Eric Dolphy
Alto Sax Solo on
Teenie's Blues

About

Eric Dolphy's alto saxophone solo is the first of four improvisations on this medium-tempo blues named for Oliver Nelson's sister. Taking three choruses of the 12-bar form in F at 134 BPM, Dolphy opens with the spirited, idiosyncratic playing that made him one of the most distinctive voices in jazz. His characteristically wide intervals and angular phrasing display his singular ability to transform conventional blues language into something wholly personal and unexpected.

Eric Dolphy was 32 to 33 years old at the time.