Eric Dolphy

The Latin Jazz Quinte & Eric Dolphy – Caribé (1961/2019) [Official Digital Download 24bit/352,8kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · November 5, 2023 · Comments off

Caribé is an album by the Latin Jazz Quintet with Eric Dolphy that was recorded in 1960 and released on the New Jazz label in February 1961.

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John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy – Evenings At The Village Gate: John Coltrane with Eric Dolphy (Live) (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · August 17, 2023 · Comments off

Whenever previously unreleased material by John Coltrane is discovered, it’s an event. On Evenings at the Village Gate, Coltrane and his superb band are joined by Eric Dolphy, which makes for essential listening.

The album was recorded at the famous Greenwich Village club in 1961 on a single microphone; producer and sound engineer Rich Alderson was checking out the sound system and testing a new mic, not intentionally recording an LP. The instrumental balance on the unearthed tapes isn’t flawless, but that’s a quibble: the overall sound and room tone are good, and the music stuns.

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Ron Carter, Eric Dolphy, Mal Waldron – Where? (1961/2014) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · August 11, 2023 · Comments off

Ron Carter, who came to prominence as the bassist for Miles Davis’s second great quintet in the 1960s, made his first date as a leader with 1961’s „Where?“. The band features the great Eric Dolphy on flute, saxophone, and bass clarinet, drummer Charlie Persip, pianist Mal Waldron, and bassist George Duvivier (who engages in occasional dialogue with Carter’s cello).

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Eric Dolphy – At The Five Spot, Vol.1 (1961) [APO Remaster 2018] SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

SACD / DSD By admin · January 23, 2023 · Comments off

After having left the ensemble of Charles Mingus and upon working with John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy formed a short-lived but potent quintet with trumpeter Booker Little, who would pass away three months after this recording. Despite all of the obstacles and subsequent tragedy, this quintet became legendary over the years – justifiably so – and developed into a role model for all progressive jazz combos to come. The combined power of Dolphy and Little – exploring overt but in retrospect not excessive dissonance and atonality – made them a target for critics but admired among the burgeoning progressive post-bop scene. With the always stunning shadings of pianist Mal Waldron, the classical-cum-daring bass playing of Richard Davis, and the colorful drumming of alchemistic Ed Blackwell, there was no stopping this group.

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Eric Dolphy – Out There (1960) [Reissue 2003] SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

SACD / DSD By admin · January 23, 2023 · Comments off

The follow-up album to Outward Bound, Eric Dolphy’s second effort for the Prestige/New Jazz label (and later remastered by Rudy Van Gelder) was equally praised and vilified for many reasons. At a time when the “anti-jazz” tag was being tossed around, Dolphy’s nonlinear, harshly harmonic music gave some critics grist for the grinding mill. A second or third listen to Dolphy’s music reveals an unrepentant shadowy side, but also depth and purpose that were unprecedented and remain singularly unique. The usage of bassist George Duvivier and cellist Ron Carter (an idea borrowed from Dolphy’s days with Chico Hamilton) gives the music its overcast color base, in many ways equally stunning and uninviting. Dolphy’s ideas must be fully embraced, taken to heart, and accepted before listening. The music reveals the depth of his thought processes while also expressing his bare-bones sensitive and kind nature. The bluesy “Serene,” led by Carter alongside Dolphy’s bass clarinet, and the wondrous ballad “Sketch of Melba” provide the sweetest moments, the latter tune identified by the fluttery introspective flute of the leader, clearly indicating where latter-period musicians like James Newton initially heard what would form their concept. Three pieces owe alms to Charles Mingus: his dark, moody, doleful, melodic, and reluctant composition “Eclipse”; the co-written (with Dolphy) craggy and scattered title track featuring Dolphy’s emblematic alto held together by the unflappable swing of drummer Roy Haynes; and “The Baron,” the leader’s dark and dirty, wise and willful tribute to his former boss, accented by a choppy and chatty solo from Carter. “17 West,” almost a post-bop standard, is briefly tonal with a patented flute solo and questioning cello inserts, while the unexpected closer written by Hale Smith, “Feathers,” is a haunting, soulful ballad of regret where Dolphy’s alto is more immediately heard in the foreground. A somber and unusual album by the standards of any style of music, Out There explores Dolphy’s vision in approaching the concept of tonality in a way few others – before, concurrent, or after – have ever envisioned.

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Eric Dolphy – Out There (1960) [Analogue Productions 2018] SACD ISO + DSF DSD64 + Hi-Res FLAC

SACD / DSD By admin · January 23, 2023 · Comments off

Out There is a 1960 jazz album by Eric Dolphy. It was Dolphy’s second album released as band leader, following his time with Charles Mingus. The album features four original compositions by Dolphy, one of which is a collaborative effort with Mingus. The album also features three covers, “Eclipse” by Mingus, “Sketch of Melba” by Randy Weston and “Feathers” by Hale Smith. The cover features a painting by Richard Jennings, referred to as “the Prophet” in Dolphy’s album, At the Five Spot.

