Eric
Allan Dolphy Jr. (June 20, 1928 – June 29, 1964) was an American jazz alto
saxophonist, bass clarinetist and flautist. On a few occasions, he also played
the clarinet and piccolo. Dolphy was one of several multi-instrumentalists to
gain prominence around the time that he was active. His use of the bass
clarinet helped to establish the instrument within jazz. Dolphy extended the
vocabulary and boundaries of the alto saxophone and was among the earliest
significant jazz flute soloists.
His
improvisational style was characterized by the use of wide intervals, in
addition to employing an array of extended techniques to emulate the sounds of
human voices and animals. He used melodic lines that were "angular,
zigzagging from interval to interval, taking hairpin turns at unexpected
junctures, making dramatic leaps from the lower to the upper register." Although
Dolphy's work is sometimes classified as free jazz, his compositions and solos
were often rooted in conventional (if highly abstracted) tonal bebop harmony.