ERIC DOLPHY — Status (review)

ERIC DOLPHY — Status album cover Boxset / Compilation · 1977 · Hard Bop Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
js
After Erik Dolphy’s unexpected early death in 1964, record companies began to scrape together various recordings of his and group them together as “new” albums, “essential” collections, best ofs and so on. “Status” is a two record collection that Prestige put out in 1977 that combines two previous Dolphy albums; “Erik Dolphy in Europe Vol 2” and “Here and There”. “Here and There” in itself is sort of a throw together affair with four recordings from four different Dolphy led groups. Oddly enough, one of the songs on “Here and There” is an alternate take on “Don‘t Blame Me” from the same concert that makes up “Dolphy in Europe Vol 2”. Needless to say, when Prestige put the two albums together you end up with two different versions of “Don‘t Blame Me” recorded on the same night with the alternate version from “Here and There’ being the much better recording.

All of the songs on here are excellent with the incendiary “Status Seeking” with Mal Waldron and Booker Little, and the humorously bizarre “April Fool” with Jaki Byard taking top honors. On other cuts, Dolphy’s less famous European cohorts do a great job of hanging with Erik's high flight excursions, while wisely deciding not to try to emulate him. For Dolphy fans who prefer his alto sax playing, you get plenty of that on here, plus a good dose of flute and very little bass clarinet.

Slap together albums like this usually have little appeal to collectors, so they can be had at a very reasonable price. Compare that to Dolphy’s original albums which cost a fortune by now.
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