Booker Ervin

Booker Ervin – That’s It! (1961/2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 42:55 minutes | 1,81 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Candid

That’s It! is an album by American jazz saxophonist Booker Ervin featuring performances recorded in 1961 for the Candid label.

The Allmusic review by Scott Yanow awarded the album 4½ stars and stated: “Booker Ervin, who always had a very unique sound on the tenor, is heard in prime form on his quartet set”.
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Booker Ervin – The Freedom Book (Rudy Van Gelder Remaster) (1964/2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 42:45 minutes | 478 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Prestige Records

Booker Ervin’s recordings with Charles Mingus and Randy Weston brought him good reviews and a bit of notoriety. But it was his series of Song Books for Prestige Records that broadcast the stentorian announcement that a jazz orator of gigantic stature had arrived. Ervin’s tenor saxophone sound was haunted by the loneliness and spaciousness of the Texas plains where he was raised. The Southwest moan was an integral part of his playing. But his style went beyond the classic Texas tenor tradition to incorporate the intricacies of bebop and suggestions of the free jazz that was initiating one of the periods of self-renewal that keeps jazz fresh and interesting. The Freedom Book, recorded at the end of 1963, was one of Ervin’s masterpieces. He is abetted by the power and drive of Jaki Byard, Richard Davis, and Alan Dawson.
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Booker Ervin – Ervin, B.: The Book Cooks (1961/2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 41:49 minutes | 765 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Bethlehem Records

There is nothing contrived about the kind of playing that comes jolting out of Booker Ervin’s tenor saxophone and the great quality of soul reflected on the six tracks of The Book Cooks. The album is introduced by George Tucker’s bass on “The Blue Book” followed by Tommy Flanagan, Booker Ervin, Tommy Turrentine and Zoot Sims in that order.
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