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Booker Ervin

Booker Ervin had a large hard tone like an r&b tenor saxophonist, but he was actually an adventurous player whose music fell between hard bop and the avant-garde. Ervin originally played trombone but taught himself the tenor when he was in the Air Force in the early 1950s. After his discharge, he studied music for two years before he made his recording debut with Ernie Fields in 1956. During that year he first performed with Charles Mingus and he was a key part of Mingus’s groups during 1956-1962, offering a contrast to the wild flights of Eric Dolphy. During 1963-1965, Ervin led ten albums for Prestige and each has its rewarding moments. "Exultation!" matches Ervin with altoist Frank Strozier in an explosive quintet. "The Freedom Book" has Ervin interacting with the unbeatable rhythm section of pianist Jaki Byard, bassist Richard Davis, and drummer Alan Dawson. "The Song Book," with Tommy Flanagan in Byard’s place, features the intense tenor interpreting a set of veteran standards. "The Blues Book," with trumpeter Carmell Jones and pianist Gildo Mahones, is comprised of four very different blues and more variety than expected. The Space Book has adventurous improvisations by Ervin, Byard, Davis, and Dawson while Settin’ the Pace features two lengthy and exciting jam-session numbers with fellow tenor Dexter Gordon and a pair of quartet pieces that showcase Ervin. The tenorist is particularly passionate on the stretched-out performances of The Trance and stars with a sextet on Heavy. Released years later," Groovin’ High" contains additional material from The Freedom Book, The Blues Book, and The Space Book sessions while Gumbo! (part of which was issued for the first time in 1999) has Ervin sharing the spotlight with altoist Pony Poindexter and on five songs leading an organ trio with Larry Young. Booker Ervin died much too young from kidney disease. He is one of the underrated greats of jazz history, a true individualist.

Charles Mingus: At Antibes 1960 Revisited

Read "At Antibes 1960 Revisited" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
October 11, 2023

At Antibes could easily be an all-time favorite Charles Mingus recording if he had not produced such extraordinary sessions as Mingus Ah Um (Columbia, 1959), Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus (Candid, 1961), The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady (Impulse!, 1963) and Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus (Impulse!, 1964). Listeners can make their own picks, but this live recording from 1960 at the Antibes Jazz Festival in Juan-les-Pins, France, has a power unique unto itself. One can almost feel the ...

Album Review

Charles Mingus: At Antibes 1960 Revisited

Read "At Antibes 1960 Revisited" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
September 28, 2023

Charles Mingus' exhilarating blend of roots and the avant-garde only rarely seems as binary* (see below) as it does on this recording from the 1960 Antibes Jazz Festival. Most often on a Mingus album, you do not hear the joins. This time, on one level, you do. Mingus leads a pianoless quintet completed by Booker Ervin on tenor saxophone, Eric Dolphy on alto saxophone and bass clarinet, Ted Curson on trumpet and Dannie Richmond on drums. Bud Powell ...

My Blue Note Obsession

Booker Ervin: The In Between -- 1968

by Marc Davis
July 5, 2016

There's a kind of music I like to think of as harder bop. It's a lot like conventional 1950s hard bop, but tougher, more muscular, more cerebral. Booker Ervin's The In Between is that kind of record. Ervin has an edgy style. It starts with a John Coltrane feel, then pushes a little further. Not into the crazy, atonal, unapproachable territory that Trane created in his later years, but into music that's more from the head than the ...

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Album Review

Booker Ervin: The Freedom Book

Read "The Freedom Book" reviewed by Troy Collins

by Troy Collins
May 9, 2007

The first of four thematically linked albums, tenor saxophonist Booker Ervin's The Freedom Book is an overlooked classic. The Song Book, The Blues Book and The Space Book were all subsequently recorded in 1964 for Prestige, but this seminal 1963 recording is a masterpiece of unconventional, advanced hard bop.

Less free than the title suggests, the album remains challenging and utterly contemporary. While not as willfully avant-garde as his contemporaries Eric Dolphy and Ornette Coleman, Ervin (best known ...

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Album Review

Booker Ervin: Tex Book Tenor

Read "Tex Book Tenor" reviewed by Norman Weinstein

by Norman Weinstein
October 25, 2005

I always thought the ultimate performances of tenor saxophonist Booker Ervin were on (arguably) the greatest studio recordings of Charles Mingus, Mingus Ah Um and Blues and Roots. This magnificent and long-overdue reissue of a Booker Ervin Blue Note session from 1968 has caused me to alter my opinion. I think this was the tenor saxman's greatest session, and given the company he found himself in, particularly trumpeter Woody Shaw and pianist Kenny Barron, it is little wonder that a ...

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Album Review

Charles Mingus: Mingus At Antibes

Read "Mingus At Antibes" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
August 10, 2005

Charles Mingus. You just have to know that he would have nudged, cajoled, or bullied his way into the top of this list, even twenty years after his death. Mingus at Antibes is a kinetic, frenetic, dysthymic document of the genius of an overly stimulated, overly indulgent, and overly gifted personality. Mingus was not unlike Mozart in the respect that many of Mozart's contemporaries pondered why God granted such an undeserving imp such talent. So with Mingus. How could such ...

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Album Review

Booker Ervin & Pony Poindexter: Gumbo!

by Derek Taylor
February 1, 2000

A strange combination of sorts, this release gathers two disparate sessions whose only apparent common denominator is the incredible Booker Ervin. Ervin’s name on the bill should be a signal to most jazz fans that the contents contained herein are worthy of their attention. The added bonuses are many as well and include a brief, but tantalizing meeting between the Texas tenor titan and forward-thinking organist Larry Young.

Poindexter is something of an enigma. He never really made it big ...

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Recording

Dexter Gordon and Booker Ervin

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
June 13, 2011

Tenor saxophone battles originated at Minton's Playhouse jam sessions in Harlem in the early 1940s and soon became common at clubs on Central Avenue in Los Angeles. Famed tenor sax pairings include Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray, Sonny Stitt and Gene Ammons, Eddie “Lockjaw" Davis and Johnny Griffin, and Zoot Sims and Al Cohn. One of the finest battle albums is Settin' the Pace (Prestige), featuring Dexter Gordon and Booker Ervin. The two tenor titans met in Munich, Germany, on ...
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