The Hype Machine (Free subscription) | 07/02/2008
in post Francis 'Scrapper' Blackwell... Max Roach... Donald Byrd... Booker Ervin... Art Blakey... Derek Bailey... from wordsandmusic .
The Hype Machine (Free subscription) | 07/02/2008
in post Francis 'Scrapper' Blackwell... Max Roach... Donald Byrd... Booker Ervin... Art Blakey... Derek Bailey... from wordsandmusic .
wordsandmusic (Free subscription) | 07/02/2008
I promised a commenter some more Francis 'Scrapper' Blackwell – so here's the man giving out 'Blue Day Blues.' He really is one of the missing links between twenties country blues and later urban styles – introducing more linearity via the single-string breaks, for example. No mean singer either... From his 1967 album 'Blackjack,' this is Donald Byrd heading up a septet on 'Pentatonic.' Sonny Red solos...
Bagatellen (Free subscription) | 03/17/2008
In both title and content, this 1966 album for Pacific Jazz is reflective of Booker Ervin�s track record in reliability. The tenor saxophonist never cut a shoddy record by my reckoning, and this lesser heralded session is actually one...
BLUES TOWN (The City Of Blues) (Free subscription) | 03/11/2008
Opening with Ellington's "Take the Coltrane," David "Fathead" Newman's late-1999 Chillin' brims with his band's talents and his own pressed, soulful tone. Newman shares geographical origins with fellow Texan saxophonists like James Clay, Booker Ervin, Illinois Jacquet, and Herschel Evans, with shades of each present in Chillin'. Also present, very frontally in the audio mix, is vibraphonist Bryan...
LP Cover Lover (Free subscription) | 02/09/2008
“Hip Cake Walk” Don Patterson (Organ) with Booker Ervin (Tenor Sax). Prestige Records. (1964) Funky organ jazz originals by Patterson including the title cut, “Sister Ruth” and”Donald Duck.” Also covers of Earl Hine’s “Rosetta” and the Drifters’ “Under the Boardwalk.” Alto saxophonist Leonard Houston and drummer Billy James join the romp. The cover features a hip, [...]
Bagatellen (Free subscription) | 01/30/2008
Boxholder 054 Though pianist Bobby Few came to notoriety as part of the Frank Wright Quartet and Steve Lacy�s ensembles in the 1970s and 80s, respectively, and worked with saxophonists as diverse as Booker Ervin, Albert Ayler and Marzette...
wordsandmusic (Free subscription) | 01/25/2008
Continuing apologies for lack of blog presence... lingering illness (cough bloody cough) and another project that I am way behind on (the CD/Download label) have taken my time... so here are three tracks to re-start the fandango... Holding the bop line in 1957... on the West Coast... Curtis Counce , another who went too young (died in 1963), a respected bass player around and about, formed his group...
Bagatellen (Free subscription) | 01/08/2008
Delmark 579 In an ever-constricting small venue economy, long standing residencies for working jazz ensembles continue to dwindle. It�s a sobering state of affairs not lost on Sabertooth, whose own name echoes that of a long extinct beast. Thus...
wordsandmusic (Free subscription) | 12/25/2007
And now it's Christmas Day... Another mix... 1.Prince Far I – Heavy manners 2.Burning Star Core – This moon will be your grave 3.Sidney Bechet – Blues in thirds 4.Miles Davis – Jeru 5.Arcana – Derek Bailey/Bill Laswell/Tony Williams – Tears of astral rain 6.Howling Wolf – How many more years 7.Fugazi – Repeater 8.Jackson C. Frank -Yonder come the blues 9.Booker Ervin – Den Tex 10.The Impressions –...
LP Cover Lover (Free subscription) | 12/10/2007
“The Freedom Book” Booker Ervin Prestige Records 1963 Booker Ervin, tenor sax; Jaki Byard, piano; Richard Davis, bass; Alan Dawson, drums Track List: A Lunar Tune, Cry Me Not (by Randy Weston), Grant's Stand, A Day to Mourn, Al's In. Rudy Van Gelder produced. Booker Ervin was an artist who bridged the gap in post-bop 1960s between straight ahead [...]
wordsandmusic (Free subscription) | 09/14/2007
Internet service has finally been restored... But other complications – my rackety health mainly... So a quick post – but hoping to get back to some regularity soon. I keep saying this – hi ho. The toll of blogging for some time now. But the taste for it is still there... Honest... There is always a sprawling, unruly joy to Mingus's music.... This is 'No Private Income Blues' from the album 'Mingus...
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | 08/14/2007
Philadelphia performance artist "Skip" Homer Jackson recently asked my opinion about a number of jazz artists who have been overlooked because they were great stylists who played in the shadows of great players. I immediately thought of Booker Ervin in relationship to John Coltrane; and Booker Little, who ironically was little (no pun intended) appreciated during the 1960's era of stellar jazz hornmen....
Jazz & Blues Music Reviews (Free subscription) | 05/28/2007
Charles Mingus - In Paris: The Complete America Session (Sunnyside, 2007) This is a re-release of an obscure Charles Mingus session originally recorded for the America label. The legendary bassist and composer is joined by Jaki Byard on piano, Bobby Jones on tenor saxophone, Charles McPherson on alto saxophone, Eddie Preston on trumpet, and Dannie Richmond on drums. This is a two disc set which I downloaded...
wordsandmusic (Free subscription) | 05/24/2007
Sometime back I posted a Cecil Taylor track from the album released under Gil Evan's name ('Into the Hot'), but featuring on the original LP a side each by Taylor and John Carisi. To redress the balance, here is 'Ankgor Wat.' A sound world away from Taylor, Carisi had been around – a self-taught trumpeter he is mainly known for his writing and arranging skills – and most notably for the tune 'Israel,'...
