East Flower

Quite possibly the best album to feature the talents of Chico Hamilton and Eric Dolphy - a set recorded at a time when Dolphy was an up-and-coming player on the west coast scene! Although Chico Hamilton had recorded with unusual reed players before, Dolphy brings a depth of soul and spirit to this album that's missing from a lot of Chico's earlier work at the time - a style that still holds onto some of the measured qualities of the Pacific Jazz work by the Hamilton group, yet which also opens up into some of the darker corners that Dolphy would explore more on his own recordings of the 60s. The group also features some great guitar by Dennis Budimir and cello by Nathan Gershman - but the real standout aspects of the set come from Dolphy's work on flute, alto, and bass clarinet.

Four-hour, 3-CD overview of the American music scene in 1967. A dazzling cornucopia of psychedelia, garage punk, folk-rock and sunshine pop that acted as the soundtrack to the Summer of Love (US division).