Booker Ervin : The Book Cooks

Reissue of the 1961 classic debut album by the American jazz tenor saxophonist. Booker Ervin was one of jazz’s biggest what-if’s; he died young, at 39, from kidney disease, right as he was hitting another wave of sonic experiments. He was a tenor who played the blues like they emanated from deep inside him, taking inspiration from field hollers as much as bebop. He got compared to Coltrane – who made a lot of similar playing decisions – but he had a different way of playing his blues. His debut LP, ‘The Book Cooks’ shows he arrived on the solo scene essentially fully formed; he’d change towards the end of the ’60s, but this LP was a roadmap for him for the first part of his bandleader career.

Track Listing:
1. The Blue Book – Booker Ervin
2. Git It – Booker Ervin
3. Little Jane – Booker Ervin
4. The Book Cooks – Booker Ervin
5. Largo – Booker Ervin
6. Poor Butterfly – Booker Ervin