Mssr_Renard This archival live-album has three long songs (standards) on three sides. On vinyl it is tricky to have more than 20 minutes on each side, because it effects the soundquality.

As these recordings date from 1961, it in fact sounds surprisingly good. But don't expect too much, because it has its flaws. Still it is an enjoyable listen, once you are used to it.

The line-up is superb. Here Dolphy (on bass-clarinet only) has a strong line-up with McCoy Tyner (named Lalo Schifrin on the sleeve) on piano, who has some very long and outstanding solos. On bass no other than Reggie Workman (named Bob Cunningham on the sleeve) and on drums Mel Lewis.

My guess is that Reggie and McCoy used aliasses because of their contracts.

Dolphy was touring with Coltrane in Europe at this moment, and Reggie and McCoy joined Dolphy on this date. It would have been great if Elvin Jones would have participated aswell.

This livealbum is fantastic and a must-have for collectors of Dolphy, Tyner and a missing piece in the Coltrane-discography

js In early July 1963 Eric Dolphy went into the studio and recorded several new tunes as well as a couple of covers. He worked with a variety of ensembles ranging from mini big band to smaller combos, as well as several duets with bassist Richard Davis. Several tracks were selected from that session and released on the album that came to be known as “Conversations”. Several years after Eric’s death, more of the session was released under the title “Iron Man”. Recently the good folks at Resonance collected all these recordings together, plus some other odds and ends and a few alternate takes and released the whole thing as “Eric Dolphy Musical Prophet”, and needless to say, this sucker is bursting with goodness.

Its nice to have all these recordings in one place now because the previous albums were sometimes frustrating in what was kept and what was left out, now its all here in one package. The variety on this CD is admirable. For those who like Eric’s bebop side there’s “Jitterbug Waltz” and “Iron Man”. Dolphy displays his ultra modern compositional style with “Mandrake” and “Burning Spear” and his duets with Richard Davis show a deep meditative side that results in chamber music of concert hall quality. There is one track taken from a different recording session, and that is “A Personal Statement”, an avant-garde tone poem that features vocalist David Schwartz vocalizing lyrics about Jim Crow laws in the US south.

For Eric Dolphy fans and those interested in the more experimental side of 60s jazz, this collection is essential. Of most interest to many of us is how advanced many of Eric’s compositions were. Listening to how he shifts time signatures and tempos while playing both inside and outside of the chord changes we hear much of what is happening in jazz today. Eric was not really a ‘free player’, and he was also far from conventional, instead, Dolphy had unique takes on composition and tonality that were decades ahead of his time.

js Although its been known by many names over the years, the album that Eric Dolphy released in 1963 is mostly known by the title, “Conversations”, so that is the title we will use for this review. “Conversations” is a sort of pivotal album for Eric, coming after the expansive neo-bop of “Far Cry” and right before the avant-garde art jazz of 64’s “Out to Lunch”. “Conversations” does not possess the unity of those two, but instead is rather eclectic as it features both Dolphy’s bop side, as well as his more artsy ‘long haired’ leanings.

The album opens with the classic “Jitterbug Waltz”, played somewhat faithfully but with some decidedly ‘outside’ flourishes. Eric plays flute on here and turns in a dazzling solo. Woody Shaw also turns in a hot ride that toys endlessly with the original melody. Side one of the original LP closes out with “Musical Matador”, a rambling Caribbean number that features a rather large ensemble in joyous near cacophony. Side two features a lengthy duet with bassist Richard Davis that is neither free jazz, concert hall chamber music or relaxed post bop conversation, but contains elements of all of those. The album closes with Eric playing solo alto sax on a virtuoso and passionate rendition of “Love Me”.

The salient feature to “Conversations” is the second side on which Dolphy’s playing is isolated without a backing ensemble. It is on these tracks that his melodic skills are given free reign and the inventiveness of his playing achieves greater clarity.

js Although it was not released until 1968, the tracks for Eric Dolphy’s “Iron Man” were recorded in 1963 at the same sessions that produced the album “Conversations”. This all went down about one year before Dolphy released his art jazz masterpiece, “Out to Lunch”, so needless to say, the material on “Iron Man” is outstanding and a must have for any Dolphy fan. Although Eric and Sun Ra are both well known leaders in the world of avant-garde jazz, you do not normally hear much similarities in their music, except on this CD on which Dolphy is working with a mini big band ensemble that often carries a very Ra like sound in its arrangements and orchestrations.

“Iron Man” opens with two high energy bebop numbers that show Dolphy taking the musical innovations of Charlie Parker just one step further. Both of these tracks are sheer joy and feature great solos from Eric, Woody Shaw and Bobby Hutcherson. The large horn ensemble on these two returns on “Burning Spear”, for an ambitious arrangement that sounds like some of today’s cutting edge jazz. Two other tracks feature Dolphy in ballad duets with bassist Richard Davis. These two songs are played a bit more straight ahead, but with no lack of melodic invention and creativity.

Some versions of “Iron Man” carry a bonus track called “A Personal Statement”. This one features Eric in duet with an opera singer and a small combo performing a bizarre waltz and some other strange stuff that would be hard to describe. This track displays Dolphy’s interest in the avant-garde concert hall music of his time. There is a piano player on this one that carries a strong Sun Ra influence, and surprise surprise, its Bob James, who would later go on to become one of the most successful money making pop jazz artists ever.

js After Erik Dolphy’s unexpected early death in 1964, record companies began to scrape together various recordings of his and group them together as “new” albums, “essential” collections, best ofs and so on. “Status” is a two record collection that Prestige put out in 1977 that combines two previous Dolphy albums; “Erik Dolphy in Europe Vol 2” and “Here and There”. “Here and There” in itself is sort of a throw together affair with four recordings from four different Dolphy led groups. Oddly enough, one of the songs on “Here and There” is an alternate take on “Don‘t Blame Me” from the same concert that makes up “Dolphy in Europe Vol 2”. Needless to say, when Prestige put the two albums together you end up with two different versions of “Don‘t Blame Me” recorded on the same night with the alternate version from “Here and There’ being the much better recording.

All of the songs on here are excellent with the incendiary “Status Seeking” with Mal Waldron and Booker Little, and the humorously bizarre “April Fool” with Jaki Byard taking top honors. On other cuts, Dolphy’s less famous European cohorts do a great job of hanging with Erik's high flight excursions, while wisely deciding not to try to emulate him. For Dolphy fans who prefer his alto sax playing, you get plenty of that on here, plus a good dose of flute and very little bass clarinet.

Slap together albums like this usually have little appeal to collectors, so they can be had at a very reasonable price. Compare that to Dolphy’s original albums which cost a fortune by now.