Rooster_Ties Posted March 20, 2004 Report Posted March 20, 2004 (edited) For reasons I can't possibly defend, until just a couple weeks ago, I had never heard any of Booker Ervin's non-BN dates (meaning I only had "The In Between" and "Structurally Sound" - which I realize that one or both of them weren't originally BN titles). Anyway, I just picked up "Heavy!" a couple weeks ago, and I really like it. Then our own Spontooneous loans me "The Trance" and "The Blues Book" just today, when we met for lunch. I've only heard "The Trance" so far (it's playing now), but DAMN!!! -- what an AMAZING date!!!!! I'm about to put "The Blues Book" in now. So, I thought I'd start a Booker Ervin thread, just cuz I need to know more about this guy. ( Oh, I also have "Booker and Brass" - which I only sorta liked at first, but it's grown on me a bit more over the couple of years since I first got it.) But damn, "The Trance" has sure as hell got me in one hell of a trance. Edited March 20, 2004 by Rooster_Ties Quote
Spontooneous Posted March 20, 2004 Report Posted March 20, 2004 Glad ya like. There's more where that came from. Booker at his best is truly hypnotic. The presence of Byard, Davis and Dawson doesn't hurt a thing either. A query for the more knowledgeable members of the board: Did that Enja "Lament for Booker Ervin" LP ever make it to CD? Quote
Brad Posted March 20, 2004 Report Posted March 20, 2004 Check out Cookin’, on Savoy, The Book Cooks on Bethlehem (Avenue Jazz) and since you have the Trance, Setting the Pace, a Prestige album. My favorite is, of course, Settin the Pace, with Dex but Cookin is also awesome, with Horace Parlan. Quote
Rooster_Ties Posted March 20, 2004 Author Report Posted March 20, 2004 (edited) Modified the sub-heading of this topic. "The Blues Walk" is nearly "really good", and great at times. But "The Trance" is totally off the wall!!! Thanks Spontoon!!! Gotta get me my own "Trance" disc, and quick!! (Good thing I'll be drivin' by Euclid Records in St. Louis in about two weeks.) So, to recap -- me wants more Booker Ervin like "The Trance". Bring it on!!!! Edited March 20, 2004 by Rooster_Ties Quote
catesta Posted March 20, 2004 Report Posted March 20, 2004 I remember DEEP givin' me shit about liking Booker at AAJ. What can I say, I dig the hell out if him. Grab 'em if you see 'em. Quote
Pete C Posted March 20, 2004 Report Posted March 20, 2004 You'll definitely want the Space Book & The Freedom Book, with Byard, Davis & Dawson. The album that has been released as "Sounds of the Inner City" by Booker Little and Booker Ervin is a killer. It is actually a Teddy Charles group, and was recorded at the Museum of Modern Art sculpture garden, I believe. But I'm also partial to his funky stuff with Don Patterson. And his brilliant sideman offerings with Mingus (especially Wonderland) and Weston (especially Monterey '66). And Waldron's The Quest. And Roy Haynes' Cracklin'. One of the most individual tenor voices of the '60s, it was perhaps his in-betweenness that kept him from getting the attention he deserved. His early death didn't make it any easier. Quote
Pete C Posted March 20, 2004 Report Posted March 20, 2004 I remember DEEP givin' me shit about liking Booker at AAJ. I'd consider that high praise for your taste and for Booker. Quote
Morganized Posted March 20, 2004 Report Posted March 20, 2004 (edited) Rooster, I predict that you will have read every "book" that Mr. Ervin has "written" with in a very short period of time! Love them all. Each one unique in its own way. He is a monster......and a Texan! Gotta love it!!! Enjoy! Edited March 20, 2004 by Morganized Quote
ralphie_boy Posted March 20, 2004 Report Posted March 20, 2004 You'll definitely want the Space Book & The Freedom Book, with Byard, Davis & Dawson. What he said! Quote
king ubu Posted March 20, 2004 Report Posted March 20, 2004 A query for the more knowledgeable members of the board: Did that Enja "Lament for Booker Ervin" LP ever make it to CD? Yes, I have it. A good one! Seems it's OOP, though (Enja has a real shitty, almost non-existing back-list!) I love Booker! Really love him. All the sideman dates, well almost all, particularly though the Mingus ones (Wonderland, Ah Um, Blues & Roots..., At Antibes) were the first place I got to hear him. Then I picked up the Freedom and Space books, later the Blues Book - that's till now all of the Prestige stuff I have. The BN and Pacific albums are great. "Booker'n'Brass" is one I like pretty well, too. Has not yet been mentioned, I think. Also I'm fond of his one Savoy date (the Parlan crew with Richard Williams added), his Candid album (with Horace Parlan under the ridiculous nom-de-plume "Felix Krull"), and his Bethlehem album (which has Tommy Turrentine & Zoot Sims along with Booker). ubu Quote
couw Posted March 20, 2004 Report Posted March 20, 2004 'cause Booker plays on it. It's a two tenor front line Quote
JSngry Posted March 20, 2004 Report Posted March 20, 2004 And because it's some of the very best Booker on record. Quote
