Booker Ervin

Booker Ervin ( Booker Ervin Telle Ferro II * 31 October 1930 in Denison , Texas ; † 31 August 1970 in New York City ) was an American jazz - Tenor saxophonist , composer and bandleader.

Life

His father was the trombonist Booker Ervin, Sr., who played with Buddy Tate . Ervin began playing the same instrument as his father when he was eight. He attended Terrell High School in Denison and played in the school orchestra there. From 1949 to 1953 Ervin served in the Air Force , where he autodidactically learned to play the saxophone . He then attended Schillinger House (later Berklee School of Music ) in Boston for a year and became a member of Ernie Fields' rhythm and blues band (1954/55), from which musicians like Benny Powell also emerged . He then worked for a few months with James Clay in Dallas and with Lowell Fulson in Chicago. As a postal worker worked in Denver and eventually went to Pittsburgh, where he met Horace Parlan , with whom he moved to New York City in 1958. There he was recommended by Shafi Hadi to Charles Mingus , who immediately accepted him into his band, to which he belonged (with interruptions) until 1962. Ervin worked u. a. on Mingus' albums such as Jazz Portraits - Mingus In Wonderland (1958), Blues and Roots , Mingus Ah Um and Mingus Dynasty (1959) and Tonight at Noon (1961) and performed with him at the Antibes Jazz Festival in 1960 and Newport in 1960 and 1962 on. The highlight of their collaboration was the Impulse album Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus in January 1963 . He also worked with Roland Hanna (1959) and Randy Weston ; With him he traveled to the Negro Arts Festival in Lagos in 1960 and later in 1966 to the Monterey Jazz Festival . In 1961 he played alongside Eric Dolphy in Mal Waldron's band .

In June 1960 he recorded his debut album The Book Cooks for Bethlehem Records with Tommy Turrentine , Zoot Sims , George Tucker and Dannie Richmond . After his time at Mingus, he led his own quartet and also worked with Horace Parlan and Roland Hanna . In 1962 he played with the US troop support in Greenland . With the album Gumbo , which he recorded in 1963/64 with Al Gray , Pony Poindexter and Larry Young , his collaboration with the Prestige label began , for which a number of albums, such as the Book series, were created, including with Tommy Flanagan , Carmell Jones and Jaki Byard . 1964 to 1966 and again in 1968 he worked in Europe. In 1965 he performed at the Berlin Jazz Days with Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen , Kenny Drew and Alan Dawson ; Horace Parlan published excerpts from the concert after Ervin's death on the Enja album Lament for Booker . Two years before his untimely death, Teddy Edwards organized a larger ensemble for Pacific Jazz , centered around Ervin ( Booker'n'Brass ). In 1968 he was still on Andrew Hill's album Grass Roots . Booker Ervin died of kidney disease in late July 1970.

style

In the opinion of Richard Cook and Brian Morton , Ervin's saxophone playing was originally influenced by the blues sound of his Texan role models Arnett Cobb and Illinois Jacquet . His path, influenced by Coleman Hawkins , Dexter Gordon , Lester Young and Sonny Rollins , led - according to Martin Kunzler - from hardbop to freer forms, when he went "through the school of Charles Mingus" and to an emotionally charged and strongly blues-related game found. His sturdy tone was metallic, pungent and, in Ronnie Scott's opinion, "manly powerful". Ian Carr described his style: "He had a huge tone and complete control". His most famous compositions include Mojo , Boo and Uranus .

Discographic notes

• Cookin ' ( Savoy Records , 1960) with Horace Parlan , Richard Williams
• The Book Cooks ( Bethlehem Records , 1960) with Tommy Turrentine , Zoot Sims , George Tucker , Dannie Richmond
• That's It ( Candid Records , 1961) with Horace Parlan, George Tucker, Dannie Richmond
• Exultation ( Prestige Records , 1963) with Frank Strozier , Horace Parlan, Butch Warren , Walter Perkins
• The Freedom Book (Prestige Records, 1963) with Jaki Byard , Richard Davis , Alan Dawson
• The Blues Book (Prestige Records, 1964) with Carmell Jones , Gildo Mahones , Richard Davis, Alan Dawson
• The Song Book (Prestige Records, 1964) with Tommy Flanagan , Richard Davis, Alan Dawson
• The Space Book (Prestige Records, 1964) with Jaki Byard, R. Davis, A. Dawson
• Setting The Pace (Prestige Records, 1965) with Dexter Gordon , Jaki Byard, Reggie Workman , Alan Dawson
• Heavy !!! (Prestige Records, 1966) with Jaki Byard, Jimmy Owens , R. Workman, A. Dawson
• Structurally Sound ( Blue Note Records , 1966) with Charles Tolliver, John Hicks , Red Mitchell , Lennie McBrowne
• Booker'n'Brass ( Pacific Jazz Records , 1967) with Johnny Coles , Freddie Hubbard , Charles Tolliver , Garnett Brown , Kenny Barron
• The In Between (Blue Note Records, 1968) with Richard Williams, Bobby Few , Cevera Jeffries , Lenny McBrowne

literature

• Richard Cook , Brian Morton : The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings . 8th edition. Penguin, London 2006, ISBN 0-141-02327-9 .
• Martin Kunzler : Jazz Lexicon. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1998.

swell

1. ↑ The date of death can be found as confirmed by the family in the Social Security Death Index. Also in Kunzler's Jazzlexikon and in the New Grove Dictionary of Jazz .

Web links

• Works by Booker Ervin in the catalog of the German National Library
• Booker Ervin at Allmusic (English)
• Liner Notes by Tom Wilson on the LP Cookin ' on hardbop.tripod.com

Remarks

1. ↑ Page 343, Kunzler quotes Hafi's statement: "I have just heard a tenor saxophonist who practically buys the guts from everyone".
2. ↑ ^{a b c} page 343