I CAN’T think in terms of wrong notes,” said trumpeter Booker Little in a Metronome interview. “In fact, I don’t hear any notes as being wrong. I think you are thinking completely conventionally – technically and forgetting about emotions. And I don’t think anyone would deny that more emotion can be reached and expressed outside of the conventional way of playing which consists of whole steps and half steps. There are more emotions that can be expressed by the notes that are played flat.”

Booker Little was speaking the mind of his co- avant garde conspirator and saxophonist, Eric Dolphy in terms of the free and unconventional nature of the new music which they had both embraced - in 1961. And with a formidable rhythm section unit of pianist Mal Waldron, bassist Richard Davis and drummer Ed Blackwell, the quintet knocked their audiences out at The Five Spot, venue of their regular concerts.

Eric Dolphy, who, like Ornette Coleman or John Coltrane was in himself enough to make the word “standard” inapplicable in any group he worked in, was a master of all the reed instruments although he often limited himself to the alto saxophone and the bass clarinet. He was one of the most shatteringly intense players of contemporary jazz. At the time of this recording, although he had just won the Down Beat International Critics Poll as New Star alto saxophonist, the Five Spot engagement was the first regular work he had had since leaving Charles Mingus several months before. Since that time, he became the center of considerable controversy as a member of the group led by John Coltrane.

Trumpeter Booker Little was a good match at the frontline where they had dissonant as well as consonant exchanges. A new voice on the instrument, he was particularly interested in the possibilities of dissonance, believing that the more dissonance, the bigger the sound. With two such men in the frontline, a stabilizing element was required to keep the music going in understandable patterns. The catalyst for this stability was pianist Mal Waldron who performed the role to perfection. Waldron had had considerable experience at exactly this sort of thing, having sat on the piano chair for Charles Mingus for a long period of time. He was one of the most consistently excellent of contemporary pianists, and, unfortunately one whose excellence was too often taken for granted. This album contains brilliant examples of Waldron at his best, spinning out very few notes to their fullest implication (in the manner of Thelonious Monk or Ahmad Jamal), and keeping a powerful pulse present at all times.

Bassist Richard Davis first came to prominence working with pianists Ahmad Jamal and Don Shirley whose outfits did not necessarily equip him for the skills he demonstrated here. He also spent quite a bit of time working with the celebrated female jazz singer Sarah Vaughan. Thoroughly grounded in classical music, Davis was one of the few players who, like Ray Brown and Paul Chambers, made the expanding role of the instrument an interesting phenomenon.

Drummer Ed Blackwell was apparently influenced by Elvin Jones; and later became an apostle of ‘Black Music’ and prominent member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Music presided over by Lester Bowie of the Art Ensemble of Chicago. At the time of this recording, he was already quite familiar with the farthest reaches of the new jazz, having come to prominence as a member of the Ornette Coleman Quartet. Coleman had a high opinion of Blackwell, describing him as “one of the most musical ears of playing of anyone I’ve heard.”

It is quite fitting that since this was a cooperative group, that each of the major soloists contributed one of the three compositions heard. Fire Waltz composed by Mal Waldron has Eric Dolphy on alto. It reflects the growing concern of young players with rhythms other than the basic 4/4. Booker Little’s Bee Vamp where Dolphy switches to alto is a beautiful tune. As the title implies, it is concerned with another aspect of the newest jazz, its chordal suspension. Entitled The Prophet, the entire second side of the album is taken up by a composition of Eric Dolphy’s, a semi - ballad dedicated to Richard Jennings, a friend of his called Prophet.

The individual moments of excellence on this LP are too many to enumerate; and are even more startling considering the in- person circumstances under which they were recorded: The shattering sound of the alto saxophone and bass clarinet by Eric Dolphy – with interminable solos and choruses on the Prophet reaching breaking point and the crescendo of agonizing humiliation; trumpeter Booker Little’s  experiment with the possibilities of dissonance – to create a bigger sound; the effective notes and rhythms  generated by pianist Mal Waldron; the enhancement of rhythmic exploration engendered by  the moving bass line of Richard Davis; the technical patterns of drummer Ed Blackwell in terms of defining  free form and spread rhythm.

In format, it was a standard quintet of the kind that the bop era had made traditional – saxophone – trumpet and three rhythms – but the music hinted at developments going far beyond that concept. Members of the quintet had chosen to make the group a cooperative one, which meant that the music itself would be more important than any one man’s quest for stardom.

All of this is what jazz at its best is supposed to be. It could continue in that tradition to its utmost reaches, as long as there are musicians like these – to play it. But, as it is, ‘the harvest is plentiful, while the labourers are few!’