Apr 29, 2025 11:53 AM
Vocalist Andy Bey Dies at 85
Singer Andy Bey, who illuminated the jazz scene for five decades with a four-octave range that encompassed a bellowing…
Jazz Line Distribution has re-released Eric Dolphy: Last Date, a film about the life and musical career of Jazz legend Eric Dolphy. Dolphy, best known for his revolutionary saxophone playing, introduced the flute and bass clarinet as lead instruments and pushed the boundaries of mainstream jazz improvisation. The film attempts to shed light on the innovations Dolphy made to Jazz and pays tribute his legacy.
The film traces Dolphy’s personal and professional lives, from his upbringing in Los Angeles all the way up to his success in New York as a member of both Charles Mingus’ and John Coltrane’s groups. However, the film’s focal point is Dolphy’s final recording session in Hilversum, Holland, on June 2, 1964. Through rare footage and interviews with his jazz contemporaries, Dolphy’s contribution to the genre is examined, as is his battle with diabetes. Eric Dolphy died following a misdiagnosis by a German doctor, collapsing into a diabetic comma. The jazz legend failed to receive proper treatment due to the Berlin doctors mistaking him for a junkie.
Eric Dolphy: Last Date was previously released in VHS format in 1991.The current DVD edition is enhanced with bonus material including additional photographs, a discography, and an interview with the filmmaker Hans Hylkema.
“It kind of slows down, but it’s still kind of productive in a way, because you have something that you can be inspired by,” Andy Bey said on a 2019 episode of NPR Jazz Night in America, when he was 80. “The music is always inspiring.”
Apr 29, 2025 11:53 AM
Singer Andy Bey, who illuminated the jazz scene for five decades with a four-octave range that encompassed a bellowing…
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