At the Five Spot Complete Edition

This album requires some in-depth attention. Don't worry, if you play it long enough it will extract the attention. Just don't give up on it without having given it its fair shot. It is not the warmest jazz I've ever heard, although Dolphy plays with a "woody" tone (even when he is playing the alto) that I really like. But the musicians, all five of them, are speaking the TRUTH. Listen to them!!!There are three Little compositions (one of which gets repeated), two standards, and two tracks each from Dolphy and Waldron. By the way, it is incredibly important to get THIS complete edition of the Five Spot recordings. If you get vols 1 and 2, you will not only spend much more money, but you will miss "God Bless the Child" - the best thing on here!Track by Track -"Like Someone in Love" - What a great song. Who does a bad version of "Like Someone in Love"? Nobody I know about. The versions by Bjork and Slide Hampton are brilliant and this version fits right in. After some introductory piano phrases, Little takes over the melody while Dolphy takes those wonderful flights of fancy on flute. Dolphy solos at some length, then Little, then Waldron, then Davis (do I correctly count three verses for each solo? A THREE-VERSE BASS SOLO????!!!), and a beautiful conclusion.This version of "God Bless the Child," which is solo Dolphy, is a small miracle. Whether I would have been able to identify it as "God Bless the Child" without reading the title is anybody's guess, but I do know I would have been deeply and very sincerely touched by Dolphy's spirit either way."Aggression" seems like more of a Little showcase, tho others do solo. I like Waldron's solo the best. Naturally, you don't expect that title to go with a relaxing number, but the piece/song maintains a good edge that stays entertaining, like an exciting movie. And it's very fast, with an especially gripping trading eights/drum solo at the end.When the first volume of At the Five Spot was released, the next track, Waldron's "Fire Waltz," was the first track on the album. That's fitting enough - it nicely summarizes the quintet's approach.“Bee Vamp” (both versions). Here is another Little composition, a couple of bars of melody followed by soloing on a not particularly inspiring chord progression. Little may have been a heroically adventurous trumpeter but a master of songcraft he definitely was not. It would be fair to call these two tracks my least favorites on the album.Is Dolphy's "The Prophet" an Islam reference? This track, like “Fire Waltz” and the first version of “Bee Vamp,” was on the original Five Spot volume 1 LP, and it would have to be . . . how could you tell the story of this amazing evening in 1961 without "The Prophet," the longest song played that evening (at 21:15)? Really a quite riveting track, serious and powerful from first note to last.To my surprise (especially since I had pegged composer Little as the most humorless member of the band), "Booker's Waltz" is quite a bit more lighthearted - dare I say carefree? - than we have become used to. The band certainly seems to enjoy the waltz format."Status Seeking" is a Waldron composition that Waldron and Dolphy had recorded with a sextet a couple of weeks earlier for the album The Quest (which is known in Amazon digital music as Warm Canto - well worth checking out). The live version fits well into this setting. Although everybody solos, this track is notable as the track where we really hear what Blackwell can do with the drums.Dolphy's second and last contribution as composer is "Number Eight (Aka Potsa Lotsa)." It is a nice composition, with a great theme and plenty of room for solos!At the end of the second “Bee Vamp,” you hear 4 or 5 people clapping as the band is introduced. Maybe there were more people there but the ones who really understood the music were too nodded out to applaud.Just in case you care, here's the review of this album that I wrote before it started to grow on me (turns out I didn't have to wait years after all):Please read my review of Dolphy's solo performance of "God Bless the Child," which I LOVE! The rest of the tracks all seem to have the same flaw, a certain aloofness which makes me feel that, in listening, I am missing out on the party. Certainly, there is a lot of good - great! - playing but, except for "God Bless the Child," the album is kind of on the depressing side. And this is coming from somebody who will listen to basically anything (pianist Mal) Waldron has done. _The Complete Five Spot_ is certainly something I take seriously as a work of art, and something I will listen to again as the years go by, just in case I become more able to get into it as I evolve.

