Results for "Eric Dolphy"

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."

Richard Brent Turner on Islam, Jazz and Black Liberation

by Lawrence Peryer
July 30, 2021

Richard Brent Turner is Professor in the Department of Religious Studies and the African American Studies Program at the University of Iowa. Since joining the faculty in 2001, Professor Turner has authored several books, including Jazz Religion, The Second Line, and Black New Orleans, New Edition (Indiana University Press, 2016), and Islam in the African-American Experience, ...

Charles Mingus: An Essential Top Ten Albums

by Chris May
July 26, 2021

Charles Mingus was rarely a happy man and yet his music possessed a power to uplift listeners unlike that of most other composer / bandleaders before or after him. It still has that power in 2021, four decades after his passing and on the eve of his hundredth anniversary in 2022. In his personal life, too, ...

Roy Hargrove and Mulgrew Miller: In Harmony

by Troy Dostert
July 12, 2021

While the good folks at Resonance have labored mightily to unearth hidden gems from some of the undisputed legends of jazz--Eric Dolphy, Bill Evans, Stan Getz, Wes Montgomery and Sonny Rollins are just a handful worthy of note--more recent figures have been largely absent from their roster. But this excellent live document bucks the trend, recorded ...

Roy Hargrove, Mulgrew Miller: In Harmony

by Angelo Leonardi
July 5, 2021

È sempre stato così nella storia del jazz. I documenti musicali più preziosi vengono dalle piccole etichette indipendenti piuttosto che dalle major dell'intrattenimento. La storia della Resonance Records è un chiaro esempio: in questi anni ha reso disponibili magistrali incisioni o concerti inediti di Bill Evans, Eric Dolphy, Sonny Rollins, Stan Getz, Wes Montgomery e molti ...

Jazz Musician of the Day: Eric Dolphy

June 20, 2021

All About Jazz is celebrating Eric Dolphy's birthday today! 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 ...

Christoph Irniger's Open City: Retracing The Tenor's Evolution On Intakt Records

by Friedrich Kunzmann
June 16, 2021

A sound poet of sorts, Swiss tenor saxophonist Christoph Irniger has gained quite a reputation for his lyrical tone and creative penmanship, more often than not responsible for the majority of the memorable repertoire he records and performs. The poetic nature of his music is owed not only to the artists that have influenced him over ...

Silke Everhard Trio: Being The Up And Down

by Mark Corroto
June 8, 2021

Sometimes one must pass through the flames to get free. That thought has shadowed the career of Silke Eberhard. The saxophonist has been consumed with the firebrands Eric Dolphy, Charles Mingus, and Ornette Coleman for years now. She has recorded Dolphy's complete oeuvre with her band Potsa Lotsa, both in small and large configurations. Covered Mingus ...

John Coltrane: Top Ten Live Albums

by Chris May
May 13, 2021

This article is a companion piece to John Coltrane: An Alternative Top Ten Albums, which listed ten albums widely regarded as essential items in John Coltrane's discography and discussed another ten of comparable importance. John Coltrane: Top Ten Live Albums narrows the focus to club and concert recordings. Coltrane's live performances had a ...

Clifford Jordan: These Are My Roots: Clifford Jordan Plays Leadbelly

by Chris May
May 6, 2021

These Are My Roots: Clifford Jordan Plays Leadbelly is an oft overlooked item in the canon of tenor saxophonist Clifford Jordan, whose chef d'oeuvre was undoubtedly Glass Bead Games (Strata-East, 1974), one of the most exalted jazz albums of its era. But These Are My Roots, which was originally released on Atlantic in 1965 and has ...