Eric Dolphy

Eric Allan Dolphy (June 20, 1928 – June 29, 1964) was an American jazz musician who played alto saxophone, flute, clarinet and bass clarinet.

Quotes

• [On the question "Is bird imitation valid in jazz?"] I don’t know if it's valid in jazz, [...] but I enjoy it. It somehow comes in as part of the development of what I'm doing. Sometimes I can't do it.
  At home [in California] I used to play, and the birds always used to whistle with me. I would stop what I was working on and play with the birds.
  • Dolphy and John Coltrane interviewed by Don DeMichael, as cited in "John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy Answer the Jazz Critics" DownBeat (April 12, 1962; online reprint from 2014)
  • Dolphy had worked with Coltrane in live performances and recordings over the previous year.

• When you hear music, after it's over, it's gone in the air. You can never capture it again.
  • Spoken to a concert audience in Hilversum, Netherlands (2 June 1964) and included at the end of the album Last Date, as quoted in John Steinbeck Holiday, Vol. 58 (1977), p. 13