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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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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. ...

4
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 ...

11
Album Review

Charles Mingus: At Antibes 1960 Revisited

Read "At Antibes 1960 Revisited" reviewed by Mark Corroto


At Antibes could easily be an all-time favorite Charles Mingus recording if he had not produced such extraordinary sessions as Mingus Ah Um (Columbia, 1959), Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus (Candid, 1961), The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady (Impulse!, 1963) and Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus (Impulse!, 1964). Listeners can make their own picks, but this live recording from 1960 at the Antibes Jazz Festival in Juan-les-Pins, France, has a power unique unto itself. One can almost feel the ...

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Album Review

Charles Mingus: At Antibes 1960 Revisited

Read "At Antibes 1960 Revisited" reviewed by Chris May


Charles Mingus' exhilarating blend of roots and the avant-garde only rarely seems as binary* (see below) as it does on this recording from the 1960 Antibes Jazz Festival. Most often on a Mingus album, you do not hear the joins. This time, on one level, you do. Mingus leads a pianoless quintet completed by Booker Ervin on tenor saxophone, Eric Dolphy on alto saxophone and bass clarinet, Ted Curson on trumpet and Dannie Richmond on drums. Bud Powell ...

16
Album Review

John Coltrane: Evenings At The Village Gate

Read "Evenings At The Village Gate" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


All music is, as are all our greater gestures and pursuits--poetry, painting, literature, sculpture, dance--spiritual by nature. An outreach by the artist and thus, by extension, us, beyond the daily argot of the ordinary. But sometimes those instances are so far and in-between, so masked by the lawlessness of the present moment, that our higher selves are forgotten, or worse, denied. And sometimes the music is downright holy. Welcome to the church known as the Village Gate. Welcome ...

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Album Review

John Coltrane: Evenings At The Village Gate

Read "Evenings At The Village Gate" reviewed by Chris May


It is important to emphasize, at the outset of this review, that Evenings At The Village Gate is a John Coltrane album of headline significance. Recorded during a four-week run at the New York City club in August and September 1961, the disc is a snapshot of Coltrane partway through the most momentous year of his development. He is in incandescent form from start to finish, leading an astounding sextet completed by multi-reedist Eric Dolphy, pianist McCoy Tyner, twin bassists ...

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Album Review

Eric Dolphy: Outward Bound To Out To Lunch Revisited

Read "Outward Bound To Out To Lunch Revisited" reviewed by John Eyles


Ask any jazz aficionado for their favourite jazz albums of the '60s and the chances are that, alongside such decade-defining choices as Jimmy Giuffre's Free Fall (Columbia, 1963), John Coltrane's A Love Supreme (Impulse, 1965), Andrew Hill's Point of Departure (Blue Note, 1965) and Albert Ayler's Spiritual Unity (ESP, 1965), they will select Eric Dolphy's Out to Lunch (Blue Note, 1964). Now the Dolphy classic has been reissued on Ezz-thetics alongside one of his older recordings, Outward Bound (Prestige, 1964), ...

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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 ...

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Recording

Evenings At The Village Gate: John Coltrane With Eric Dolphy - Never-Before-Heard Recording Of Two Of The Most Iconic Forces In Jazz - Set To Debut July 14

Evenings At The Village Gate: John Coltrane With Eric Dolphy - Never-Before-Heard Recording Of Two Of The Most Iconic Forces In Jazz - Set To Debut July 14

Source: Michael Ricci

In the summer of 1961, John Coltrane headlined at the celebrated music venue, the Village Gate. With a lineup of musicians that included McCoy Tyner, Reggie Workman, Elvin Jones, and the fiery playing of Eric Dolphy, Evenings at the Village Gate captures the creative and transformative spirit that sprang from the pairing of Coltrane and Dolphy, and the evolving short-lived quintet. Evenings At The Village Gate: John Coltrane With Eric Dolphy will be released globally July 14 on Impulse! Records/UMe. ...

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 ...

Video / DVD

Oliver Nelson + Eric Dolphy

Oliver Nelson + Eric Dolphy

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

The blues were in Oliver Nelson's blood. Virtually everything he wrote and arranged had an indigo hue. But Nelson's original works weren't your average blues. They were blues cathedrals constructed with flying-buttress passages, gargoyle phrases and stained-glass voicings. When Nelson played the alto or tenor saxophone on these blues, there was a warm clarity to his tone and a sweetness to how he dragged notes. Nelson recorded head-to-head albums with Eric Dolphy, a blues master of another stripe. Dolphy's blues ...

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 ...

TV / Film

Eric Dolphy: Last Date

Eric Dolphy: Last Date

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers


Dom Minasi
guitar
Jorge Sylvester
saxophone, alto
Orhan Demir
guitar
Out to Lunch Quintet
band / ensemble / orchestra
Ike Levin
saxophone, tenor
Hasan Abdur-Razzaq
saxophone, alto
Kestutis Stanciauskas
bass, electric
Lori Bell
flute
Beth Custer
clarinet
Dan Wilensky
saxophone
Michel Banabila
electronics
John Pietaro
percussion
Piero Bittolo Bon
saxophone, alto
John Purcell
saxophone, alto
Oguz Buyukberber
clarinet, bass
Robert Dunn
guitar, acoustic
Jason Quick
guitar
Steven Faivus
saxophone, alto
Marc Beaudin, poet
poet / spoken word
Angela on the Arts
band / ensemble / orchestra
Chris Buono
guitar, electric
Yiannis Papanastasiou
saxophone, alto
CHYKE MARTINS
saxophone
Jackson Cotugno
saxophone, tenor
João Gato
saxophone, alto
Louis Siciliano
synthesizer
Hill Collective
band / ensemble / orchestra
Marcel Lüscher
saxophone, tenor

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