Booker Ervin - Back from The Gig
Released - 1976
Recording and Session Information
Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, February 15, 1963
Johnny Coles, trumpet; Booker Ervin, tenor sax; Horace Parlan, piano; Grant Green, guitar #1-5; Butch Warren, bass; Billy Higgins, drums.
tk.6 Happy Frame Of Mind
tk.7 A Tune For Richard
tk.10 Home In Africa
tk.15 Dexi
tk.18 Back From The Gig
tk.21 Kucheza Blues
Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, May 24, 1968
Woody Shaw, trumpet; Booker Ervin, tenor sax; Kenny Barron, piano; Jan Arnett, bass; Billy Higgins, drums.
tk.2 In A Capricornian Way
tk.7 Den Tex
tk.9 Lynn's Tune
tk.11 204
tk.12 Gichi
Track Listing
| Side One | ||
| Title | Author | Recording Date |
| Home is Africa | Ronnie Boykins | 15 February 1963 |
| A Tune For Richard | Booker Ervin | 15 February 1963 |
| Back From The Gig | Horace Parlan | 15 February 1963 |
| Side Two | ||
| Dexi | Johnny Coles | 15 February 1963 |
| Kucheza Blues | Randy Weston | 15 February 1963 |
| Happy Frame Of Mind | Horace Parlan | 15 February 1963 |
| Side Three | ||
| Gichi | Kenny Barron | May 24 1968 |
| Den Tex | Booker Ervin | May 24 1968 |
| In a Capricornian Way | Woody Shaw | May 24 1968 |
| Side Four | ||
| Lynn's Tune | Booker Ervin | May 24 1968 |
| 204 | Booker Ervin | May 24 1968 |
Liner Notes
BOOKER ERVIN
Arnett Cobb, King Curtis, Hank Crawford, David Newman, Don Wilkerson, Wilton Felder, Ornette Coleman, Billy Harper, Booker Ervin, Julius Hemphill: despite the various styles and eras in that list, all of these artists share a common voice — the unmistakable sound of the Texas saxophone. That tone, immediately recognizable and irresistible, is strong, biting almost to the point of overblowing, passionate almost to the point of frenzy. Improvisations are crystalline and precise. A powerful, bent half note will express more than a mad flurry of sixteenth notes. These are our gutbucket intellectuals, true masters of lyrical construction, the bearers of the modern day field holler, musical synthesizers of the mind and the soul.
Booker Ervin was born on the last day of October, 1930 in North Texas. Booker Ervin died shortly after his fortieth birthday, leaving us a rich legacy of recorded work. What we gave him was much less; it's the same old story of little recognition, poor working conditions, meager financial rewards and the standard diet of racial and political blockades that our society so generously and frequently constructs.
In his early years, Booker Telleferro Ervin II played his father's instrument: the trombone. Music was neither a passion nor an intended vocation. Upon graduating high school, Ervin spent one year in the Air Force and finished off the forties wandering from city to city and job to job. Lack of purpose and general ambivalence led him back into the Air Force in 1950. But this time, he picked up a tenor saxophone that he found in an officers' club and began learning it by ear and instinct. Two years in Okinawa gave Ervin the chance to develop his ability and develop a love for the instrument.
Booker left the Air Force again, but with a direction and a tenor saxophone this time. After several months of hard work in Texas, he saved enough money to enroll in Schillinger House in Boston to study saxophone and music theory. After one year, he had conquered the basics, but an illness cut his studies short.
In 1954, Booker was a full-fledged professional musician ready to pay his dues with Ernie Field's r & b band and a string of one nighters that took him through Mexico, the United States and Canada. In 1955, he spent an edifying three months in Dallas in the band of another great Texas tenor saxophonist James Clay. His maverick tendencies subsided long enough for him to spend a year and a half in Denver, drafting by day and working on his music by night. By this time, Booker had fully assimilated his early influences: Lester Young, Buster Smith and Dexter Gordon and was on his way to developing his own style.
In other words, he was on his way to New York. A fateful stopover in Pittsburgh en route brought the saxophonist together with pianist Horace Parlan. After a few gigs, the empathy that they shared was evident, and they continued on to New York together. New York makes no promises. Parlan found affordable living conditions by sharing an apartment with Don Ellis and Cedar Walton. Ervin's situation must have been equally tenuous. But a break came when Parlan joined Charles Mingus' Jazz Workshop.
