There were only two occasions, as far as I know, when Dolphy had the chance to make studio recordings with plenty of rehearsal time: the Blue Note session resulting in "Out to Lunch", and the Douglas sessions released here. His other records under his own name were earlier, on Prestige. They're great, but less varied in approach. Anyone familiar with Dolphy's music but who hasn't heard this set, is in for a pretty overwhelming experience. Even if you own the original records, "Iron Man" and "Conversations", this set is indispensable. There is almost half an hour of previously unissued duets between Dolphy (on bass clarinet) and Richard Davis' beautiful arco playing on bass. There are two more takes of Dolphy's solo alto "Love Me", and there are five unissued tracks of the larger groups. A few of these were bootlegged on a Japanese CD some time ago; but finding a copy was almost impossible. The sound on this reissue is, as others have said, a great improvement on previous issues. The decision to issue only a selection from the new material is understandable - if frustrating to a completist like me. The notes refer to several hours of music, and of course I'd like to hear all of it. But marketing considerations apply, and what we've got is brilliant.
It's fascinating to hear, for example, how the solo alto piece evolved. The first take seems to end mid-phrase, as if Dolphy hadn't considered how to finish. Until then, of course, his playing is great. The second take ends more decisively, but there are a couple of glitches while Dolphy is playing high notes and, I suspect, he decided that he could do even better. The third take, which is the one originally issued, kicks off with a quotation from the opening of the slow movement of Debussy's Violin Sonata, and this seems to impel Dolphy through a solo which has no hesitations and is, simply, a masterpiece. It's odd that this opening is used only on the issued take: maybe he recorded it on the following day, after reconsidering. The original tune, incidentally, isn't played straight at all: Dolphy plays fragments of it, linked by his own cadenzas. The estate of the original composers are lucky to have been paid.
My only gripe - an extremely slight one - concerns the packaging. Try getting the booklet back into its slot. Also, it would have been better of the CDs had inner sleeves. The texts about the discovery of the tapes, the circumstances of the recording, and the story of the original producer Alan Douglas, are informative. But I'd have appreciated information about what remains unissued (there's another take of "Mandrake" accessible on the internet, for example), and I'm curious as to the circumstances in which pianist Roland Hanna, who had no connection with these recordings, came to write a tune ("Muses") for Richard Davis. In place of such detail, we get several musicians telling us what we knew already: that Eric Dolphy was a great musician and all-round nice guy.
Buy this set, for the good of your soul, and because if enough people buy it, we might even get more of the same. Let us pray....
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