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Eric Dolphy

Eric Allan Dolphy was a jazz musician who played alto saxophone, flute and bass clarinet.

Dolphy was one of several groundbreaking jazz alto players to rise to prominence in the 1960s. He was also the first important bass clarinet soloist in jazz, and among the earliest significant flute soloists; he is arguably the greatest jazz improviser on either instrument. On early recordings, he occasionally played traditional B-flat soprano clarinet. His improvisational style was characterized by a near volcanic flow of ideas, utilizing wide intervals based largely on the 12-tone scale, in addition to using an array of animal- like effects which almost made his instruments speak. Although Dolphy's work is sometimes classified as free jazz, his compositions and solos had a logic uncharacteristic of many other free jazz musicians of the day; even as such, he was definitively avant-garde. In the years after his death his music was more aptly described as being "too out to be in and too in to be out."

Dolphy was born in Los Angeles and was educated at Los Angeles City College. He performed locally for several years, most notably as a member of the big band led by Roy Porter. Dolphy finally had his big break as a member of Chico Hamilton's quintet, with Hamilton he became known to a wider audience and was able to tour extensively through 1958, when he parted ways with Hamilton and moved to New York City.

Dolphy wasted little time upon settling in New York City, quickly forming several fruitful musical partnerships, the two most important ones being with jazz legends Charles Mingus and John Coltrane, musicians he'd known for several years. While his formal musical collaboration with Coltrane was short (less than a year between 1961-62), his association with Mingus continued intermittently from 1959 until Dolphy's death in 1964. Dolphy was held in the highest regard by both musicians - Mingus considered Dolphy to be his most talented interpreter and Coltrane thought him his only musical equal.

Coltrane had gained an audience and critical notice with Miles Davis's quintet. Although Coltrane's quintets with Dolphy (including the Village Vanguard and Africa/Brass sessions) are now legendary, they provoked Down Beat magazine to brand Coltrane and Dolphy's music as 'anti- jazz.' Coltrane later said of this criticism "they made it appear that we didn't even know the first thing about music (...) it hurt me to see (Dolphy) get hurt in this thing."

The initial release of Coltrane's stay at the Vanguard selected three tracks, only one of which featured Dolphy. After being issued haphazardly over the next 30 years, a comprehensive box set featuring all of the recorded music from the Vanguard was released by Impulse! in 1997. The Complete 1961 Village Vanguard Recordings carried over 15 tracks featuring Dolphy on alto saxophone and bass clarinet, adding a new dimension to these already classic recordings. A later Pablo box set from Coltrane's European tours of the early 1960s collected more recordings with Dolphy for the buying public.

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Album Review

Ornette Coleman: Free Jazz to Ornette! Revisited

Read "Free Jazz to Ornette! Revisited" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro


Che cosa si può dire ancora di un'opera che ha stravolto il corso del jazz, uno di quegli snodi dopo i quali--qui fin dal titolo--nulla può essere più come prima? Punti di svolta decisivi e ineludibili che cambiano il corso di un'arte, pietre miliari come Les Demoiselles d'Avignon in pittura, l'Ulysses di Joyce in letteratura, o più specificatamente in poesia Un coup de dés di Mallarmé? Nulla, appunto, perché tutto dev'essere per forza di cose già stato detto e scritto, ...

13
Album Review

Ornette Coleman: Free Jazz To Ornette! Revisited

Read "Free Jazz To Ornette! Revisited" reviewed by John Eyles


For ezz-thetics' revisited series' fourth Ornette Coleman album, the label has ventured back further than any of its previous Coleman albums, to New York City in December 1960 and January 1961. Recorded at A&R Studios on Wednesday December 21st 1960 from 8pm to 12.30am, the Free Jazz session produced two pieces, the thirty-seven minute “Free Jazz" itself, which was issued in September 1961 on an Atlantic album entitled Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation By The Ornette Coleman Double Quartet, and ...

