Eric Dolphy

Genres:	Jazz • Music Videos & Concerts
Descriptive "tags":	jazz • free jazz • avant-garde • saxophone • avant-garde jazz
Decades Active:	1960s • 1980s • 1990s • 2000s
Links online:	BBC Music • Discography • Discography • Wikipedia

Biography

20 June 1928, Los Angeles, California, USA, d. 29 June 1964, Berlin, Germany. A fluent performer on several reed instruments, Dolphy began to play clarinet while still at school. On the west coast of America in the second half of the 40s he worked with Roy Porter’s band, before spending a couple of years in the US army. After his discharge, he played with several leading musicians, including Gerald Wilson, before becoming a member of the popular Chico Hamilton quintet. The stint with Hamilton brought Dolphy to the attention of a wide audience and many other young musicians. In New York in 1959 Dolphy joined Charles Mingus, all the time freelancing at clubs and on recording sessions with such influential musicians as George Russell and John Coltrane.

In the early 60s, Dolphy began a hugely prolific and arduous period of touring and recording throughout the USA and Europe. He played in bands led by Ornette Coleman (on the seminal Free Jazz...

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