Eric Dolphy

American jazz alto saxophonist, flautist, and bass clarinetist
Born June 20, 1928 in Los Angeles, California, USA, died June 29, 1964 in West Berlin, Germany

His earliest recordings at the end of the 1940s were with Roy Porter on the west coast, but it took almost a decade before Dolphy's albums with Chico Hamilton brought him to wider attention. From 1958, he was based in New York City and shared an apartment with Freddie Hubbard for a time. Some of his recordings were made in the company of John Coltrane (particularly during a residency at New York's Village Vanguard), Charles Mingus and (especially) trumpeter Booker Little in jointly-led sessions recorded at the NYC Five Spot jazz club in July 1961 which were intended to conclude his contract for Prestige.

A few months after recording his best album ("Out to Lunch") for Blue Note (released posthumously, as were most of his live albums), Dolphy was performing in European venues having had difficulties in gaining enough work in the US and because his fiancé, the classically trained dancer Joyce Mordecai, was based in Paris. Dolphy died following complications arising from undiagnosed diabetes; doctors falsely assumed he was an addict. He is credited with pioneering the use of the bass clarinet as a solo improvising instrument.