robertson and drummer Lawrence Marable --caught up in the whirlwind of the local music scene at that time. Dolphy led his own small combos, picked up experience working in the big bands of Porter and Gerald Wilson and was heavily influenced by teachers Lloyd Reese and reedman Buddy Collette.

“You had all kind of instructors helping the younger players, and Eric was one of many that came through here,” Tapscott said. “He happened to be the one the writers caught hold to, that funny-playing guy from California that Chico Hamilton brought to New York.”

Dolphy first made a splash at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival with Hamilton, but his reputation grew when he began free-lancing around New York. He played in now-legendary groups led by John Coltrane and Charles Mingus and participated in many recording sessions, including those for Ornette Coleman’s controversial “Free Jazz” album.

He recorded extensively as a leader, most frequently for Prestige, but his reputation rested more on his formidable improvisational ability than as a composer. His inventiveness and versatility--aside from his quicksilver alto sax and flute runs, he established the unwieldy bass clarinet as a jazz instrument--made him an ideal foil for other musicians. But the Eric Dolphy hailed as a major innovator now was no different from the musician Tapscott remembers playing with in Los Angeles.

“The way Eric played to the day he died was the way he played when he was younger,” he said. “He was the kind of artist who would paint the things he had seen and try to describe it to you on canvas his way.”

Dolphy never led a regular working band in the United States. After a tour with Charles Mingus, he stayed in Europe to take advantage of greater work opportunities there but died suddenly--reportedly from an undiagnosed case of diabetes--in Berlin in 1964.

His records have been extensively reissued since his death but that is bittersweet solace to Tapscott. The pianist is more concerned with breaking the pattern that offers only posthumous recognition for innovators like Dolphy.

“Eric was struggling as far as he was concerned, trying to work those gigs in New York and expand his musical knowledge,” Tapscott said. “I do believe that had Eric been alive, he wouldn’t have been listened to the way he’s listened to now.

“You know that’s not correct but how do you go about changing it? That’s what the tribute ought to be about: How do we go about changing these tributes under the circumstances that we are having them.”

The schedule for the 10th annual Watts Tower Music and Arts Festival:

Saturday

10:30 a.m., opening ceremony; 11 a.m., Roger Hamilton Spotts Big Band; 11:45 a.m., Washington High School Jazz Band; 12:30 p.m., tribute to Eric Dolphy with Horace Tapscott; 1:30 p.m., Billy Higgins Quintet; 2:15 p.m., Etta James; 3 p.m., Jazz Giants featuring Harry (Sweets) Edison, Jimmy Rowles, Red Callendar, Tootie Heath, Ernie Andrews; 3:45-6 p.m., Johnny Otis Rhythm & Blues Reunion featuring Shuggie Otis, the Marvelettes, the Olympics, Richard Berry, Cardella DiMilo, Barbara Morrison and Charles Williams; 4 p.m., Jazz Rap with Red Callendar and Ernie Andrews.

Sunday

11:30 a.m., Babalade Olamina; 12:15 p.m., Black Belt Symphony; 1 p.m.; Dorothy Donegan; 1:45 p.m.; Bobby Matos & the Heritage Ensemble; 2:30 p.m., Donald Byrd; 3:15 p.m., Hank Ballard & Midnighters; 4 p.m., Taj Mahal; 4:45-6 p.m., Gospel Roots featuring Charles Williams, the Clara Ward Singers, Richard Berry, Etta James, Hank Ballard, Johnny Otis and others.