This unusual and rare CD is a treat for Jazz fans. Recorded in Rehearsal at Eric Dolphy’s Home, Los Angeles, CA, during June and July 1954, featuring Clifford Brown (tp), Eric Dolphy (as), Harold Land (ts). Richie Powell (p), George Morrow (b), Max Roach (d). Eric Allan Dolphy Jr. (June 20th 1928 – June 29th 1964) was an American jazz alto saxophonist, bass clarinetist and flautist. On a few occasions, he also played the clarinet and piccolo. Dolphy was one of several multi-instrumentalists to gain prominence around the time that he was active. His use of the bass clarinet helped to establish the instrument within jazz. Dolphy extended the vocabulary and boundaries of the alto saxophone, and was among the earliest significant jazz flute soloists.
Dolphy often had friends come by to jam, enabled by the fact that his father had built a studio for him in the family’s backyard. Recordings made in 1954 with Clifford Brown document this early period. After a fine Jazz career Dolphy was to die in 1964 of diabetic complications at the tragically early age of 36. Clifford Benjamin Brown (October 30th 1930 – June 26th 1956) was an American jazz trumpeter. He died at the age of 25 in a car accident,leaving behind four years’ worth of recordings. His compositions “Sandu”, “Joy Spring”, and “Daahoud” have become jazz standards. Brown won the Down Beat magazine Critics’ Poll for New Star of the Year in 1954; he was inducted into the DownBeat Hall of Fame in 1972.