Eric Dolphy was born in Los Angeles, California on June 20, 1928. He started playing the clarinet in first grade. When he was eight he joined the school band. In junior high school, Dolphy started playing oboe and alto saxophone. He was influenced by the sounds of nature and would try to imitate bird calls on his saxophone. After high school he went on to study at Los Angeles City College.

While in college he played with many local bebop big bands. His first recording was with the 17 Beboppers headed by Roy Porter.

In 1950, Dolphy enlisted in the army. He studied at the U.S. Naval School of Music in Washington, D.C. When he got out of the army in 1953, he returned to gigging around Los Angeles. Dolphy started playing with Chico Hamilton’s quintet. In 1958, he left the quintet and moved to New York where he wasted no time seeking out top jazz musicians to collaborate with.

Dolphy worked with John Colrane, Charles Mingus, Ornette Coleman, and Max Roach. In 1964 toured Europe with Charles Mingus and decided to settle there with his fiancée. He was preparing to record with Albert Ayler.

On June 28, 1964, Dolphy collapsed on the streets of Berlin. The attending physician at the hospital he was taken to assumed that he was a just a drugged up jazz musician and left him in a hospital bed unattended to let the drugs run their coarse. Dolphy wasn’t on drugs though. He was a diabetic. He slipped into a diabetic coma and died. Dolphy was 36 years old.

Here’s a 1961 performance from a German television show.