Wow! What a band. July 1961 , live at the Five Spot in NY: Eric Dolphy, Booker Little, Mal Waldron, Richard Davis and Ed Blackwell. Dolphy is on fire as he perhaps never was before or since, and given his consistently incendiary discography that's saying something. Little clearly inspires him and is equally thrilling. Waldron is deep into his repetition-evolution of motifs bag, Davis gives a taste of his later great work, and Blackwell is every bit as polyrhythmically inventive as he was with Ornette: check his astounding interplay with Dolphy on "Fire Waltz." Every song is a highlight. To mention a few other moments: Little on "Fire Waltz," The sparingly bluesy theme of "The Prophet," the beautiful opening of "Like Someone in Love" by flute, trumpet and bowed bass. How tragic that Booker Little was to die three months later of uremia at age 23. And three years later, Eric Dolphy followed him. But they left us a beautiful legacy of great music, topped by this, their greatest moment of collaboration.

Over the decades there have been 3 different versions of this week of music at the Five Spot. This multi-CD is the only one that combines all 3 single CDS in one package.This is one of those 'What If' bands, as the playing here is some of the best music you'll ever hear in your lifetime and, sad to say, Booker Little was gone in only a few months.I'm incredibly jealous of those in the audience; I wonder if those that were there knew the greatness that was washing over them.

Edited:This is an updated review to my previous comments. My initial review was poor due to the quality of the CDs. I was having issues with glitches and skipping upon playback. I recently retuned this item for a second time and finally got a copy where both discs worked fine when ripping them to my music player. So I've upgraded my review to 4 stars. It's outstanding to have this complete version in one package and you even get a couple of tracks that aren't available on the Prestige Vol. 1, Vol. 2 and the Memorial Album stand-alone editions. To my ears the Prestige versions sound slightly better but not enough to discount this version. So I would recommend this, as it's one of the most monumental live Jazz records I've heard. If you do get one with a bad disc, try returning it for another. I can only guess that there may have been a bad batch. Enjoy Dolphy and Little fans!

Incredible completely timeless jazz, much more on the later 1960' Modern jazz bordering on Avant Garde and pre, (but with many hints from Dolphy's bass reeds), the of the "sheets of sound" yet to come.Dolphy is one of the few true musical/spiritual music geniuses or should I say "transmitters/translators" of a music that few are gifted with such as among othersMiles, Trane, Monk, Bud, Bird and then later, Jimi and Jaco.Very very few ever hear that "music" and are able to give it to us.... Eric did and always will.5 star band and presentation....

What an amazing album. Absolute must-have if you're a fan of early 60s avant-garde jazz in general and Eric Dolphy in particular. But this isn't free jazz (not that there's anything wrong with that). The artists are all drawing on the tradition in their playing (I always thought of Dolphy as playing a kind of alien be-bop) and there's plenty of structure here, but it's loose and flexible. A lot of these jams go past the ten minute mark--The Prophet is over 21 minutes. Immerse yourself! I can't believe it took until 2011 to assemble all the performances from this legendary gig into one place.

The media could not be loaded. Beautiful package, just what these recordings needed!

Simply a classic! I also have the old vinyl release of this concert ("The Great Concert of Eric Dolphy") and I think the sound here is exceptional. What an ensemble of masters!

Per tutti quelli che di Dolphy conoscono solo “Out to lunch”, o le registrazioni con Coltrane, questa sarà una scoperta, per chi lo conosce più a fondo, finalmente ad un prezzo da “saldo” l’integrale del BlueNote con Booker Little. Un disco favoloso

Great jazz performance, am glad they captured it. An excellent addition to our collection of classic jazz.

Have the original albums.....thre different labels...loved it for years like most of his stuff. Can maybe see now why some original reviews were bad (wonder what Larkin thought of it.... do i care????) but nevertheless.... what better Quintet could you get?; LIVE,yet! Not qualified to judge transfer to CD though i feel i'd prefer the vinyl if push came to shove. Buy it if you love Eric like i do.....

Un quintetto che avrebbe potuto stravolgere la storia del jazz e che solo in Coltrane avrebbe potuto trovare valido confronto. Grande musicalmente, grande come innovazione e improvvisazione, grande come stile e mestiere, grande ...... Grazie ai suoi musicisti e grazie a Eric Dolphy e Booker Little in particolare.

It's great to have this session in one package. Originally it was spread over several LPs. My only reservation is the piano. Having set up a recording session you would have thought they would tuned the keyboard!!