Avant-garde saxophonist Eric Dolphy’s papers on view at Library of Congress; it’s a single post-it note that reads “I have 19 fingers”

Avant-garde saxophonist Eric Dolphy's papers on view at Library of Congress; it's a single post-it note that reads "I have 19 fingers"

Legendary multi-instrumentalist Eric Dolphy helped pave the way for the free jazz genre in the 50s and 60s via classic LPs like Out to Lunch! and Outward Bound. Like the best of his class, Dolphy was able to mix both beauty and chaos — his sounds floated like a butterfly and stung like a B-flat suspended fourth chord that’s in some weird time signature I’ll never comprehend.

Unfortunately, Dolphy died at an early age in 1964, an era when free jazz was met with rejoinders like “Hey man, could you cool it on the notes?” and “He’s playing so fast I can’t even see what his hands are doing, but then again, it’s awfully smoky in this bar” (presumably; I’m merely a child). Understandably, peers, friends, and god knows, the everyman struggled to figure out where the hell Dolphy’s technique came from.

Well, half a century later, you, the befuddled and vacant everyman yourself, can view and try to make sense of the writings of Dolphy, which are now housed in our nation’s glorious capital. Flautist/composer James Newton recently donated a whopping five boxes of Dolphy’s musical papers to the Music Division of the Library of Congress. Harbored inside those boxes are previously unperformed works, Dolphy’s own invented scales, transcriptions of bird calls, and in classic Dolphy fashion, several pages where no one has any idea what is going on.

For those of you wanting to read the words of a genius (not counting the ones on this website you’re reading right now), pay a visit to the Library of Congress’ Performing Arts Reading Room. You’ll find me knee-deep in the bird call transcriptions.

• Eric Dolphy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Dolphy

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