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.

1) The Blue Book (8.33)
2) Git It (6.54)
3) Little Jane (6.26)
4) The Book Cooks (10.44)
5) Largo (6.31)
6) Poor Butterfly (3.46)