Eric Allan Dolphy Jr. (June 20, 1928 – June 29, 1964) was an American jazz alto saxophonist, bass clarinetist and flautist. On a few occasions, he also played the clarinet and piccolo. Dolphy was one of several multi-instrumentalists to gain prominence around the time that he was active. His use of the bass clarinet helped to establish the instrument within jazz. Dolphy extended the vocabulary and boundaries of the alto saxophone, and was among the earliest significant jazz flute soloists.

His improvisational style was characterized by the use of wide intervals, in addition to using an array of extended techniques to emulate the sounds of human voices and animals. Although Dolphy’s work is sometimes classified as free jazz, his compositions and solos were often rooted in conventional (if highly abstracted) tonal bebop harmony and melodic lines that suggest the influences of modern classical composers such as Béla Bartók and Igor Stravinsky^{[citation needed]} as well as Arnold Schoenberg.

Dolphy was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, to Eric Allan Dolphy, Sr. and Sadie Dolphy, who immigrated to the United States from Panama. He picked up the clarinet at age six, and in less than a month was playing in the school’s orchestra. He also learned the oboe in junior high school, though he never recorded on the instrument. While still in junior high, he received a scholarship to study at the music school of University of Southern California, which was near where he and his parents lived. Hearing Fats Waller, Duke Ellington and Coleman Hawkins led him toward jazz, and he picked up the saxophone and flute while in high school.