Musician

Eric Dolphy

Born: June 20, 1928

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."

Article: Live Review

Hayley Kavanagh Quartet At Scott's Jazz Club

by Ian Patterson
September 2, 2025

Hayley Kavanagh Quartet Scott's Jazz Club Belfast, N. Ireland August 29, 2025 “Welcome to the Upper East Side." Variations on this phrase--delivered by Scott's Jazz Club co-founder Cormac O'Kane--have greeted visitors to Belfast's award-winning jazz venue every Friday night since 2020. Hard to believe that half a decade has whizzed ...

Article: Album Review

Silke Eberhard Trio: Being-A-Ning

by John Sharpe
August 31, 2025

Adventurous German saxophonist Silke Eberhard has long favored the trio format as a proving ground, even as she splits her time with her larger Potsa Lotsa ensemble, and other projects. With bassist Jan Roder and drummer Kay Lübke, she has cultivated a rapport that feels both intuitive and restless. Being-A-Ning, the group's fifth release--each one bearing ...

Article: Album Review

Potsa Lotsa XL: Amoeba's Dance

by Ian Patterson
August 11, 2025

Like an amoeba, whose shape-shifting properties enable it to adapt to its surroundings, Silke Eberhard's Potsa Lotsa expands and contracts according to its needs. Originating as a four-horn ensemble inspired by the music of multi-instrumentalist/composer Eric Dolphy, Potsa Lotsa blasted off with Potsa Lotsa: The Complete Works Of Eric Dolphy (Jazzwerkstatt, 2010). An auspicious debut, Eberhard's ...

News: Music Industry

New Vinyl: Golson and McIntyre

August 5, 2025

Two Prestige albums recorded nearly one year apart have just been re-issued by Craft Recordings on 180-gram vinyl. Both were cut from the original stereo masters by Kevin Gray. Benny Golson's Gone With Golson was recorded in June 1959, and Ken McIntyre's Looking Ahead, with Eric Dolphy, was recording in June 1960. Both albums are superb ...

Article: Album Review

Larry Stabbins & Mark Sanders: Cup & Ring

by John Sharpe
July 28, 2025

Inspired by the 5000 year old Neolithic rock carvings pictured on the sleeve, Cup & Ring opens and closes with brooding, ritualistic pieces in which Larry Stabbins' breathy flute drifts like mist over Mark Sanders' deliberate, processional percussion. These atmospheric bookends, along with similarly spare interludes throughout, frame a set grounded more deeply in the language ...

Article: In the Artist's Own Words

Why Is Japan a Jazz Paradise��or��Why the Japanese Feel at Home in Jazz?

by Atzko Kohashi
July 6, 2025

Part 1 | Part 2Why is Japan such a jazz-loving nation? No other country has reissued so many classic jazz albums as Japan. From Blue Note to Riverside to Prestige, masterpieces are constantly being revived--remastered with pristine sound, released in exclusive paper sleeves, or in ultra-high-quality formats like SHM-CD or SACD. Some albums long ...

Video

Impressions

Featuring the music of Eric Dolphy
Duration: 05:51
June 29, 2025

Eric Dolphy was a multi-woodwind giant, performing on alto sax, flute , clarinet, bass clarinet and baritone sax. His sound in the 1950s and 1960s was energetic and adventurous, featuring flurries and squawks, overtones and voice-like patterns, which helped to define free/avant-garde jazz. In this video of John Coltrane's "Impressions," Coltrane first displays his signature modal improvisation on tenor, starting at 00:18. Then, at 02:44. Dolphy simply takes off on alto sax. Suffice to say, they come across at least as equals. Dolphy was born June 20, 1928 and passed away on June 29, 1964, due to complications of diabetes.

Article: Radio & Podcasts

Dayna Stephens, Allen Lowe, and the Millennial Territory Orchestra

by Jerome Wilson
June 25, 2025

This episode features music from Dayna Stephens, Allen Lowe, and Bob Dorough. It also includes the Millennial Territory Orchestra paying tribute to Sly Stone. Playlist Henry Threadgill Sextett “I Can't Wait Till I Get Home" from The Complete Novus & Columbia Recordings of Henry Threadgill & Air (Mosaic) 00:00 Ethan Iverson “Technically Acceptable" from ...

Article: Album Review

Shuffle Demons: Are You Really Real

by Anastasia Bogomolets
June 2, 2025

Celebrating four decades of genre-blending jazz, the Shuffle Demons return with Are You Really Real, a studio album that fuses funk, post-bop, theatrical satire and spiritual jazz. Influences ranging from Eric Dolphy and Alice Coltrane to the Red Hot Chili Peppers shape the band's eclectic high-energy aesthetic. The opening track, “X Marks the Spot," ...