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Last Date: Eric Dolphy
By Ed Grant 11/28/2005
Color/B&W, NR (mature themes), 92 min., DVD only $29.95
DVD: TV interview with colleagues of Eric Dolphy, discography, poem about Dolphy
Street: Available now
First Run: L, Int'l. 1991, < $1 mil.
Director: Hans Hylkema
Jazz aficionados will be most receptive to this 1991 insider's portrait of musician Dolphy, who was a virtuoso on three instruments (alto sax, flute and bass clarinet). Last Date offers reflections on Dolphy from the Dutch musicians who accompanied him on a series of concerts and the album Last Date and follows biographer Thierry Bruneau as he traces Dolphy's childhood and fledgling career in jazz. The film is aimed primarily at those who are already familiar with Dolphy's reputation, if not his music. And thus the uninitiated will have to wait until the midway point for the particulars of his genius to be outlined by his fellow musicians. Fans and non-fans will be moved, however, by the details of Dolphy's death at age 36 (his diabetic condition was mistaken by many for a drug addiction) and the vibrant archival footage, including clips of Dolphy playing with Charles Mingus' "Jazz Workshop" in 1964.
Last Date: Eric Dolphy
By Ed Grant 11/28/2005
Color/B&W, NR (mature themes), 92 min., DVD only $29.95
DVD: TV interview with colleagues of Eric Dolphy, discography, poem about Dolphy
Street: Available now
First Run: L, Int'l. 1991, < $1 mil.
Director: Hans Hylkema
Jazz aficionados will be most receptive to this 1991 insider's portrait of musician Dolphy, who was a virtuoso on three instruments (alto sax, flute and bass clarinet). Last Date offers reflections on Dolphy from the Dutch musicians who accompanied him on a series of concerts and the album Last Date and follows biographer Thierry Bruneau as he traces Dolphy's childhood and fledgling career in jazz. The film is aimed primarily at those who are already familiar with Dolphy's reputation, if not his music. And thus the uninitiated will have to wait until the midway point for the particulars of his genius to be outlined by his fellow musicians. Fans and non-fans will be moved, however, by the details of Dolphy's death at age 36 (his diabetic condition was mistaken by many for a drug addiction) and the vibrant archival footage, including clips of Dolphy playing with Charles Mingus' "Jazz Workshop" in 1964.