Booker Ervin - Sextet, Quintet and Quartet / 2CD set

"I just heard a tenor who cuts just about everybody", saxophonist Shafi Hadi, then a Charles Mingus sideman, told his boss in the late 50s. "He doesnt play just changes; he plays music".

That was Booker Ervin (1930-1970), a hard-blowing Texas tenor whose influences included Lester Young, Dexter Gordon and John Coltrane. But when Mingus hired him after Ervin hit New York in 1958, his huge, blues-inflected sound and personal approach were unmistakeable. The Mingus profile led to his recordings as leader.

In his three earliest, collected here, his sheer force of personality and ideas refreshed the hard bop genre. The Book Cooks and Cookin are solidly swinging dates, full of Ervins strong soloing, with excellent contributions from Zoot Sims and Tommy Flanagan on the first, and Horace Parlan, and Richard Williams on the second; both include bassist George Tucker and Mingus drummer Dannie Richmond. Best of all is Thats It! with Parlan, Tucker and drummer Al Harewood, and a leader in such sublimely powerful form that the hard bop boundaries hardly contained him.Sources:
CD 1, tracks #1-6 from "The Book Cooks" (Bethlehem BCP6048)
CD 1, tracks #7-9 & CD 2, tracks #1-3 from "Cookin'" (Savoy MG12154)
CD 2, tracks #4-9 from "That's It!" (Candid CJM8014)

Personnel on "The Book Cooks"
BOOKER ERVIN SEXTET
Tommy Turrentine (trumpet, except on #5), Booker Ervin, Zoot Sims (tenor sax, except on #5), Tommy Flanagan (piano), George Tucker (bass), Dannie Richmond (drums).
Recorded in New York City, in June, 1960

Personnel on "Cookin'"
BOOKER ERVIN QUINTET
Richard Williams (trumpet), Booker Ervin (tenor sax), Horace Parlan (piano), George Tucker (bass), Dannie Richmond (drums).
Recorded at Medallion Studios, Newark, New Jersey, on November 26, 1960

Personnel on "That's It!"
BOOKER ERVIN QUARTET
Booker Ervin (tenor sax), Horace Parlan (piano), George Tucker (bass), Al Harewood (drums).
Recorded at Nola Penthouse Sound Studios, New York City, on January 6, 1961