JSngry Posted March 20, 2004 Report Posted March 20, 2004 And because Barron's quirky compositions bring the "Trance"-like qualities of Booker's playing to the fore. Quote
Leeway Posted March 20, 2004 Report Posted March 20, 2004 (edited) I picked up this double LP up recently and totally dig it. It's one of the Blue Note Re-Issue Series; don't think it made it to CD (although not sure if parts of it might not have gone to CD). Yanow at AMG says of it: This two-LP set, consists of a pair of classic Blue Note sets that were not originally released until 1976. The great tenor Booker Ervin (whose hard passionate sound was always immediately recognizable) is well-showcased with the Horace Parlan Sextet in 1963 (a group also featuring pianist Parlan, trumpeter Johnny Coles and guitarist Grant Green) and with his own all-star quintet from 1968 (which also stars trumpeter Woody Shaw and pianist Kenny Barron). The stimulating group originals and advanced solos (which fall somewhere between hard bop and the avant-garde) still sound fresh and frequently exciting. — Scott Yanow The LP has extensive, excellent notes by Cuscuna. I found the following comment insightful: "Ervin beautifully and paradoxically combines his earthy, spare style with a more complex, harmonic approach of modern jazz. This masterful pairing of opposites was his most indelible trademark, a trademark shared by that remarkable, invisible fraternity of Texas saxaphonists." [Cuscuna links Booker to other noted Texas sax players]. Cuscuna also mentions: "Booker Ervin will always hold a special place in my soul. The hours that I spent on the tenor sax trying to achieve his sound were merley a tribute to what his music did for me." I never knew that Cuscuna was a sax player. An interesting tidbit. If you still spin vinyl, a worthy set to acquire. Edited March 20, 2004 by Leeway Quote
JSngry Posted March 20, 2004 Report Posted March 20, 2004 Another side note of trivial interest - one of Gary Giddings' first "Weather Bird" columns (in Down Beat in the very early 1970s) was a loving tribute to Booker Ervin. Quote
couw Posted March 20, 2004 Report Posted March 20, 2004 so, who's gonna be the first to mention that Booker only had two solos: a fast one and a slow one? Quote
JSngry Posted March 20, 2004 Report Posted March 20, 2004 so, who's gonna be the first to mention that Booker only had two solos: a fast one and a slow one? That's pretty much true, objectively, but I DON'T CARE! In the words of the Prophets Mickey & Sylvia, "Love is strange". Quote
Jazzdog Posted March 20, 2004 Report Posted March 20, 2004 so, who's gonna be the first to mention that Booker only had two solos: a fast one and a slow one? ...which as generalized a statement as Miles only playing slow ones. Quote
couw Posted March 20, 2004 Report Posted March 20, 2004 so, who's gonna be the first to mention that Booker only had two solos: a fast one and a slow one? ...which as generalized a statement as Miles only playing slow ones. I'm not sure what you mean by that. But: I didn't say I don't like Booker, I like his playing a lot in fact. I merely noted that there really isn't that much variation in Ervin's solos. There have been previous discussion in which it was pointed out by various people. The last time people reacted rather shocked at this observation, as if someone pissed up the pope's leg. That's what the little wink was all about. On AAJ Deep basically said the same thing but he put it a bit, well... "Deep-ish" and dissed the man for it. Nobody else did really. It's like with Lee Morgan towards the end of his career. Almost all of his solos were filled with the same licks then. That for me doesn't diminish the joy the music brings me though. But if I want to hear him revel in invention and freshness, I put on early Lee. If I want to hear steam-roller, make way here *I*come, tenor playing, I put on Ervin and I know that is precisely what I am going to get. Quote
king ubu Posted March 20, 2004 Report Posted March 20, 2004 so, who's gonna be the first to mention that Booker only had two solos: a fast one and a slow one? ...which as generalized a statement as Miles only playing slow ones. ubu Quote
gdogus Posted March 21, 2004 Report Posted March 21, 2004 (edited) My favs (so far) are the "book" albums, 1963-64, all of which feature Ervin with bassist Richard Davis and drummer Alan Dawson.... Freedom Book and Space Book, with pianist Jaki Byard Song Book, with pianist Tommy Flanagan Blues Book, with trumpeter Carmell Jones and pianist Gildo Mahones Edited March 21, 2004 by gdogus Quote
connoisseur series500 Posted March 21, 2004 Report Posted March 21, 2004 I remember DEEP givin' me shit about liking Booker at AAJ. I remember that as well. I was one of the "Booger" Ervin fans that he laid into. I like his music very much. Haven't really come across a bad session yet. All the "Books" are good. Quote
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