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Eric Dolphy – Out to Lunch! (1964/2012) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · January 17, 2023 · Comments off

Originally issued as Blue Note BLP 4163 (mono) and BST 84163 (stereo)

High Resolution Mastering by Alan Yoshida and Robin Lynn at Blanche DuBois, April 2012

“In preparing these hi def remasters, we were very conscientious about maintaining the feel of the original releases while adding a previously unattainable transparency and depth. It now sounds like you’ve set up your chaise lounge right in the middle of Rudy Van Gelder’s studio!” – Blue Note President, Don Was.

Out to Lunch, Dolphy’s sole recording for Blue Note represented a pinnacle moment in avant-garde jazz. Poised with intriguing improvisation, this compelling listen would become a staple in the jazz canon. The album made a bold statement with its stunning instrumentation, ranging from alto sax to bass clarinet. This essential recording included a breathtaking tribute to Thelonious Monk.

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Eric Dolphy – Out There (1960/2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · January 17, 2023 · Comments off

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Eric Dolphy – Out There (1960/2014) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · January 17, 2023 · Comments off

Out There was the second album for the Prestige subsidiary New Jazz by the inestimable multi-reedman/composer Eric Dolphy (1928-1964). It was in every way stunning—from the eerie cover painting to the starkly beautiful colors of an ensemble consisting of reeds, cello, bass, and drums, to the ways in which the compositions (four by Dolphy) fused bebop solos and ever-expanding freebop harmonies with contemporary classical chamber works.

This was a deeply personal statement by a musician who in 1960 was beginning to establish himself as one of the most expressive instrumental voices of his time. Dolphy and young Ron Carter, heard here on cello rather than bass, interact throughout with a closeness bordering on the extrasensory, and on Charles Mingus’s “Eclipse” and especially Hale Smith’s “Feathers,” Dolphy produces two of the most moving performances of a life that ended all too soon.

Recorded August 15, 1960 at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

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Eric Dolphy – Musical Prophet – The Expanded 1963 New York Studio Sessions (2019) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · January 17, 2023 · Comments off

Musical Prophet: The Expanded 1963 New York Studio Sessions is the first official release of previously unissued Eric Dolphy studio recordings in over 30 years! This release of over 158 minutes of music contains the under-appreciated masterpiece albums Conversations and Iron Man, recorded in New York City in July of 1963. Originally produced by Alan Douglas with 85 minutes of extremely rare, previously-unissued recordings from the sessions, the tapes had been stored in a suitcase with Dolphy’s personal belongings and given to friends Hale and Juanita Smith before he embarked on his fateful European trip in 1964. Five decades later, the suitcase was given to flutist/educator James Newton, who then connected with Zev Feldman at Resonance and began working on this definitive edition of Dolphy’s 1963 New York studio sessions with the only copies of the tapes known to exist.

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Eric Dolphy – Eric Dolphy (1968) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · January 17, 2023 · Comments off

Eric Allan Dolphy Jr. (June 20, 1928 – June 29, 1964) was an American jazz alto saxophonist, bass clarinetist and flautist.On a few occasions, he also played the clarinet and piccolo. Dolphy was one of several multi-instrumentalists to gain prominence around the time that he was active. His use of the bass clarinet helped to establish the instrument within jazz. Dolphy extended the vocabulary and boundaries of the alto saxophone, and was among the earliest significant jazz flute soloists.

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Eric Dolphy – At the Five Spot, Vol. 2 (1961/2014) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · January 17, 2023 · Comments off

In mid-July of 1961, the New York Times reported that the city-home of the Five Spot, where this short-lived quintet played its one and only engagement-was experiencing warmer than usual temperatures. Pianos hate extremes of temperature. In addition, heavy rainstorms had pummeled the metropolitan area the day before this recording, with clouds and scattered storms continuing the next few days; we can guess that the humidity played its part in sapping the piano strings of their necessary tension. Whatever the reason, Mal Waldron found himself playing what may be the most ferociously, obtrusively, and at times comically out-of-tune piano on any major jazz recording of the last 60 years.

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Eric Dolphy – At the Five Spot, Vol. 1 (1961/2014) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · January 17, 2023 · Comments off

This is the first of three sets that document the Eric Dolphy/Booker Little quintet’s playing at the Five Spot. It features a group made up of pianist Mal Waldron, bassist Richard Davis and drummer Ed Blackwell really stretching out during long versions of Little’s “Aggression” and the standard “Like Someone in Love.” Dolphy’s playing — whether on alto, bass clarinet or flute — always defied categorization, while Little (who passed away less than three months later) was the first new voice on the trumpet to emerge after Clifford Brown’s death in 1956. An excellent set that records what may have been Dolphy’s finest group ever, as well as one of that era’s best working bands.

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