Track Listing

1. Iron Man
2. Mandrake
3. Come Sunday
4. Burning Spear
5. Ode to Charlie Parker

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #53549 in Music
• Released on: 1999-02-15
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Dimensions: .24 pounds

Customer Reviews

Outstanding Dolphy
There's not much I can add to the earlier reviews. This is top-drawer Dolphy with fine support, especially from Bobby Hutcherson, Woody Shaw and Richard Davis. Dolphy was one of the great individualists, and it's no wonder that Coltrane, Ornette and Mingus all saw fit to draw on his talents. One note: as you may have gleaned from the reviews, the track listing above is actually from a different Dolphy disc, "Conversation." The correct tracks on this disc are "Iron Man," "Mandrake," "Come Sunday," "Burning Spear," and "Ode to C.P."

Beautiful heartfelt dissonance
For me this is Dolphy's best album and one of the great albums ever. Somehow this never got the recognition that Out To Lunch and others have. It certainly should be reissued. The compositions are Dolphy's best on one single album (with Out to Lunch a close second).
I disagree with the comment that there is discordance. There is dissonance -- a beautiful and heartfelt kind of dissonance. The whole ensemble is great. (BTW, this must have been one of Woody Shaw's and Bobby Hutcherson's first recordings. Hutcherson in particular shines.) However Dolphy's solos, arrangements and compositions are the highpoints.
This album is so original and timeless even by Dolphy's standards. All tracks are moving, but "Burning Spear" is a masterpiece that gets to me everytime - it really evokes a primal state.
If you are a Dolphy fan, or want to hear music that is the opposite of generic, track this one down.

Fantastic Dolphy
Whilst I'd undoubtedly stick Dolphy's "Out to Lunch" somewhere on a "Desert Island Discs" list, if need be, I don't think "Iron Man" would be too far behind. In fact, when push comes to shove, I think I'd have to rate this as possibly Dolphy's best ever album.
Produced by the estimable Alan Douglas (later producer/hanger-on for Hendrix, Miles, McLaughlin, Last Poets and more) in 1963, the line-up of musicians and hard-walloped SWING of this release makes it an essential listen. Sonically lying somewhere between the big band stylings of Mingus and the free-improv of Ornette or Coltrane, it's a perfect combination of density and freedom.
Highlights include the the title track, especially with Bobby Hutcherson's accompanying vibe action, and the avant-squonk of "Burning Spear", an 11+ minute journey that ranks as one of Dolphy's greatest compostions, his looming bass clarinet coming to the fore.
To state the bleeding obvious, had Dolphy lived longer than he had, we all would have been graced with so much more amazing music. Essential.