A rather highly publicized dispute between Mingus and his trombonist Jimmy Knepper afforded Parlan the opportunity to suggest Booker as a replacement. 1959 proved to be a fruitful year; Mingus' live appearances and two albums "Blues And Roots" (Atlantic) and ' 'Mingus Ah Um" (Columbia) quickly admitted Ervin and Parlan into the major leagues of jazz. And like all who pass through the tumultuous ranks of the Mingus organization, the experience was demanding, educational and enriching.
Mingus' music in general and those two albums in particular could not have been a better starting point for Booker's introduction into the top jazz ranks. The bassist's music was drenched in the blues and unabashedly expressive from cries of frenzy to sensual lyricism. Ervin's voice had found its ideal setting. He was making his own startling statement and contributing immensely to the group's music as a whole. That strong, impassioned Texas sound turned "Better Git It In Your Soul", "Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting" and "Tensions" from those recordings into the highest sanctifying experience, The saxophonist's power on '"Fables Of Faubus" is as frightening as the man about whom the piece was written.
1960 was the year that both Parlan and Ervin recorded as leaders. It was also the year that Parlan would leave Mingus' band, although Ervin would stay on Intermittently until 1963. The music community was becoming quite aware of Parlan's talents as a composer and pianist, whose facility is made even more remarkable by the childhood polio that took away the use of three fingers on one hand. Alfred Lion and Frank Wolff of Blue Note, who were never known to let commercial considerations get in the way of their excellent musical taste, recorded seven albums under Parlan's leadership from 1960 to 1963. Parlan also participated in a number of Blue Note dates as a sideman, including Stanley Turrentine's best efforts for the label.
After his tenures With Mingus, Slide Hampton and the Johnny Griffin-Eddie Lockjaw Daws quintet, Parlan found some security in a three year stint with Rahsaan Roland Kirk's quartet from 1963 to 1966. After that gig, Parlan seemed to all but disappear, making infrequent appearances as a sideman in a pickup group or playing solo in a piano bar. "What ever happened to Horace Parlan)" was the most common context in which his name would come up during this dry period.
In the early seventies, Parlan resurfaced in Copenhagen, enthusiastically active on the music scene and playing at the top of his form.
The Ervin-Parlan musical collaboration extended well beyond their time together With Mingus. Horace was the one constant and integral factor in the saxophonist's second, third and fourth albums as a leader (Savoy in 1960, Candid in 1961 and Prestige in 1963). Booker was featured on Parlan's sixth Blue Note album "Up & Down" and on the session contained herein, which was to have been the pianists seventh for the label. The session was given a catalogue number, the album title "Happy Frame Of Mind" and even listed in many catalogues. But for whatever reason or set of circumstances, it was never issued.
When Enja Records of Germany recently unearthed a live 1965 recording oi Booker at the Berlin Jazz Festival, they commissioned Horace to write and record a solo piano tribute to the late saxophonist entitled '"Lament For Booker."
The Horace Parlan sextet date on sides one and two allow the pianist great variety in material and texture. The roles of the trumpet, tenor saxophone and guitar vary from composition to composition, lending a fresh approach to each piece and successfully avoiding the standard 'play the head down and Jam' syndrome that can become so boring.
"Home Is Africa". with its perpetual two bar bass figure and unusual theme. is among Parlan's most brilliant and interesting compositions. Booker's solo takes many turns and integrates into the composition beautifully.
'Back From The Gig", which the pianist re-recorded in 1973 on his Steeplechase album "Arrival", was borne out of an early frustrating experience while on the road with Rahsaan Roland Kirk. The quartet arrived in Cincinnati for a club date to find only an organ in the joint, an instrument that Parlan has always been loathe to play. The piano that was eventually brought in proved to be an equally horrendous alternative. This composition was written during the welcome flight homeward.
