''Unrealized Tapes'' is an album by American musician

Eric Dolphy Eric Allan Dolphy Jr. (June 20, 1928 – June 29, 1964) was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer, and bandleader. Primarily an alto saxophonist, bass clarinetist, and flautist, Dolphy was one of several multi-instrumentalists to gain ...

, released in Europe in 1988 by the

West Wind A west wind is a wind that originates in the west and blows in an eastward direction. Mythology and literature In European tradition, it has usually been considered the mildest and most favorable of the directional winds. In ancient Greek ...

label, and in Japan with the title ''Last Recordings'' by the DIW label. The album was recorded on June 11, 1964 in a

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

studio for radio broadcast, nine days after the

Hilversum Hilversum () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland, Netherlands. Located in the heart of the Gooi, it is ...

session that yielded '' Last Date'', and eighteen days before Dolphy's death. The tracks recorded that day represent the last of Dolphy's commercially available recordings. Music from the same recording session was also issued on ''

Naima "Naima" ( ) is a jazz ballad composed by John Coltrane in 1959 that he named after his then-wife, Juanita Naima Grubbs. Coltrane first recorded it for his 1959 album '' Giant Steps'', and it became one of his first well-known works. History Co ...

'', released in 1987, ''The Complete Last Recordings: In Hilversum & Paris 1964'' (2010), and ''Paris '64'' (2018).

Background

In April 1964, Dolphy accompanied

Charles Mingus Charles Mingus Jr. (April 22, 1922 – January 5, 1979) was an American jazz Double bass, upright bassist, composer, bandleader, pianist, and author. A major proponent of collective Musical improvisation, improvisation, he is considered one of ...

and his band on a tour of Europe organized by

George Wein George Wein (October 3, 1925 – September 13, 2021) was an American jazz promoter, pianist, and producer.

. (Performances from this tour were documented on '' Revenge!'', '' The Great Concert of Charles Mingus'', '' Mingus in Europe Volume I'', and '' Mingus in Europe Volume II''.) Prior to leaving the U.S., however, Dolphy told Mingus that he intended to remain in Europe upon completion of the tour, rather than remaining with the band. Mingus and his group returned to the U.S. in early May, at which point Dolphy moved to Paris, at first staying with an old army friend, and intending to settle down with his fiancée, dancer Joyce Mordecai. During this time, Dolphy began playing at the Le Chat Qui Pêche club with trumpeter

Donald Byrd Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II (December 9, 1932 – February 4, 2013) was an American jazz and rhythm & blues trumpeter, composer and vocalist. A sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd was one of the few h ...

and saxophonist Nathan Davis, both of whom appear on ''Unrealized Tapes''. (Davis recalled that he'd "never been in a band that practiced as much as we practiced ith Dolphy we had daily rehearsals and played every night from 10 PM till 4 AM".) Dolphy maintained a busy schedule over the next few months. On May 28, he made a recording in Paris for radio broadcast with a quartet that featured pianist

Kenny Drew Kenneth Sidney "Kenny" Drew (August 28, 1928 – August 4, 1993) was an American-Danish jazz pianist. Biography Drew was born on August 28, 1928, in New York City, United States, and he received piano lessons from the age of five. Feather, ...

, bassist Guy Pederson, and drummer

Daniel Humair Daniel Humair (born 23 May 1938 in Geneva, Switzerland) is a Swiss drummer, composer, and painter. He is widely renowned and became a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1986 and Officier in 1992. He has played with many jazz perf ...

. These tracks were released on Humair's 1994 album ''Surrounded 1964-1987'', as well as on ''The Complete Last Recordings: In Hilversum & Paris 1964''. From May 29 - June 2, Dolphy visited the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, where he performed with a variety of ensembles, including a big band, and where he recorded the music that would be released on the album '' Last Date''. Back in Paris, during the remainder of June, he led a number of ensembles (including the one heard on ''Unrealized Tapes''), and performed and recorded with Sonny Grey's big band and Jack Diéval's All Stars. Immediately prior to his death in Berlin on June 29, Dolphy had been making extensive plans. He expressed an interest in reuniting with the musicians who performed on ''Last Date'', and stated that he wanted to start a band with trumpeter

Woody Shaw Woody Herman Shaw Jr. (December 24, 1944 – May 10, 1989) was an American jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, composer, arranger, band leader, and educator. Shaw is widely known as one of the 20th century's most important and influentia ...

