Today's edition of Giant Steps features the music of Eric Dolphy, who was
born in Los Angeles June 20, 1928 and died in Berlin June 29, 1964, while on
a tour of Europe. In his short life, including only 6 years of recordings,
he produced many fine works as a leader and as featured instrumentalist with
some of the greatest jazz musicians of the time. He was gifted and
accomplished on 3 instruments: alto saxophone, bass clarinet, and flute.
Tonight's program includes examples of his work on all 3 instruments (as
well as clarinet), in a variety of contexts. The Prestige and New Jazz
recordings are all available on the 9-CD collection The Complete Prestige
Recordings of Eric Dolphy.
