019 - Dolphy's Blood Sugar

To a certain extent this blog is a musical diary. Not that I’m trying to express my thoughts or experiences on any particular day musically, but more as a way of pinpointing when I encountered something interesting or memorable, and usually that’s reflected in the title. Sometimes it’s a stretch if it’s been a dull day.

All of these compositions are jotted down the evening before they’re posted here. Usually they are titled at the time I code them, sometimes the title goes on the next day before posting.

That is the case here, and that’s only because today I learned how one of the greatest jazz musicians I know of, one I’ve always admired, Eric Dolphy, died because German doctors assumed the reason for the coma he fell into while onstage in Berlin in 1964 was due to a drug overdose, this because they assumed all black jazz musicians were junkies, when the reality was Dolphy was a teetotaler on the level of Frank Zappa and was actually in a diabetic coma, and because the doctors never bothered checking it was left untreated and he died as a result.

I’m a bit surprised I’m just now learning this. I’ve always admired his music, just never thought to learn about his life.