Few musicians have ever heard, or could play what they heard, like the jazz musician Eric Dolphy. A true innovator, his music has been both praised and damned since he started to play music dubbed as the "new thing" or "free jazz" back in the early 1960's. Downbeat magazine associate editor John Tynan even went as far to label the music that he and Coltrane played as "anti jazz", saying that: "I heard a good rhythm section ... go to waste behind the nihilistic exercises of the two horns. ... Coltrane and Dolphy seem intent on deliberately destroying [swing]. ... They seem bent on pursuing an anarchistic course in their music that can but be termed anti- jazz." Such criticism of Dolphy plagued him throughout his career by critics who failed to understand Eric's individual approach to the music and subsequently dismissed him as a musician who could not understand the basic chordal structure. (including Miles Davis)
Born on June 20, 1928 in Los Angeles, Dolphy began playing clarinet and oboe when he was 7 years old, then adopted the alto saxophone when a friend introduced him to the him onto Charlie "Bird" Parker. Before spending a few years in the army, he took his first steady gig with Roy Porter's Big Band in 1948 and throughout the 1950s played with such musicians as Buddy Collette, Gerald Wilson and Harold Land. In 1958 he played in the Chico Hamilton Quintet and moved to New York in the 1960 where he hooked up with the famous bass player Charles Mingus, with whom he recorded several albums with.
It was the period between 1960 -1961 where Dolphy gained a lot of recognition when he became a member of John Coltrane's "classic" quintet (including McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison/Reggie Workman on bass and Elvin Jones on drums). Perhaps the most seminal recording done in this period was the live recording over four nights at the famous club The Village Vanguard.
Much like John Coltrane in both music and thought, Dolphy was obsessive on his instruments. In an interview with Dolphy's parents, his mother states that Dolphy used to spend weeks perfecting just one single note at a time. No acquaintance ever had a bad word to say about Eric Dolphy the person. All describe him as amianle, kind, witty, humble and intense. Charles Mingus, a harsh judge of character, described Dolphy as "a saint." Despite the actions of fellow musicians, Dolphy never touched drugs or alcohol. His only addiction was playing music -- whether it was in the bathroom between sets, next to the record player at parties or on the bandstand.
Dolphy also in this period had a hugely prolific and arduous period of touring and recording as a sideman. He played in bands led by Ornette Coleman, John Lewis , Ron Carter, Mal Waldron, Oliver Nelson, Max Roach, Gil Evans, Andrew Hill, Booker Little, Abbey Lincoln, Mingus and Coltrane, with whose quartet he toured Europe in 1961.
Around 1964, Dolphy formed his own group leader, with young trumpeter Booker Little, Monkish pianist Mal Waldron, drummer Ed Blackwell and bassist Richard Davis. The famous Five Spot sessions were among the many recordings that this group released
Eric Dolphy's most well known work was also one of his last, the Blue Note album Out To Lunch! (recorded Feb 1964). With its dislocated rhythms, unusual instrumental textures ( Bobby Hutcherson 's vibes sharing front line duties with Freddie Hubbard 's trumpet and Dolphy's reeds), and dissonant harmonies, Out to Lunch! is a landmark of modern music, and was voted best post-war jazz LP in a 1984 poll of Wire magazine critics. In the liner notes to Out to Lunch!, Dolphy states that "I'm on my way to Europe to live for awhile. Why? Because I can get more work there playing my own music, and because if you try to do anything different in this country, people put you down for it'. He was never to return to the United States again. On the 29 June 1964 in Germany, he suffered a complete circulatory collapse caused by too much sugar in the bloodstream (he was diabetic), and died suddenly.
A highly influential musician, Dolphy was remarkably gifted musician both in his playing and compositions. During his short career he established himself as a significant force, playing alto, flute and bass clarinet, an instrument which was generally not associated with jazz music . He was very much his own man, creating strikingly authentic solo lines, frequently dashed off at incredible tempos and encompassing wide intervallic leaps. Often his music was likened to that of the natural sounds of birds. Dolphy once said, "To me, jazz is like part of living, like walking down the street and reacting to what you see and hear. And whatever I do react to, I can say immediately in my music." Although he is rightly associated with the concept of free jazz, Dolphy brought to this area of music his own carefully reasoned attitude, and he is perhaps better thought of as someone who stretched bebop to its very limits. Thirty six years after his death, the importance of Dolphy's contribution to jazz is still being acknowledged by musicians.
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