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

External links