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 prominence during the same era. His use of the bass clarinet helped to establish the unconventional instrument within jazz. Dolphy extended the vocabulary and boundaries of the alto saxophone, and was among the earliest significant jazz flute soloists.
His improvisational style was characterized by the use of wide intervals, in addition to employing an array of extended techniques to emulate the sounds of human voices and animals. He used melodic lines that were "angular, zigzagging from interval to interval, taking hairpin turns at unexpected junctures, making dramatic leaps from the lower to the upper register." Although Dolphy's work is sometimes classified as free jazz, his compositions and solos were often rooted in conventional (if highly abstracted) tonal bebop harmony.
Early life, family and education
Eric Allan Dolphy Jr. was born on June 20, 1928, in Los Angeles, California, where he was raised. His parents, Sadie and Eric Sr., had immigrated to the United States from Panama. He began music lessons at the age of six, studying clarinet and saxophone privately. While still in junior high school, he began to study the oboe, aspiring to a professional symphonic career, and received a two-year scholarship to study at the music school of the University of Southern California. When aged 13, he received a "Superior" award on clarinet from the California School Band and Orchestra festival. He attended Susan Miller Dorsey High School in Los Angeles, where he continued his musical studies and learned additional instruments. By 1946, he was co-director of the Youth Choir at the Westminster Presbyterian Church run by Reverend Hampton B. Hawes, father of the jazz pianist of the same name. He graduated from high school in 1947 and attended Los Angeles City College, during which time he played contemporary classical works such as Stravinsky's L'Histoire du soldat and, along with Jimmy Knepper and Art Farmer, performed with Roy Porter's 17 Beboppers. He went on to make eight recordings with Porter by 1949. On these early sessions, Dolphy occasionally played baritone saxophone, as well as alto saxophone, flute, and soprano clarinet.
Dolphy entered the U.S. Army in 1950 and was stationed at Fort Lewis in Washington. Beginning in 1952, he attended the Navy School of Music. Following his discharge in 1953, he returned to Los Angeles, where he worked with jazz musicians including Buddy Collette, Eddie Beal, Clifford Brown, and Gerald Wilson (to whom he later dedicated the composition "G.W.", recorded on Outward Bound). Dolphy often had friends come by to jam, enabled by the studio that his father had built for him in the family's backyard.
Dolphy had his big break when he was invited to join Chico Hamilton's quintet in 1958. With the group he became known to a wider audience and was able to tour extensively through 1958–59, when he left Hamilton's group and moved to New York City. Dolphy appears on flute with Hamilton's band in the concert film Jazz on a Summer's Day, documenting a performance at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival.
Charles Mingus had known Dolphy from growing up in Los Angeles, and Dolphy joined Mingus' Jazz Workshop in 1960, shortly after arriving in New York. He took part in Mingus' big band recording Pre-Bird and is featured on "Bemoanable Lady". He joined Mingus' working band at the Showplace during 1960 (memorialized in the poem "Mingus at the Showplace" by William Matthews), and appeared on the leader's two Candid label albums, Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus and Mingus. Mingus considered Dolphy "a complete musician. He could fit anywhere. He was a fine lead alto in a big band. He could make it in a classical group. And, of course, he was entirely his own man when he soloed.... He had mastered jazz. And he had mastered all the instruments he played. In fact, he knew more than was supposed to be possible to do on them." In the same year, Dolphy took part in the Mingus-led Jazz Artist Guild project and its Newport Rebels recording session.
While touring Europe with Mingus in 1961, Dolphy continued performing as a solo artist, and he was recorded in Scandinavia and Berlin. Recordings from this period are collected on the albums The Berlin Concerts, The Complete Uppsala Concert, Eric Dolphy in Europe, and Stockholm Sessions. He was later among the musicians who worked on Mingus' album Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus in 1963, where he is featured on the track "Hora Decubitus".
In early 1964, Dolphy returned to Mingus' working band, now including Jaki Byard, Johnny Coles, and Clifford Jordan. This sextet worked at the Five Spot Café in Manhattan before playing at Cornell University and Town Hall (both were recorded: Cornell 1964 and Town Hall Concert) and subsequently touring Europe. The short tour is well-documented on Revenge!, The Great Concert of Charles Mingus, Mingus in Europe Volume I, and Mingus in Europe Volume II.
Dolphy and John Coltrane knew each other long before they formally played together, having met when Coltrane was in Los Angeles with Johnny Hodges in 1954. They would often exchange ideas and learn from each other, and eventually, after many nights sitting in with Coltrane's band, Dolphy was asked to become a full member in early 1961. Coltrane had gained an audience and critical notice with Miles Davis's quintet, but alienated some leading jazz critics when he began to move away from hard bop. Although Coltrane's quintets with Dolphy (including the Village Vanguard and Africa/Brass sessions) are now accepted, they originally provoked DownBeat 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 residency 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 the music recorded at the Vanguard was released on Impulse! in 1997, called The Complete 1961 Village Vanguard Recordings. The set features Dolphy heavily on both alto saxophone and bass clarinet, with Dolphy the featured soloist on their renditions of "Naima". A 2001 Pablo box set, drawing on recordings of Coltrane's performances from his European tours of the early 1960s, features tunes absent from the 1961 Village Vanguard material, such as "My Favorite Things", which Dolphy performs on flute.
Trumpeter Booker Little and Dolphy had a short-lived musical partnership. Little's leader date for Candid, Out Front, featured Dolphy mainly on alto sax, though he played bass clarinet and flute on some ensemble passages. In addition, Dolphy's album Far Cry, recorded for Prestige, features Little on five tunes (one of which, "Serene", was not included on the original LP release).
Dolphy and Little also co-led a quintet at the Five Spot during 1961. The rhythm section consisted of Richard Davis, Mal Waldron and Ed Blackwell. One night was documented and has been released as At the Five Spot (plus a Memorial Album) as well as the compilation Here and There. In addition, both Dolphy and Little backed Abbey Lincoln on her album Straight Ahead and played on Max Roach's Percussion Bitter Sweet. Little died at the age of 23 in October 1961.
Dolphy also performed on key recordings by George Russell (Ezz-thetics), Oliver Nelson (Screamin' the Blues, The Blues and the Abstract Truth, and Straight Ahead), and Ornette Coleman (Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation and the Free Jazz outtake on Twins). He also worked and recorded with Gunther Schuller (Jazz Abstractions), multi-instrumentalist Ken McIntyre (Looking Ahead), bassist Ron Carter (Where?), and pianist Mal Waldron (The Quest).