May 26, 2026 11:08 AM
Sonny Rollins Passes Away at 95
Sonny Rollins, the iconic saxophonist, composer and improviser whose career stretched from the origins of bebop to 21st…
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.
Onstage, Rollins would move about restlessly, thrusting his tenor sax in the air as he blew.
May 26, 2026 11:08 AM
Sonny Rollins, the iconic saxophonist, composer and improviser whose career stretched from the origins of bebop to 21st…
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“I wanted to get into the real feeling,” Melissa Aldana says of studying the work of singers from Cuba’s filin tradition in preparation for her collaboration with pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba.
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“There was something about her tone and sound and phrasing — an intimacy, a vulnerability, an honesty,” says Joshua Redman, who produced Cavassa’s record after she toured with his band.
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