Album Review

Eric Dolphy: Outward Bound To Out To Lunch Revisited

Read "Outward Bound To Out To Lunch Revisited" reviewed by Stefano Merighi


Il valore incalcolabile dell'opera di Eric Dolphy sta passando un po' in secondo piano nel nostro tempo di ascolti rapidi e deconcentrati. Ben venga allora questa edizione, anche se rimane la perplessità dell'accorpare due dischi che pochissimo hanno in comune e che sono comunque ancora a disposizione negli ottimi originali. Dal 1960 al 1964 (anno della scomparsa), Dolphy ha attraversato un mondo sonoro denso, sfaccettato, rimanendo se stesso sia accanto a Mingus che a Russell, sia nelle sabbie ...

1
Album Review

Eric Dolphy: At Five Spot to Iron Man Revisited

Read "At Five Spot to Iron Man Revisited" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro


Riunire in un unico CD di quasi ottanta minuti due capolavori cosa determina? Un capolavoro al quadrato, ovviamente, ed è quanto avviene in questo album semplicemente maestoso, i cui primi tre brani riprendono il live inciso al Five Spot il 16 luglio 1961 dal quintetto da favola riunito per l'occasione da Eric Dolphy, all'epoca trentatreenne, il cui nome iniziava finalmente a circolare con una certa insistenza nel mondo del jazz anche al di là dei colleghi che già ne conoscevano ...

18
Album Review

Charles Mingus: Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus To Pre Bird Revisited

Read "Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus To Pre Bird Revisited" reviewed by Chris May


In his liner notes for Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus To Pre Bird Revisited, Bill Shoemaker sets out the context in which the two featured albums should be considered. He observes that so enormous was Charles Mingus' artistic vision that no two (or perhaps three) albums can encompass its totality. How true that is, even of the pairing of two Mingus albums that are as different as could be: Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus (Candid, 1960) and Pre Bird (Mercury, ...

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Radio & Podcasts

Out to Lunch Tribute, Nancy Wilson, Ella Fitzgerald

Read "Out to Lunch Tribute, Nancy Wilson, Ella Fitzgerald" reviewed by David Brown


This week we celebrate the recording anniversary of Eric Dolphy's Out to Lunch. We'll pay tribute by playing tracks from the LP as recorded by Vandermark 5, Orchestre National De Jazz, James Newton, The Lounge Lizards and Eric Dolphy himself. A vocal set will follow featuring big band era vocalists Antia O'Day, Helen Humes and Ella Fitzgerald along with a ballad set featuring more recent recordings from Michelle Lordi and Marta Sanchez. Welcome friends and neighbors to The Jazz Continuum. ...

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Book Review

Eric Dolphy

Read "Eric Dolphy" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


Eric Dolphy Guillaume Belhomme 112 Pages ISBN: # 3955931463 Wolke Verlag 2023 Considering the indelible marks he has left on the music in his short time with us, the trailblazing recordings both as a leader and sideman to John Coltrane and Charles Mingus; the conceptual application of harmonic and baroque melodic theory, the overall sound of his instrument--the scholarship on Eric Dolphy remains a very slim study. It is almost as if ...

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Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Eric Dolphy

Jazz Musician of the Day: Eric Dolphy

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Eric Dolphy's birthday today!

Eric Allan Dolphy was a jazz musician who played alto saxophone, flute and bass clarinet. Dolphy was one of several groundbreaking jazz alto players to rise to prominence in the 1960s. He was also the first important bass clarinet soloist in jazz, and among the earliest significant flute soloists; he is arguably the greatest jazz improviser on either instrument. On early recordings, he occasionally played traditional B-flat soprano clarinet. His improvisational ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Eric Dolphy

Jazz Musician of the Day: Eric Dolphy

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Eric Dolphy's birthday today!

Eric Allan Dolphy was a jazz musician who played alto saxophone, flute and bass clarinet. Dolphy was one of several groundbreaking jazz alto players to rise to prominence in the 1960s. He was also the first important bass clarinet soloist in jazz, and among the earliest significant flute soloists; he is arguably the greatest jazz improviser on either instrument. On early recordings, he occasionally played traditional B-flat soprano clarinet. His improvisational ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Eric Dolphy

Jazz Musician of the Day: Eric Dolphy

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Eric Dolphy's birthday today!

