Eric Dolphy

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Eric Allan Dolphy (born June 20, 1928 in Los Angeles , † June 29, 1964 in West Berlin ) was an American jazz musician and an important pioneer of the jazz avant-garde of the 1960s. As a multi-instrumentalist , Dolphy played the flute , bass clarinet , alto saxophone and clarinet . He also composed and arranged. In addition to his improvisations and compositions , the establishment of the bass clarinet as an instrument in the jazz repertoire is a special achievement .

Live and act

Dolphy started playing the clarinet when he was nine. At 13, he received a two-year scholarship to the Southern California School of Music, where he first came into contact with jazz. He then took private lessons with a classical flutist and with Lloyd Reese . He played with Charlie Parker and from 1948 in Roy Porter's Big Band , with whom he also made recordings in 1949, but not as a soloist. From 1949 to 1953 he did his military service in the army in Fort Lewis (Washington), where he was a member of the Big Band, but also studied at the US Naval College of Music and played with the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra. After the end of his military service he worked with musicians such as Gerald Wilson , Buddy Collette and Eddie Beal , met Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane in 1954 and became interested in the bass clarinet. From 1954 to 1956 he led his own band before joining the popular Chico Hamilton Quintet in 1958, with whom he received rave reviews at the Newport Jazz Festival in July 1958 . In 1959 Dolphy moved to New York , where he became a member of bassist Charles Mingus' band in 1960 . He performed with her at the 1960 Antibes Jazz Festival . The recordings with the Mingus band show him as a brilliant soloist; similarly in the track Stormy Weather on the album Mingus . In the same year he was also involved in Ornette Coleman's important album Free Jazz .

With publications under his own name like Outward Bound , Out There and Far Cry (all 1960) Dolphy became one of the most discussed jazz musicians. In 1961 he headed the New Star Polls of Down Beat for alto saxophone and in 1962/1963 for bass clarinet and flute. In 1961 he played in the sextet of George Russell (album Ezz-Thetics 1961) and with John Coltrane at the Village Vanguard Sessions in 1961 and on Africa Brass , for which he also arranged. He led a quintet with trumpeter Booker Little (recorded live in Five Spot in 1961). In August / September 1961 Dolphy toured Europe, where he did not appear with his own band, but with European or “exiled” musicians like Benny Bailey, documented for example on the album Berlin Concerts (later published on Enja ). Since 1960 he has been regularly involved in the Third Stream concerts of Gunther Schuller and John Lewis , with whom he also worked as part of the Orchestra USA . Dolphy also collaborated with Gil Evans and Oliver Nelson ( Screaming the blues ). In 1964 his classic Out to Lunch was published! , his first and only Blue Note album starring with the cast of Freddie Hubbard , Tony Williams , Richard Davis and Bobby Hutcherson .

In April 1964, Dolphy toured Europe again with Mingus. The tour plan included Paris (live recordings in the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées ), Stockholm, Amsterdam, Stuttgart, Wuppertal and Zurich. In Bremen there was almost a break with Mingus because of his quick-tempered demeanor (he cursed the audience as Nazis). Dolphy publicly distanced himself from Mingus and announced that he would leave the band. He planned to settle in Paris with his fiancée and continued to perform in Europe after the tour ended. He made one of his last recordings on June 2, 1964 in Hilversum with the trio of Misha Mengelberg . Another - later discovered - recording shows him on June 11th in Paris, where he appeared with Jack Diéval , Donald Byrd , Jacques B. Hess , Franco Manzecchi and Nathan Davis . This cast can also be seen in the film Eric Dolphy - the Last Date by Hans Hylkema (1991). He was unable to play an engagement for the opening of a jazz club in West Berlin (the Tangente in Bundesallee) with Karl Berger's trio on June 27th. He suffered a breakdown during the concert and was admitted to the Achenbach hospital in Wilmersdorf. Surprisingly, he died two days later due to complications from a previously undiagnosed diabetes illness. Two months after his death, he was inducted into the Down Beat Hall of Fame . Dolphy's mother gave John Coltrane, as a bequest, so to speak, with her son's flute and bass clarinet.

Dolphy has influenced numerous important musicians, such as Frank Zappa .

Appreciations

“Looking back, you could almost think that Eric Dolphy was an unearthly figure, not a flesh and blood person. As if out of nowhere he appeared on the jazz scene in New York in 1959, a accomplished musician with [...] exploding expressiveness and a clear, courageous vision. [...] But after only half a decade this Eric Dolphy disappeared again from the world, killed by a mysterious illness. What remained was the inkling of a higher, misunderstood reality of jazz. "

- Hans-Jürgen Schaal , 2005

Discography (selection)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ It was added to The Wire's 100 Records That Set the World on Fire (While No One Was Listening) list.
  2. ^ The notes between the notes Die Wochenzeitung November 20, 2014
  3. ↑ Philipp Lichterbeck "They simply declared him dead" Berliner Tagesspiegel November 5, 2004
  4. ↑ On the 1969 Zappa LP Weasels Ripped My Flesh , he dedicated the piece The Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbecue to Dolphy . On the back of the LP Freak Out! of The Mothers of Invention Dolphy is explicitly mentioned as a major influence.
  5. ↑ Barry Miles: Zappa . German edition. Rogner & Bernhard at Zweiausendeins, 2005. ISBN 3-8077-1010-8 , page 57
  6. ^ Hans-Jürgen Schaal: Eric Dolphy. In: jazz classics . 2 vols. Edited by Peter Niklas Wilson . Reclam, Stuttgart 2005 ( RUB ), ISBN 3-15-030030-4 , Vol. 2, pp. 425-435, here 425.

Literature (chronological)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Dolphy, Eric
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dolphy, Eric Allan (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz musician
DATE OF BIRTH June 20, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH los Angeles
DATE OF DEATH June 29, 1964
Place of death West Berlin