The charm of live jazz albums are made or broken by the recording
quality. Take Coltrane's Impressions for example, a fantastic quartet
session cut down because of a severely undermic'd McCoy Tyner. Horace
Silver's date at the Village Gate or any of the live Jazz Messengers
albums, on the other hand, are great on record since the roaring crowd
and fun announcements fit the brisk and bouncing hard bop they play.
Dolphy's
Five Spot recordings are probably the coolest that I've heard. There
are no announcements, just a few seconds of downtime and warmup before
the lengthy pieces begin. The horns are super clear (which you'd want
for a combo like Dolphy and Little) but none of the rhythm section's
integrity is lost. Is it only the recording that makes this album so
great? Hell no, just a factor that pushes this date to be one of my
favorites ever.
Dolphy and his group aren't doing
anything too groundbreaking in terms of the avant-garde he was committed
to more and more every year. The quintet plays on a number of bop
rhythms, and Dolphy shows he can be fire on this type of stuff as well
as his strange cello duos. Booker Little is like the second coming of
Clifford Brown: that speed! that melody! that stamina! Holy shit this
guy is fire! I wonder how much different Out To Lunch would have been
with him instead of Freddie Hubbard. The rhythm section is badass as
well. Mal Waldron is an interesting pianist that was one of the founding
fathers of the post-bop concept. While this elder was born in the hard
bop era, he was messing around with different sounding melodies in the
late 50s and was ready to hop on board with Dolphy, Little, and Ervin as
soon as they pounced on the scene. Need I say anything about Richard
Davis? Let's let his resume speak for itself. His later techniques might
be downplayed here, but it's still him and he's a presence you'll
certainly feel. Eddie Blackwell is just what these guys needed since he
was just a part of Ornette's free-bop stuff with Atlantic. That's the
lineup, the tracks are some of Dolphy and Little's best to fly on; just
let the music speak for itself.
Volume 1, Volume 2, and Memorial Album
