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Booker Ervin would play tenor in my super group


K1969

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I often find that some of my favourite artists have their best moments on other people's LPs. This can be because whilst I don't particularly like their bag as leader, I still appreciate their physical sound and technical style, which comes out better for me in someone else's group.

For me Booker Ervin is a good example. Whilst I like his solo stuff (I haven't heard it all yet but I know that i's highly rated) I really love the touches he brings to other peoples' LPs - Pony Poindexter's Gumbo, Andrew Hill's Grass Roots, or Roy Haynes Cracklin' for example. There are bad examples too where artists with no natural empathy were put together by the studios to create music that sounds forced or simply strange - check out Sonny Stitt playing bebop-ish solos alongside Melvin Sparks and Leon Spencer in his 70s Lps. Sometimes though the results, though strange, can work brilliantly. Eg when Fantasy records put Joe Henderson in the same studio as Charles Earland (Leaving this Planet ) and Patrice Rushens (Prelusion).

This led me to the admittedly frivolous idea of imagining my own mythical super group - the group I'd most like to have heard that never existed. So it's a pretty wierd mix I agree, but I'd love to have known how the bottom funk of Suggs and Muhammad - letting alone just putting those two together - would've then influenced the avant gardism of Tyner or the sheer gutsy emotion of Ervin.

Tenor Booker Ervin

Drums Idris Muhammad

Bass Milton Suggs

Piano Mc Coy Tyner

Anyone else want to suggest their super group or comment about Booker Ervin?

Edited by K1969
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Why change the winning combination of Ervin, Jaki Byard, Richard Davis and Alan Dawson?

That quartet proved soooo successful in their Prestige albums!

wouldn't want to change what was, just imagining what could've been. I love those sessions too - especially the Freedom Book.

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I've always thought Jim Hall and Milt Jackson should have made an album together. Maybe with Ron Carter and Billy Higgins.

Or maybe Jackson could have made a quintet out of the Desmond/Hall quartet...

Interesting choice. It certainly wouldn't have occured to me to put Jackson together with Hall. On the other hand, I imagine that Hall would have fit in pretty well in the MJQ.

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They're from the same era, would have known the same repertoire, both lovers of bebop; they're both lyrical players; I think their individual sounds would have blended well. Hall's inclination has been increasingly to quiet, concentrated music, whereas Jackson's preference was on the bluesier side. But Jackson also excelled in the MJQ's chamber-style jazz, even though he complained, and Hall could play with Rollins without flinching. I don't know how it would have worked out, but I wish my curiosity had been satisfied.

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Did Booker Ervin put out any bad albums? I haven't found one yet. Someone mentioned his Prestige band with Davis, Dawson, and Byard and I can't agree more. That is one hell of a band. Anytime I see Alan Dawson and Richard Davis together on an album, I buy it. If they throw in Jaki Byard or Andrew Hill on piano, all the better! Those guys can do no wrong in my book.

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[one record i have long been dreaming of is some Masada plus Bill Triglia (Dave Douglas, John Zorn, Bill Triglia, Greg Cohen, Joey Baron) Tony Fruscella / Open Door tribute record

just to let you know, Triglia is still alive - so it could happen (without Fruscella)

+ he has already recorded with Baron on that Don Joseph LP + the first pre-Masada recordings on Zorn's Filmworks III are dedicated to Fruscella / Triglia (who Zorn acknowledges as one of the major influences on his piano playing :) )+ Jaques Coursil (and many others) got their chances on Tzadik

still from what you wrote elsewhere about Triglia it sounds unlikely that he would participate... (to name just one reason against it)

[i suppose he knows / you tell him from time to time that he still has fans all over the world :) ]

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Among many options, my ultimate dream group would be:

Freddie Hubbard - trumpet

Joe Henderson - tenor sax

Bobby Hutcherson - vibes

McCoy Tyner - piano

Richard Davis - bass

Elvin Jones - drums

Lucky for me, these cats have all played with each other at some point in their career (although, sadly, not all together in the same place at the same time).

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quoting-

Among many options, my ultimate dream group would be:

Freddie Hubbard - trumpet

Joe Henderson - tenor sax

Bobby Hutcherson - vibes

McCoy Tyner - piano

Richard Davis - bass

Elvin Jones - drums

Have you seen all the Youtube clips of 80s festivals in Japan with groups like this - they're boring as billy-o

Edited by umum_cypher
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Did Booker Ervin put out any bad albums? I haven't found one yet. Someone mentioned his Prestige band with Davis, Dawson, and Byard and I can't agree more. That is one hell of a band. Anytime I see Alan Dawson and Richard Davis together on an album, I buy it. If they throw in Jaki Byard or Andrew Hill on piano, all the better! Those guys can do no wrong in my book.

Any time I see an album with either Richard Davis or George Duvivier on bass, I buy it. I have not been burned yet.

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