Trumpeter Johnny Coles, a warm, lyrical improviser with a gorgeous tone, is best known for his work with James Moody, the Gil Evans orchestra and Herbie Hancock's sextet of the mid to late sixties. Three months after this session, possibly even because of his performance here, he made his own album as a leader for Blue Note, "Little Johnny C". Some of his finest moments were captured on the classic Gil Evans sessions for World Pacific (now re-released in the Blue Note Re-issue Series), Impulse and Verve and on Herbie Hancock's final Blue Note album "The Prisoner" from 1969. "Little Johnny C" and an earlier quartet date for Epic remain much sought after collectors' items. The rest of the cast on the Parlan date were frequent and familiar faces at Blue Note. Butch Warren, a solid, supportive bassist from Washington D.C. appeared on many significant Blue Note albums of the early sixties. Sadly, he has since left the forefront of the New York jazz scene.
Grant Green, possibly the strongest and most resilient guitarist to emerge out of the fifties, had a long and brilliant career with Blue Note as a leader and as d sideman. He refused to be pigeon-holed into the two common roles for the guitar in jazz in the late fifties and sixties; he was neither a 'cool' lightweight nor a steamroller foil for a parade of organists. His ideas and his settings were varied, inventive and expressive. Like Booker, he too had been on Parlan's previous date "Up And Down".
The amazing Billy Higgins. who first came to prominence with Paul Bley and Ornette Coleman in an otherwise bleak Los Angeles jazz scene in the late fifties, is a master of taste, inventiveness and versatility. It is a testament to his longevity and durability that he is on both sessions here, covering a five year spread from 1963 to 1968. Coincidentally, he covers a similar five year span (1962 and 1967) on the two sessions used on Jackie McLean's 'Hipnosis" (BN-LA483) in this same series.
The early and mid sixties were as fluctuating for Ervin as his artistry was consistent. Most of his public appearances were in the ensembles of Charles Mingus and Randy Weston, and he was an acknowledged master interpreter of both of their highly individual musics. There were a few rare appearances as a leader or with Horace Parlan or at those all-star jam sessions that saturated New York City during that period. He found himself going to Europe with more and more frequency to play in front of a far more appreciative audience than the one in his homeland.
The saxophonist's only consistency in this period was Prestige Record's fortunate decision to record his music. That association from 1963 to 1966 bore nine albums. Two magic sessions in 1963 and 1964 with Ervin, Jaki Byard. Richard Davis and Alan Dawson gave us three albums: "The Freedom Book", "The Space Book", and "Groovin' High". Magic because this quartet played with a oneness, empathy and chemistry that can only be likened to the Miles Davis quintet or John Coltrane quartet or Modern Jazz Quartet. Here were four accomplished and individual artists, who were simultaneously root-oriented and forward thinking. Not since Mingus, had Booker Ervin had such a perfect vehicle to sensibly employ his heartfelt funk and his creative, daring inventions at the same time. Traditional roles were assimilated and then cast aside with this group. In other words, each instrumentalist fulfilled his function and went beyond it with startling interaction and telepathy, It remains one of the more regrettable economic tragedies in jazz that this unit could not stay together and develop through more recordings and live appearances. This priceless combination had a starting point that some groups never attain after years of growth.
Booker's last recordings for Prestige were live tapes from Munich with the rhythm section of Byard, Dawson and Reggie Workman. One album was a quartet format, the other an exciting encounter between the saxophonist and his early idol Dexter Gordon, about whom he had been quoted as saying, "I like Dexter Gordon — he has my favorite sound — a real hard, loud tenor sound. That Don Byas and Coleman Hawkins sound. That's the sound. As far as style, I like Dexter. His ideas were more modern. My influences were Dexter and Sonny Stitt when I was coming up. Then Coltrane and Rollins came on the scene, and I tried to come out of Dexter Gordon's and Sonny Stitt's style and come into my own style. I tried not to follow Trane, which a lot of tenor players did, and I can see why they did. But I tried to come out of the middle of that."
In the fall of 1966, Ervin travelled to the West Coast to make a stunning appearance with Randy Weston's septet at the annual Monterey Jazz Festival. That trip also involved a new recording affiliation for him with Pacific Jazz. At that point, he made an excellent first album "Structurally Sound" with a tight quintet that included trumpeter Charles Tolliver and pianist John Hicks. Unfortunately, his second effort for the label was an ill-conceived big band date with a set of tunes linked only by the fact that their titles included geographic names of American cities. Perhaps his early nomadic existence instigated the concept, but the performances were short and, for the most part, uninspired.
