Eric Dolphy Time

Resonance Records is proud to announce the first official previously-unissued studio recordings of Eric Dolphy in over 30 years, including 85-minutes of never before released material. Musical Prophet: The Expanded 1963 New York Studio Sessions is being released in partnership with the Eric Dolphy Trust and the Alan Douglas Estate with remastered high-resolution monoaural audio transferred directly from the original tapes.

This release presents, for the first time ever on a single set, all of the music recorded by the Eric Dolphy Quartet in Denmark on September 6 & 8, 1961, which originally appeared on three separate LPs: Eric Dolphy in Europe Vols. 1 to 3. Further versions of “Laura (unaccompanied) and “When Lights Are Low” as well as a short take on Thelonious Monk’s “52nd Street Theme”, recorded a few days earlier in Sweden, have been added here as a bonus.

The complete long unavailable concert by Charles Mingus and Eric Dolphy at the Salle Wagram, in Paris, for the first time ever on a single collection. As a bonus, we have added the two complete sets by the Chico Hamilton Quintet with Dolphy at Newport '58, including an extended previously unissued version of "Pottsville U.S.A." on which Dolphy plays a long solo on alto sax.

Out to Lunch stands as Eric Dolphy's magnum opus, an absolute pinnacle of avant-garde jazz in any form or era. Its rhythmic complexity was perhaps unrivaled since Dave Brubeck's Time Out, and its five Dolphy originals - the jarring Monk tribute "Hat and Beard," the aptly titled "Something Sweet, Something Tender," the weirdly jaunty flute showcase "Gazzelloni," the militaristic title track, the drunken lurch of "Straight Up and Down" - were a perfect balance of structured frameworks, carefully calibrated timbres, and generous individual freedom. Much has been written about Dolphy's odd time signatures, wide-interval leaps, and flirtations with atonality. And those preoccupations reach their peak on Out to Lunch, which is less rooted in bop tradition than anything Dolphy had ever done. But that sort of analytical description simply doesn't do justice to the utterly alien effect of the album's jagged soundscapes…

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…

This is the second volume 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.

Out to Lunch stands as Eric Dolphy's magnum opus, an absolute pinnacle of avant-garde jazz in any form or era. Its rhythmic complexity was perhaps unrivaled since Dave Brubeck's Time Out, and its five Dolphy originals - the jarring Monk tribute "Hat and Beard," the aptly titled "Something Sweet, Something Tender," the weirdly jaunty flute showcase "Gazzelloni," the militaristic title track, the drunken lurch of "Straight Up and Down" - were a perfect balance of structured frameworks, carefully calibrated timbres, and generous individual freedom. Much has been written about Dolphy's odd time signatures, wide-interval leaps, and flirtations with atonality. And those preoccupations reach their peak on Out to Lunch, which is less rooted in bop tradition than anything Dolphy had ever done…