Booker Ervin – Tex Book Tenor
Tenor, saxophone - Booker Ervin [click here to see more vinyl featuring Booker Ervin]
Drums - Billy Higgins
Piano - Kenny Barron [click here to see more vinyl featuring Kenny Barron]
Trumpet - Woody Shaw
Bass - Jan Arnet
Written by Kenny Barron (A1), Booker Ervin (A2, B1-2), Woody Shaw (A3)
1 LP, Standard sleeve printed by Stoughton Printing Co
Original analog Master tape : YES
Heavy Press : 180g
Record color : black
Speed : 33RPM
Size : 12”
Stereo
Studio
Record Press : Record Technology Incorporated
Label : Blue Note Tone Poet
Original Label : Blue Note
Recorded on May 24, 1968 at Van Gelder Studios, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey
Engineered by Rudy Van Gelder
Original sessions produced by Francis Wolff
Reissue produced by Joe Harley
Mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio
Liner Notes by Michael Cuscuna
Design by Patrick Roques
Photography by Francis Wolff
Originally released in 2005
Reissued in March 2024
Tracks :
Side A :
- Gichi
- Den Tex
- In a Capricornian Way
Side B :
- Lynn's Tune
- 204
Reviews :
“Tex Book Tenor was recorded in 1968 as a follow-up to Booker Ervin's debut date for Blue Note, The In Between, which was released in January of the same year. (Ervin had made two records for Pacific Jazz, which is now owned, like Blue Note, by EMI.) The album remained unreleased until 1976, when it was issued with an also unreleased Horace Parlan date on a double LP called Back from the Gig. The lineup is stellar and includes Billy Higgins, Woody Shaw, Kenny Barron, and bassist Jan Arnet from Czechoslovakia. Barron and Ervin had worked together before, and Arnet had worked with Ervin three years earlier as a touring partner in Germany. The music here includes three Ervin originals, Barron's wonderful "Gichi," and Shaw's "In a Capricornian Way." The Afro-Latin-influenced grooves of "Gichi" display Ervin playing his solo in prime snake-charmer mode. His own "Den Tex" is classic hard bop with Barron and Ervin going head to head throughout. "Lynn's Tune" is a beautiful midtempo ballad with wonderful work by Arnet and a loping solo by Shaw. The closer is "204," a steaming hard bop tune with a killer head featuring the two horns just pushing the tempo before Ervin goes off the map into his solo. Barron's playing is totally inspired, pushing huge chords at both players as they dig into the changes and come out breathing fire. This is a wonderful addition not only to the Blue Note catalog on CD, but to Ervin's own shelf as well, and should be picked up by anyone interested in him as a bandleader and composer.” AllMusic Review by Thom Jurek
Ratings:
Discogs : 4.73 / 5 , AllMusic : 4 / 5 , The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings : 4 / 5