Customer Reviews

Complete Last Recordings in Hilversum & Paris 1964 (2CD)

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Awesome recordings, surprisingly good for a re-issue as the previous release was only the first CD titled 'LAST DATE' - which is great in itself - but here you get more recordings and not just spurious chuff but a proper 2nd CD - superb. There's a lovely story in the liner notes about how Eric Dolphy's mother gave John Coltrane his flute and baritone clarinet after he died and Coltrane recorded with the flute as a consequence. This is special and a testament to a great musician sadly lost at his peak.

First the facts: This 2cd compilation brings together live recordings from four sources, all from Dolphy's last months in 1964. Live in Hilversum (June 2) and Eindhoven (June 1) are recorded with a Dutch trio: Han Bennink (d), Misha Mengelberg (p) and Jacques Schols (b). Live in Paris (May 28) is with Kenny Drew (p), Guy Pederson (b) and Daniel Humair (d), a later Paris date (June 11) is with Donald Byrd (tp), Nathan Davis (ts), Jacques Dieval (p), Jacques Hess (b), Franco Manzecchi (d) and Jacky Bambou (perc). Every recording on this set has been issued before, in particular the Hilversum date, which has been released many times as 'Last Date'. The other recordings are a bit less widespread. General sound quality is very nice, apart from the single final track (Eindhoven recording), which suffers from a disintegrating master audio tape. Combined you get over 130 minutes worth of music on these two discs.

Concerning the music I'll keep it short: Brilliant & my favourite Eric Dolphy recordings, full stop. Especially the Paris June 11 set impresses me time after time again. Here he reminds me of Coltrane in the same period, before he turned to epic freejazz screeches: explorative, spiritual, sincere and compellingly beautiful. Dolphy's rendition of Coltrane's 'Naima' is nothing short of stunning - as is nearly all of the music on these discs. Highly recommended.

These memorable performances by the great multi-instrumentalist Eric Dolphy(1928-1964) were recorded in Europe during May-June, 1964, shortly after Dolphy left Charles Mingus's band.
CD1, tracks 1-6 were recorded in front of a small audience at VARA radio station in Hilversum, Holland on June 2, 1964 with an excellent Dutch rhythm section of Misha Mengelberg(piano), Jacques Schols(bass) & Han Bennink(drums). Dolphy plays superbly on bass clarinet, alto sax & flute on three of his originals, Thelonious Monk's 'Epistrophy', Mengelberg's 'Hypochristmutreefuzz' and his marvellous flute feature on the standard 'You Don'd Know What Love Is'.
CD1, tracks 7-8 & CD2, tracks 1-4 were recorded in Paris on June 11, 1964 with Donald Byrd(trumpet), Nathan Davis(tenor sax), Jacques Dieval(piano), Jacqes Hess(bass), Franco Manzecchi(drums) & Jacky Bambou(percussion). Highlights include lengthy versions of Dolphy'd 'Springtime' & John Coltrane's 'Naima'.
CD2, tracks 5-6 were recorded in Paris on May 28, 1964 with Kenny Drew(piano), Guy Pedersen(bass) & Daniel Humair(drums).
The final track is a 19-minute version of 'Epistophy' from a poor quality radio broadcast recorded in Eindhoven, Holland on June 1, 1964 with Misha Mengelberg(piano), Jacques Schols(bass) & Han Bennink(drums).
Eric Dolphy, who died in Berlin from a diabetic coma on June 29, 1964, can be heard saying on CD1 "when you hear music, after it's over, it's gone in the air, you can never capture it again".
Luckily, we have these marvellous last recordings to contradict Dolphy's words.