Dig Deep: Eric Dolphy – Last Date – Limelight (1964)

Different Covers of Dolphy's Last Date
Different Covers of Dolphy's Last Date

Eric Dolphy – Epistrophy
Eric Dolphy – You Don’t Know What Love Is
Eric Dolphy – Miss Ann

“When you hear music, after it’s over, it’s gone in the air. You can never capture it again…” – Eric Dolphy, as heard at the end of “Miss Ann”

Without a single shred of doubt, Eric Dolphy is one of my all time favorite musicians. From all accounts (including John Coltrane who called him, “one of the greatest people I’ve ever known”) Dolphy was indeed a special and beautiful individual. Soft spoken in person, deeply committed to his muse and a true virtuoso on multiple instruments, he died far too young in Berlin at age 36 in 1964. While it’s not techinically his final performance, Last Date was recorded less than a month before his passing and that certainly makes it one of his final recordings.

There are no signs of the tragedy that would occur shortly after this performance on this album. The set features Dolphy at the height of his powers with a very tight and capable rhythm section comprised of Misha Mingelberg on piano, Jacques Schols on bass and Han Bennick on drums. It begins with Dolphy taking on Monk’s “Epistrophy” on bass clarinet, with a riff at the beginning that makes me wonder why Hip-Hop producers haven’t sampled Dolphy more often. Similar thoughts flit through my mind from time to time hearing his take on the standard “You Don’t Know What Love Is,” this time on flute. Gorgeous playing for sure, but also going to places that no one had before, no has since and no one likely will ever again.

The prize of the set for me though is “Miss Ann,” not even so much for the performance, though it is suberb work, now on alto sax, but for the surprise at its close, a single short quote (reprinted above) in Dolphy’s own voice. It’s hard to describe the special pleasure of hearing a favorite musician’s voice unexpectedly, perhaps all the more magnified because Dolphy’s time here was so relatively short.

For years I’d held on to a moldy beat up copy of this album that I had originally got at Toad Hall Records in Rockford, IL in 1999. Just recently I lucked upon a copy of what I now understand was the original gatefold pressing, ironically paying less, $8, for this far superior version! In addition to the liner notes by Nat Hentoff, there are numerous pictures of Dolphy, including that classic side portrait and more paintings from Zbigniew Jastrzebski, who is responsible for the painting of Dolphy that graces the front and back covers.

DolphyInner
DolphyInner2

It is a truly gorgeous package and a reminder of how much love and care used to go into the packaging of treasured music. If you are a Dolphy fan, I hope you are able to dig up a copy of this version one day, it is a thing of beauty, just like the man and his music.

Cheers,

Michael

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