Artist:Booker Ervin
Song:Gichi
Album:Tex Book Tenor
Booker Ervin is another great jazz musician forgotten mostly because he died prematurely. He was born Oct. 31, 1930 in Denison, TX. He is mostly known for his stint with Charles Mingus from 1956-1962 trading sax licks with Eric Dolphy. Like a lot of jazz musicians, he moved to Europe in 1964 and died of kidney disease on July 30, 1970 at age 39. He recorded for Prestige, Pacific Jazz & Blue Note after leaving the Mingus band. Tex Book Tenor was recorded for Blue Note in 1968 but they didn't release it. It was finally released on CD in 2005. It's great music with Woody Shaw on trumpet, Kenny Barron on piano, Jan Arnet on bass and Billy Higgins on drums. Barron wrote Gichi. I can't imagine why it wasn't released at the time but it's definitely worth a listen. There's very little video footage of Booker Ervin available but I did find this clip of him trading sax solos with Eric Dolphy as part of the Charles Mingus band at the Antibes Jazz Festival in 1960. The video quality isn't very good.
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