Tex Book Tenor

Artist: Booker Ervin
Label: Blue Note Records
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 094631143922
EAN: 0094631143922
ASIN: B000B66PMA

Release Date: 2005-10-04

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Tracks:

GICHI
DEN TEX
IN A CAPRICORNIAN WAY
LYNN'S TUNE
204

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Customer Reviews:

wow .......2006-09-09

i like booker ervin's playing from what ive heard him due with mingus. also im a big fan of woody shaw. in a capricornian way was preiemered on this album and woody also recorded it on the stepping stone album live at the vanguard which is worth checking out. On tex book tenor i love that opening tune, gichi. i like this kind of jazz, the kind of jazz played with lots of fire and emotion. its an introspective sound that moves me. i think my favouriote part of the entore album is the bridge on den tex. i love it when a line is played and then juxtaposed a half step higher. i guess technically that describes it but that doesnt really matter i think. its the warmth and intesity that you hear when these cats play it that makes it sick. its a piss face line for sure. you know when you hear something and you got that look on your face like you smell somehting nasty? the piss face?

Why Rudy van Gelder has shifted his attention to the Prestige Label.......2006-06-17

Blue Note seems to be coming to the end of the line in terms of releases; the last masterpieces were reissued a couple of years ago and so now the RVG edition is churning out the second rate albums that followed in the wake of such great achievements as Art Blakey's "Moanin'" and "Free For All," Larry Young's "Unity," Herbie Hancock's "Maiden Voyage..." Well the list goes on but the point is all of the really really good ones (and there are a lot) are out now. Then there is the Connoisseur Series, of which this is a member, which is devoted to reissuing obscure sessions. There have been a lot of great albums to come out of this series ("Fuschia Swing Song" comes to mind) but then there are some obscure titles that are obscure for a reason.

The present album belongs to the Connoisseur Series, and though I wouldn't say it deserves its obscurity, it isn't the greatest session known to man. I bought it because of the interesting lineup; I love Woody Shaw, I liked Booker Ervin from "Mingus Ah Um" and I wanted to hear Kenny Barron. But this session suffers from what I like to call 1968 Blue Note Burnout. Alfred Lion had left the company and the last true masterpiece was McCoy Tyner's "The Real McCoy." As a result, everything in the Blue Note scope had been done and thus the musicians kept doing it, losing a little bit of the freshness each time. That's what this album sounds like; the musicians range from competent to great but the inspiration is no longer there. Jazz at this time moved on without Blue Note, and thus this is tired out hard bop that would have been forward-looking had it been recorded three or four years ago. Case in point is the last track, "204." It's an uptempo modal number in the lineage of Coltrane's "Impressions" like any number of tunes Hank Mobley or Lee Morgan was doing at the time. The melody isn't particularly interesting and it's taken too fast for anyone to really dig in. Ervin plays a decent solo in his distinctive style, but Shaw, surprisingly, falls off and feels like he can't get a grip on what's going on. It seems like Higgins is partially to blame for the lack of cohesiveness or interest on this track; someone like Tony Williams or Jack Dejohnette would actually give something to the soloists to compliment what they are doing to compliment or at least compensate for the fragmented phrases, but Higgins keeps playing straight time at one volume level. There are several times, mostly in Shaw's solo, where I can hear places where a more cohesive rhythm section would displace beats, accent odd places, and build the energy so the soloist could play off of them, but this never happens. Listen to any mid 60s live recording Miles did with the most brilliant rhythm section ever to hit the planet (Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Tony Williams) and you'll know what I'm talking about; Miles didn't always play continuous inventive lines but a good rhythm section has to shape the rough spots to make them into something more than just lost fragments. This rhythm section fails to do this.

The saving grace on this album is Shaw's tune, "In a Capricornian Way." It is an interesting post-bop number that lends itself to good if not phenomenal soloing. Of the other tunes, "Gichi" is fairly interesting and Kenny Barron sounds a bit like McCoy Tyner, though without the sense of purpose Tyner has to every blazingly fast run he plays. All in all, this is a decent session with B level performances from the musicians involved. I've heard fantastic things about Ervin's recorded career from about five years earlier, and this album shows me that there was indeed something there, so I will check those out next. But unless you're a devoted Booker Ervin fan, the price of this series doesn't make it worth purchasing. Maybe I'm missing something and this is as brilliant as everyone says it is...

Smoking, Swinging, Lyrically Free: Deliverance On The Texas T!!!.......2006-01-18

Here is a CD bursting with joyful song! Small
wonder, given the superb personnel and their
exceptional leader. Tenor legend Booker Ervin
cut his final album for Blue Note with this
brilliant 1968 date also featuring trumpeter
Woody Shaw, pianist Kenny Barron, bassist Jan
Arnet, and drummer Billy Higgins. TEX BOOK
TENOR is a jubilant celebration of Jazz,
dancing with sinuous delicacy, thunderous
impact, and lyrical fire; staking the Texas
reedslinger's claim to immortality beyond
any doubt, critical or otherwise.