With Pacific Jazz and Blue Note by then under the same ownership, Booker was soon assigned to Blue Note for which he made an outstanding quintet album "The In Between" with trumpeter Richard Williams and the extremely versatile and underrated pianist Bobby Few. With Lee Morgan, he was a rather special guest artists on Andrew Hill's "Grass Roots" album for the label. And like Hill, his ability to creatively bring the past and the future together was quite evident.
Sides three and four in this album were to be his next Blue Note album. Like the Parlan session, the date was given a catalogue number, but never released. Again, the reasons remain a mystery. The music is nothing less than superb,
Here the saxophonist put together a whole new quintet, which showcased two emerging musicians, whose albums on Muse I have had the pleasure of producing. Woody Shaw and Kenny Barron are consumate talents, whose personalities, convictions, technical prowess and creative abilities are fully realized and reflected in their music.
Woody Shaw's first exposure to the jazz world came with a session by the amazing Eric Dolphy for Douglas Records. Although one sad reviewer credited "Woody Shaw" as a pseudonym for Freddie Hubbard, the trumpeter could not be overlooked for very long. His reputation grew as he became another talented member of the loosely organized Blue Note stable, recording with Jackie McLean, Horace Silver, Andrew Hill and Larry Young among others and touring with McLean, Silver and Blakey. More often than not, he would bring tunes to recording sessions, and almost always they would make it to the final album. His special skill in writing in waltz time is well illustrated with "In A Capricornian Way" on this Ervin date.
Kenny Barron moved from his hometown of Philadelphia to New York in the early sixties to work with his saxophonist brother Bill and with trumpeter Ted Curson. A long and significant tenure with Dizzy Gillespie followed, establishing him as a versatile, brilliant new talent of the piano. His first encounter with Booker was a 1964 double tenor session led by Bill Barron and entitled "Hot Line" on Savoy.
His composition "Gichi" was first recorded on Atlantic during this same time period by the Kenny Barron-Jimmy Owens quintet. It is the densest, most inspired tune on this particular date. The piano left hand and bass maintain an infectious figure, while the drums glide through the proceedings with a light, speedy double time feel. The soloists lock into this unique blend, weaving in and out of the constant half time funk and swift, boppjsh modern jazz feel.
In fact, throughout the entire proceedings, 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 saxophonists.
In December of 1968, Booker Ervin was reunited with his old magical rhythm section of Jaki Byard, Richard Davis and Alan Dawson for an all-star Eric Kloss album "In The Land Of The Giants" on Prestige. It was a happy session and a happy reunion. Good spirits and professionalism were in the air, After the first take of "So What", Richard apologized for one small flaw he made in his lightening speed delivery of the melody line, explaining that he had a sprained wrist. Needless to say, we all stood open-mouthed at his casual revelation. But that was the caliber of these artists, and that was the spirit of the session.
No one thought to bring Booker Ervin into the studio during the next two years, which just happened to be his last on Earth. The next time that Booker's name would circulate throughout the jazz world was the end of 1970 when the jazz media would spew forth repeated obituaries, testimonials and announcements of benefit concerts.
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 merely a tribute to what his music did for me. He was one of those immensely creative people who did not hold a proper official place in the evolution of jazz and did not have a whole school of followers or imitators. He was one of those individuals who stood alone. Like Johnny Griffin, Hank Mobley, Tina Brooks and others, his voice as it passed through the tenor saxophone was heartfelt, special and uniquely personal. The special gifts of such artists are forever being overshadowed by the more flamboyant or revolutionary players who push forward (or sideways) the course of the music, But there was only one Booker Ervin, and there will never be another.
In the liner notes for the re-release of his "African Cookbook" album, Randy Weston wrote, "Booker Ervin is no longer with us physically, but he is still with us spiritually. He will live in musical memory as long as his playing can be heard, with its vitality, strength and power, with its tenderness and poignancy. He was a uniquely creative artist, greatly missed by us all. 'African Cookbook' was named for Booker; his sound always reminded me of North Africa. I wrote 'Portrait Of Vivian' for my mother, but it wasn't really 'created' until Booker played it and left us a masterpiece of the tenor saxophone, a classic."
I love Randy Weston and his music as much as I loved Booker and his music. Beyond this point words fail me.
MICHAEL CUSCUNA
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