Eric Dolphy

Eric Allan Dolphy Jr. was born on the twentieth of June 1928 at Los Angeles, California, the son of Eric Allan Dolphy Sr. — a Panamanian-American Los Angeles carpenter and machinist — and Sadie Dolphy. He was raised in the principal Los Angeles South-Central Watts Black community.

He was instructed in clarinet, alto saxophone, and flute from age six — and was hired across the principal late-1940s at the principal Los Angeles Roy Porter Big Band and the principal Los Angeles-and-South-California Black-jazz performance community.

He served in the United States Army from 1950 to 1953 in the Korean War period — and joined the principal Chico Hamilton Quintet at Los Angeles in 1958 alongside the principal cellist Nathan Gershman and the principal guitarist John Pisano.

He relocated to New York in 1959 — and joined the principal Charles Mingus Quintet at New York in February 1960. He held the principal Charles Mingus Quintet alto-saxophone-and-bass-clarinet-and-flute position from February 1960 to October 1961.

He was a principal member of the principal John Coltrane Quartet across the principal 1961 to 1962 Coltrane-and-Dolphy performance period — at the principal Village Vanguard Coltrane-and-Dolphy November 1961 residency and at the principal 1962 European Coltrane-and-Dolphy tour.

He recorded the principal foundational Prestige Records Eric Dolphy long-playing-records across the principal 1960 to 1961 period — including Outward Bound of April 1960, Out There of August 1960, Far Cry of December 1960, and Eric Dolphy at the Five Spot of July 1961.

He recorded the principal foundational Blue Note Records Eric Dolphy long-playing-record Out to Lunch! at the principal Englewood Cliffs Van Gelder Studio in February 1964 — featuring the principal trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, the principal vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, the principal bassist Richard Davis, and the principal drummer Tony Williams.

The principal Out to Lunch! long-playing-record — including the principal compositions 'Hat and Beard', 'Something Sweet, Something Tender', 'Gazzelloni', 'Out to Lunch', and 'Straight Up and Down' — is at this day the principal foundational post-bop long-playing-record of the principal post-1964 American post-bop-and-free-jazz canon.

He relocated to Europe in May 1964 — at the principal post-1964 American post-Blue-Note Eric-Dolphy European-residency-and-tour period — and was hired by the principal European Charles Mingus Sextet at the principal European Mingus tour of April and May 1964.

He died at the principal Achenbach Hospital at Berlin, Federal Republic of Germany on the twenty-ninth of June 1964 of complications of undiagnosed diabetes, at thirty-six.

He is honored here as the composer of Out to Lunch!.