With compositions running the rhapsodic gamut
from sweet humalongs such as "Lynn's Tune" and
Barron's "Gichi" to mean, clean grinds such as
"Den Tex" and the debut recording of Shaw's
acclaimed "In A Capricornian Way", this album
stands as a hallmark of collective play and
daring groove. Everybody cooks! That Ervin
composed the majority of this album is a
great achievement in what was one of the
great careers in all of Music.

By the time you arrive at the album's climax,
you are certain to be breathless and relaxed.
"204" tucks you in, then takes off into a
streamlined ride that bullet trains would
be hard-pressed to chase! Quite Nice.

If you have Ervin's classic first Blue Note
session, play THE IN BETWEEN and this album
back-to-back, and enjoy the grand tapestry
of a great artist's final summations.
Whatever you do, get TEX BOOK TENOR, dig
in deep, and enjoy.
No exercise in revisionism, this is straight-
on Jazz, delightfully set to take you on.

Did Booker ever make a bad album?.......2005-12-31

Since I agree with the review below as to the quality of the music I thought I would add just a few remarks on Booker's history for those of you that might not be familiar with him.
He was born in Denison, Texas in 1930. He started playing tenor in the Army and afterwards gigged in Boston. He eventually headed to New York and met Horace Parlan who introduced him to Charles Mingus. Booker was one of a great line of Mingus' tenors, other being the likes of Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Clifford Jordan. Booker played on some of Mingus's greatest works including Mingus Ah Um which includes his definitive solo on Goodbye Pork Pie Hat (IMHO-one of the great jazz solos).
After leaving Mingus's employ, Booker also starred on some great Randy Weston albums.
Perhaps more importantly, he put out a series of LPs for Prestige usually using his fellow Mingus alumni Jaki Byard. These are available on Amazon: The Space Book, The Freedom Book (one of the great documents of mid-60s jazz), The Blues Book and The Song Book (Tommy Flanagan replaces Byard on this one).
Tex Book Tenor was recorded in June of 1968. It is part of a series that Byard later did for (eventually) Blue Note and includes Structurally Sound and The In Between. Booker Ervin passed away in 1970.
I think stef would agree with me in that I don't think there is a single mediocre LP in the entirety of those mentioned above. He is right about this CD. Everybody is in very fine form playing with great passion, intelligence and sophistication.
This CD is a good intro to Ervin if you are unfamiliar with his work. Mingus Ah Um is another and if you don't know that CD then start with that. If your taste is a little adventurous try The Freedom Book.
All of these works will take you back to the Time Before MTV or, as I like to call it, before The Revenge of the Song and Dance Men. This was a period when music was a craft not a means to fame and fortune. These men knew that it would take time, that an apprenticeship would make them better, that learning to compose would help to develope their individual voices and that they were furthering a tradition. All that work shines through on this CD. Stef is right. This is a good one. Pick it up and listen to the learning of the great Booker Ervin.
p.s. One of the delights of the packaging is a photo that shows why Billy Higgins was called Smiling Billy. What a great drummer he was!

Another good one from Booker.......2005-12-30

Only 12 days after the recording of the very good "The in between", Booker Ervin went back to Rudy Van Gelder's place in Englewood Cliffs New Jersey to record another album for Blue Note. Frankly Booker is accompanied here by a more talented band. The exceptional Woody Shaw is the trumpet player here, Kenny Barron played the piano, Billy Higgins sat at the drum set and Jan Arnet took the bass place. Three tunes here are from Booker, one from Woody Shaw and the opener from Kenny Barron's pen. Texas tenor is what is played by Booker and to quote the booklet texas tenor means "The tone is strong, clean and biting almost to the point of overblowing. The playing is passionate almost to the point of frenzy, but always vulnerable to the degree that a bent half note can break your heart. The improvisations are crystalline and precise". I think it's enough to clear what kind of school Booker belong to. Woody Shaw was a terrific trumpeter, technical and emotional. The music is pure hard bop from the late sixties. No too fast I have to admit, if you had been there you could breath a nice relaxed atmosphere in the studio. The only real speeder here is the last tune "204" which ... runs! I love in particular the first tune which is quite mysterious and catching (similar to some Lee Morgan tune of the sixties) and the lovely "Lynn's tune" which is a sort of "Ceora" again from Lee Morgan. This is another really strong Blue Note album that you can buy with confidence. A very good hard bop date with nice originals and very good players surrounding the always interesting Booker Ervin.

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