Eric Allan Dolphy was a jazz musician who played alto saxophone, flute and bass clarinet. Dolphy was one of several groundbreaking jazz alto players to rise to prominence in the 1960s. He was also the first important bass clarinet soloist in jazz, and among the earliest significant flute soloists; he is arguably the greatest jazz improviser on either instrument. On early recordings, he occasionally played traditional B-flat soprano clarinet. His improvisational ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Eric Dolphy

Jazz Musician of the Day: Eric Dolphy

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Eric Dolphy's birthday today!

Eric Allan Dolphy was a jazz musician who played alto saxophone, flute and bass clarinet. Dolphy was one of several groundbreaking jazz alto players to rise to prominence in the 1960s. He was also the first important bass clarinet soloist in jazz, and among the earliest significant flute soloists; he is arguably the greatest jazz improviser on either instrument. On early recordings, he occasionally played traditional B-flat soprano clarinet. His improvisational ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Eric Dolphy

Jazz Musician of the Day: Eric Dolphy

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Eric Dolphy's birthday today!

Eric Allan Dolphy was a jazz musician who played alto saxophone, flute and bass clarinet. Dolphy was one of several groundbreaking jazz alto players to rise to prominence in the 1960s. He was also the first important bass clarinet soloist in jazz, and among the earliest significant flute soloists; he is arguably the greatest jazz improviser on either instrument. On early recordings... Read more.

Place our Musician of the Day widget ...

1

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Eric Dolphy

Jazz Musician of the Day: Eric Dolphy

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Eric Dolphy's birthday today!

Eric Allan Dolphy was a jazz musician who played alto saxophone, flute and bass clarinet. Dolphy was one of several groundbreaking jazz alto players to rise to prominence in the 1960s. He was also the first important bass clarinet soloist in jazz, and among the earliest significant flute soloists; he is arguably the greatest jazz improviser on either instrument. On early recordings... Read more.

Place our Musician of the Day widget ...

1

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Eric Dolphy

Jazz Musician of the Day: Eric Dolphy

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Eric Dolphy's birthday today!

Eric Allan Dolphy was a jazz musician who played alto saxophone, flute and bass clarinet. Dolphy was one of several groundbreaking jazz alto players to rise to prominence in the 1960s. He was also the first important bass clarinet soloist in jazz, and among the earliest significant flute soloists; he is arguably the greatest jazz improviser on either instrument. On early recordings... Read more.

Place our Musician of the Day widget ...

1

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Eric Dolphy

Jazz Musician of the Day: Eric Dolphy

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Eric Dolphy's birthday today!

Eric Allan Dolphy was a jazz musician who played alto saxophone, flute and bass clarinet. Dolphy was one of several groundbreaking jazz alto players to rise to prominence in the 1960s. He was also the first important bass clarinet soloist in jazz, and among the earliest significant flute soloists; he is arguably the greatest jazz improviser on either instrument. On early recordings... Read more.

Place our Musician of the Day widget ...

1

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Eric Dolphy

Jazz Musician of the Day: Eric Dolphy

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Eric Dolphy's birthday today! Eric Allan Dolphy was a jazz musician who played alto saxophone, flute and bass clarinet. Dolphy was one of several groundbreaking jazz alto players to rise to prominence in the 1960s. He was also the first important bass clarinet soloist in jazz, and among the earliest significant flute soloists; he is arguably the greatest jazz improviser on either instrument. On early recordings... Read more. Place our Musician of the Day widget ...

1

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Eric Dolphy

Jazz Musician of the Day: Eric Dolphy

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Eric Dolphy's birthday today!

Eric Allan Dolphy was a jazz musician who played alto saxophone, flute and bass clarinet. Dolphy was one of several groundbreaking jazz alto players to rise to prominence in the 1960s. He was also the first important bass clarinet soloist in jazz, and among the earliest significant flute soloists; he is arguably the greatest jazz improviser on either instrument. On early recordings... Read more.

Place our Musician of the Day widget ...

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saxophone, alto
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band / ensemble / orchestra
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