Eric Dolphy was a true original with his own distinctive styles on flute, alto saxophone, and bass clarinet. His music falls into the "avant-garde" category yet he did not discard diatonic relationships entirely; rather he used clusters of notes in less common ways.
While most of the other "free jazz" players sounded serious in their playing, Dolphy's solos often came across as ecstatic and exuberant. His improvisations utilized very wide intervals, a variety of nonmusical, speech-like sounds and its own logic. Although alto saxophone was his main instrument, Dolphy was the first flutist to move beyond bop (influencing James Newton) and he largely introduced the bass clarinet to jazz as a solo instrument. He was also one of the first (after Coleman Hawkins) to record unaccompanied horn solos, preceding Anthony Braxton by five years.