One night during a one-time, two-week engagement at the Five Spot produced enough music of lasting merit for three albums. When Rudy Van Gelder took his portable equipment down to the fabled Cooper Square jazz club on July 16, 1961, he captured the interaction of an extraordinary quintet.

Eric Dolphy, Booker Little, Mal Waldron, Richard Davis, and Ed Blackwell had formed a cooperative group and, if Little had not died in October 1961, there is no doubt that it would have been a potent force in the music of the Sixties and beyond. Dolphy himself died in June 1964, after establishing himself as one of the important contemporary reedmen.

Here his alto saxophone and bass clarinet and Little’s trumpet explore three originals: “The Prophet” by Dolphy, “Bee Vamp” by Little, and “Fire Waltz” by Waldron. It’s time caught in a bottle-music for the ages. 150g vinyl re-issue of the classic jazz album, this is the first of three sets that document the Eric Dolphy/Booker Little quintet’s playing at the Five Spot.

1.  Fire Waltz
2.  Bee Vamp
3.  The Prophet