The wake of the influence from this 3 disc/lp release by Resonance Records testifies to the influence of musical visionary Eric Dolphy. Back in the late 50s and early 60s, he and John Coltrane were the heat seeking missiles of the “new thing” in jazz; still pulsating with hard bop swing, but taking it to the stratosphere, stretching the boundaries like Turkish Taffy so far that some people called it “anti-jazz.”
As one who grew up with swing, bebop and hard bop, the salvos of Eric Dolphy were strange and foreign, but his mastery of bass clarinet, alto sax and flute won me over. His career had various stages, with the recordings from these July 1963 sessions coming after his seminal recordings with Coltrane at the Village Vanguard, his own classic concert recordings in Europe and The Five Spot and in between gigs with Charles Mingus, just before his other high water mark Out To Lunch about a year later.
The two albums that this collection consists of are Conversations and Iron Man and while these have been available before, we get the bonus here of seven alternated takes as well as a 15 minute “A Personal Statement” and two takes of “Muses for Richard Davis.” For all except one song, the personnel is mixed and matched with William “Prince” Lasha/fl, Sonny Simmons/as, Clifford Jordan/ss, Woody Shaw/tp, Garvin Bushell/bassoon, Bobby Hutcherson/vib, Richard Davis/b, Eddie Kahn/b, JC Moses/dr and Charles Moffett/dr. The sole exception is a fifteen minute bohemian trip of “A Personal Statement” with Dolphy on all three horns, teamed with a very outside Bob James/p, Ron Brooks/b, Robert Pozar/perc and a free spirited and almost operatic David Schwartz on the avant garde vocals, for this one-off free spirited recording.
The rest of the music is like listening to a wild mustang held down with a strong bit. There is a Caribbean “Music Matador” with fire-breathing work by Simmons and Lasha, while Dolphy going solo on an aria of “Love Me.” The standards are anything but, with Fats Waller’s “Jitterbug Waltz” teetering on the highwire with wonderful work by young squires Hutcherson and Woody Shaw. A rich 13 minute duet between Dolphy and Davis on “Alone Together” is a gorgeous and attention keeping conversation, with the pair of “Muses For Richard Davis” having bass clarinet and bass brood in a rich melancholia.
More duets between Dolphy and Davis are delivered on Iron Man, as Duke Ellington’s “Come Sunday” is a rich meditation of bass clarinet and bass, while Jaki Byard’s “Ode to C.P.” has Dolphy’s flute ruminate with deep reflection. “Iron Man” is a muscular gem, with “Burning Spear” and the more concise “Mandrake” working the inside-outside styles of jazz like a trapeze artist without a net. Unlike most music, this one has not only aged well, but makes most current “progressive” music already sound dated and stale.
There is an accompanying 100 page compact booklet which includes vintage photos as well as interviews with the likes of Sonny Rollins, Henry Threadgill and David Murray. Always trust the Old Testament prophets!