, bassist Richard Davis, and drummer

Billy Higgins Billy Higgins (October 11, 1936 – May 3, 2001) was an American jazz drummer. He played mainly free jazz and hard bop. Biography Higgins was born in Los Angeles, California, United States. Higgins played on Ornette Coleman's first records, be ...

. He was also planning to join

Albert Ayler Albert Ayler (; July 13, 1936 – November 25, 1970) was an American avant-garde jazz saxophonist and composer. After early experience playing rhythm and blues and bebop, Ayler began recording music during the free jazz era of the 1960s. Ho ...

's group, and was preparing himself to play with

Cecil Taylor Cecil Percival Taylor (March 25, 1929April 5, 2018) was an American pianist and poet. Taylor was classically trained and was one of the pioneers of free jazz. His music is characterized by an energetic, physical approach, resulting in comple ...

. In addition, he was writing a

string quartet The term string quartet refers to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two Violin, violini ...

titled ''Love Suite''. The June 11 recordings are unique in that, prior to that day, Dolphy had not recorded with either Donald Byrd or Nathan Davis. In addition, ''Unrealized Tapes'' features the first recorded appearance of the Dolphy composition "Springtime". ("245", named after the number of Dolphy's residence on Carlton Avenue in Brooklyn's

Fort Greene Fort Greene is a neighborhood in the northwestern part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Flushing Avenue and the Brooklyn Navy Yard to the north, Flatbush Avenue Extension and Downtown Brooklyn to the w ...

neighborhood during 1960, and "G.W.", dedicated to bandleader

Gerald Wilson Gerald Stanley Wilson (September 4, 1918 – September 8, 2014) was an American jazz trumpeter, big band bandleader, composer, arranger, and educator. Born in Mississippi, he was based in Los Angeles from the early 1940s. He arranged music for D ...

, both originally appeared on ''

Outward Bound Outward Bound (OB) is an international network of outdoor education organisations that was founded in the United Kingdom by Lawrence Holt in 1941 based on the educational principles of Kurt Hahn. Today there are organisations, called schools, i ...

'', while "Serene" originally appeared on '' Out There''.)

Reception

In a review for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

, Scott Yanow wrote: "This LP... features the great Dolphy on alto and bass clarinet with a sextet that includes trumpeter Donald Byrd, tenor saxophonist Nathan Davis and a French rhythm section performing four of his compositions including the otherwise unknown 'Springtime.' Eric Dolphy collectors will have to get this gem." The authors of the ''

Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings ''The Penguin Guide to Jazz'' is a reference work containing an encyclopedic directory of jazz recordings on compact disc, CD which were (at the time of publication) currently available in Europe or the United States. The first nine editions wer ...

'' commented: "There has been controversy in the past over some of West Wind's contractual idiosyncrasies, but this is the authentic article... More than just another pick-up band, the Champs Elysees All-Stars sound well versed in the Dolphy literature. Davis and Byrd... blossom generously through... 'Springtime'... and on reworkings of two of Dolphy's most resilient compositions... the rhythm section plays more than adequately, and the ''Unrealized Tapes''... make a welcome addition to the Dolphy catalogue."

Track listing

All songs composed by Eric Dolphy. # "Springtime" – 19:20 # "245" – 10:05 # "GW" – 6:10 # "Serene" – 7:58 Recorded on June 11, 1964 in Paris.

Personnel

– alto saxophone, bass clarinet * Nathan Davis – tenor saxophone *

– trumpet * Jack Diéval – piano * Jacques B. Hess – bass * Jacky Bambou – congas * Franco Manzecchi – drums

References

{{Reflist 1988 albums Eric Dolphy albums West Wind Records albums DIW Records albums