BOOKER ERVIN – Back From The Gig (Blue Note – BN-LA488-H2 / 2LP-1976)

Label: Blue Note – BN-LA488-H2

Series: The Blue Note Re-Issue Series –

Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: US / Released: 1976

Style: Hard Bop, Post Bop, Avant-Garde, Improvisation

A1 to B3 recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, on February 15, 1963.

C1 to D2 recorded Rudy Van Gelder's, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, on June 24, 1968.

Design [Album] – Bob Cato

Producer [Original Sessions] – Alfred Lion

Producer [Produced For Released By], Liner Notes – Michael Cuscuna

Supervised By [Project Director Blue Note Jazz Re-Issue Series] – Charlie Lourie

Matrix / Runout (Side 1 Runout etched): BN-LA 488-1- UA

Matrix / Runout (Side 2 Runout etched): BN-LA 488-2- UA

Matrix / Runout (Side 3 Runout etched): BN-LA 488-3- UA

Matrix / Runout (Side 4 Runout etched): BN-LA 488-4- UA

side 1

A1 - Home In Africa ................................................................................................. 8:45

A2 - A Tune For Richard ......................................................................................... 6:05

A3 - Back From The Gig ......................................................................................... 5:50

side 2

B1 - Dexi ................................................................................................................. 5:45

B2 - Kucheza Blues ................................................................................................. 5:35

B3 - Happy Frame Of Mind ..................................................................................... 6:10

Personnel:

Horace Parlan – piano

Booker Ervin – tenor saxophone

Johnny Coles – trumpet

Grant Green – guitar

Butch Warren – bass

Billy Higgins – drums, percussion

side 3

C1 - Gichi ................................................................................................................ 7:25

C2 - Den Tex ........................................................................................................... 7:32

C3 - In A Capricornian Way .................................................................................... 5:47

side 4

D1 - Lynn's Tune ..................................................................................................... 6:10

D2 - 204 ................................................................................................................. 10:15

Personnel:

Booker Ervin – tenor saxophone

Woody Shaw – trumpet

Kenny Barron – piano

Jan Arnet – bass

Billy Higgins – drums, percussion

"Back from the Gig" is a double LP by American jazz saxophonist Booker Ervin featuring performances recorded in 1963 and 1968 but not released on the Blue Note label until 1976.

The earlier session was later released in 1988 as originally intended under Horace Parlan's name as "Happy Frame of Mind" and the later session was finally released in 2005 as "Tex Book Tenor".

Booker Ervin – tenor saxophone

When the session that comprised the Happy Frame of Mind record was released as a Booker Ervin album, it was titled Back From the Gig. Horace Parlan, however, was the leader for the session, and the album was originally scheduled to be released in the mid-'60s by Blue Note as Happy Frame of Mind. After remaining unreleased for over a decade, it was issued as Back From the Gig, but once the CD revolution struck in the '80s, the music was reissued as it originally was intended -- that is, the Happy Frame of Mind album. Happy Frame of Mind/Back From the Gig finds Horace Parlan breaking away from the soul-inflected hard bop that had become his trademark, moving his music into more adventurous, post-bop territory. Aided by a first-rate quintet -- trumpeter Johnny Coles, tenor saxophonist Booker Ervin, guitarist Grant Green, bassist Butch Warren, drummer Billy Higgins -- Parlan produces a provocative set that is grounded in soul and blues but stretches out into challenging improvisations. None of the musicians completely embrace the avant-garde, but there are shifting tonal textures and unpredictable turns in the solos which have been previously unheard in Parlan's music. Perhaps that's the reason the session sat unissued in Blue Note's vaults until 1976, when it was released as part of a double-record Booker Ervin set, but the fact of the matter is, it's one of Parlan's most successful efforts, finding the perfect middle ground between accessible, entertaining jazz and more adventurous music.

(Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine)

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, 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)

If you find it, buy this album!

CHICO FREEMAN – The Search (LP-1983)

Label: India Navigation – IN 1059
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album; Country: US - Released: 1983
Style: Hard Bop, Free/Avant-Garde Jazz
India Navigation Studio Recording, 1982
Design – Tan Ohe
Photography By – Beth Cummins
Producer – Bob Cummins

This is a beautiful collaboration between Freeman and the vocalist Val Eley. All four tracks include vocals by Eley. Her singing is very strong. The opening, "The Search", starts with unaccompanied vocal line. The moment when the piano trio jumps in always gives me goosebumps even after tens of listens to this album. I was at a cafe one day and listened to this album, fascinated with it, and walked immediately to a record store and bought it. Kenny Barron is so wonderful on this album. McBee playing in this album is very secure (in terms of intonation). Participation of Nana Vasconcelos is also great. All the four compositions are very well composed, arranged, and performed.

A1 - The Search  10:52
A2 - Illas  11:48
B1 - Close To You Alone  7:30
B2 - Soweto Suite  12:25

CHICO FREEMAN – Saxophone, Flute
KENNY BARRON – Piano
VAL ELEY – Vocals
CECIL McBEE – Bass
JAY HOGGARD – Vibraphone, Marimba
NANA VESCONCELOS – Berimbau, Percussion
BILLY HART – Drums

Surely, it ’ s not the most known album nor the easiest to find of this musician and composer. Even so, it ’ s an excellent work, where the vocal performance of Val Eley gives it a character of great beauty and exclusivity.

Although Jazz always was the basis of the music composed by Chico Freeman, many of his works present a rather sharp stylistic diversity as he himself likes to point out: “ My objective is to explore new worlds, and I don ’ t want to be limited by categories. The only limitations I place on myself are the limitations on my own imagination, and within that realm, there are none ” .

Comprising three originals from Freeman and one from Cecil McBee, “ The Search ” is a memorable album, which reveals the vocal performance of Val Eley denoting a strong lyrical component, a style of recitation and drama so popular in the Cabaret music or the hippie revival of the musical “ Hair ” . Although I ’ m not a special follower of the singing Jazz, this album left me rendered to Eley ’ s vocal and interpretive skills, from the very first audition.

But this musical piece is much more than the voice of Eley, or we were not dealing with a star cast, composed of the finest instrumentalists. The faultless performance of Cecil McBee (bass) and Billy Hart (drums) is joined by the brilliant Kenny Barron (piano), giving the 40 minutes of this record, an unparalleled rhythmic robustness. Jay Hoggard (vibraphone/marimba) and Nana Vasconcelos (berimbau/percussion) complement the aesthetic sense of this work, with details of great opportunism and excellence. As for Chico Freeman, those who know him from other albums, know how exciting his performance can be. A real musical treat.

Generating a positive wave that emanates a contagious spirituality of influences as diverse as the Hard- Bop, R&B or the Free/Avant-Garde Jazz, this work can be heard with the greatest pleasure, without ever becoming dull or boring.

"The Search" is indeed a serious case of inspiration and musical quality and therefore I never tire of recommending it to all my friends and lovers of good music.



If you find it, buy this album!