At The Five Spot, Vol. 2 Eric Dolphy

• 1Aggression17:23
• 2Like Someone In Love19:59
• 3Number Eight (Potsa Lotsa)15:33
• 4Booker’s Waltz14:38
• Total Runtime01:07:33

Info for At The Five Spot, Vol. 2

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.

Over the years, as history has increasingly lionized these performances, the problem of the piano has grown proportionally. Less than three months after the Five Spot date, trumpeter Booker Little died: the first among equals in this band, he shared with Eric Dolphy an encyclopedic command of form and technique, and a commitment to shared musical ideals. Little's death placed the heavy stamp of mortality on this one-and-only collaboration between musical soulmates, marred as it was by the piano clinkers. Less than three years after that, Dolphy himself was dead, predictably raising the stakes on any music he had recorded, let alone a once-in-his-lifetime quintet-and further raising the hackles of those who bemoaned the interruptive intonation by the hapless piano.

That night at the Five Spot, the Dolphy-Little quintet recorded ten tunes. Four of them (including one alternate take) appeared on the New Jazz label as Eric Dolphy at the Five Spot. The first two tunes heard here arrived later as Volume 2 on Prestige; 'Number Eight (Potsa Lotsa)' and 'Booker's Waltz,' included here as bonus tracks, first appeared on Memorial Album; and the remaining two, 'God Bless the Child' and 'Status Seeking,' were issued posthumously on Dolphy's Here and There, also on Prestige.

Eric Dolphy, alto saxophone, bass clarinet, flute
Booker Little, trumpet
Mal Waldron, piano
Richard Davis, bass
Ed Blackwell, drums

Recorded live at The Five Spot, New York, New York on July 16, 1961

Digitally remastered

Eric Dolphy
was a true original with his own distinctive styles on alto, flute, and bass clarinet. His music fell into the "avant-garde" category yet he did not discard chordal improvisation altogether (although the relationship of his notes to the chords was often pretty abstract). While most of the other "free jazz" players sounded very serious in their playing, Dolphy's solos often came across as ecstatic and exuberant. His improvisations utilized very wide intervals, a variety of nonmusical speechlike sounds, and its own logic. Although the alto was his main axe, Dolphy was the first flutist to move beyond bop (influencing James Newton) and he largely introduced the bass clarinet to jazz as a solo instrument. He was also one of the first (after Coleman Hawkins) to record unaccompanied horn solos, preceding Anthony Braxton by five years.

Eric Dolphy first recorded while with Roy Porter & His Orchestra (1948-1950) in Los Angeles, he was in the Army for two years, and he then played in obscurity in L.A. until he joined the Chico Hamilton Quintet in 1958. In 1959 he settled in New York and was soon a member of the Charles Mingus Quartet. By 1960 Dolphy was recording regularly as a leader for Prestige and gaining attention for his work with Mingus, but throughout his short career he had difficulty gaining steady work due to his very advanced style. Dolphy recorded quite a bit during 1960-1961, including three albums cut at the Five Spot while with trumpeter Booker Little, Free Jazz with Ornette Coleman, sessions with Max Roach, and some European dates.

Late in 1961 Dolphy was part of the John Coltrane Quintet; their engagement at the Village Vanguard caused conservative critics to try to smear them as playing "anti-jazz" due to the lengthy and very free solos. During 1962-1963 Dolphy played third stream music with Gunther Schuller and Orchestra U.S.A., and gigged all too rarely with his own group. In 1964 he recorded his classic Out to Lunch for Blue Note and traveled to Europe with the Charles Mingus Sextet (which was arguably the bassist's most exciting band, as shown on The Great Concert of Charles Mingus). After he chose to stay in Europe, Dolphy had a few gigs but then died suddenly from a diabetic coma at the age of 36, a major loss.

Virtually all of Eric Dolphy's recordings are in print, including a nine-CD box set of all of his Prestige sessions. In addition, Dolphy can be seen on film with John Coltrane (included on The Coltrane Legacy) and with Mingus from 1964 on a video released by Shanachie. (Scott Yanow)

Booklet for At The Five Spot, Vol. 2