At The Five Spot Vol. 1 (1961). 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…
The seven-CD set Live Trane expands upon Pablo's earlier CDs of John Coltrane recorded during his European tours between 1961 and 1963, including all of The Paris Concert, Bye Bye Blackbird, The European Tour, and Afro Blue Impressions, and supplementing them with extra songs from most of these concerts. Of the 37 tracks, 19 have not previously appeared commercially (except on a number of European bootleg labels with sound ranging from barely acceptable to horrendous), and a 1961 Hamburg concert with Eric Dolphy makes its debut here. A number of titles are repeated throughout the set – six takes of "My Favorite Things" and five versions of both "Impressions" and "Mr. P.C.," along with four takes of "Naima" – but true Coltrane fans will marvel at the differences between them from one concert to the next.
Mr. Gil didn't prove himself a great popular songwriter until 1967 or so; like most artists, he didn't arrive full-blown and had to learn his craft and make a living. In the early 1960's, while studying business administration at the University of Bahia in Brazil, he cut a few songs under the direction of Jorge Santos, who mostly recorded commercial jingles; that period is laid out for all to hear on the album "Salvador, 1962-1963" (Warner Brazil). These rare singles contain some sweet, bouncy Carnival marchinhas and samba ballads, but no incredible songs; one of the records, "Povo Petroleiro," was financed by an executive at Petrobras, Brazil's major oil company, and contains the lyric "our petrol is Brazilian gold; it's the pride of a petrol people." But as an early look at a great artist in the making it's instructive, like Andy Warhol's 1950's shoe drawings.
One of the hippest jazz pairings on the LA scene in the early 60s – presented here in a 2CD set with nearly 4 albums' worth of material! First up is the well-titled Remarkable Carmell Jones – one of the few sessions cut as a leader by trumpeter Carmell Jones – a wonderfully talented player from LA, who was one of the leading lights in that city's hardbop scene during the early 60s! The set grooves like the best Blue Note sessions of the time – Jones leading a combo that features Harold Land on tenor, Frank Strazzeri on piano, Gary Peacock on bass, and Leon Pettis on drums – all working with a careful blend of soul jazz and modern influences, on a wonderful batch of well-written tunes.