Tenor Saxophone Master Booker Ervin: "Exultation!"

This fine album was Booker Ervin's first for the Prestige label under his name. This fine beginning was obviously well planned by Booker and he picked his sidemen well. Booker Ervin during his short ten year time on the national Jazz scene proved himself to be one of the most identifiable and strongest voices of the tenor saxophone. A big walloping sound and a great blues-based concept made him a favorite. He was also Charles Mingus' favorite tenor saxophonist and was heard in various Mingus Jazz Workshops from 1959 to 1964. Ervin picked alto saxophone master Frank Strozier as his front line partner and the two very different players blend very well and compliment each other beautifully. Strozier is to this day shamefully underrated and deserves a higher place in the Jazz echelon. Ervin's other players are his close pal Horace Parlan on piano, Edward "Butch" Warren on bass and the always swinging Walter Perkins on drums. Ervin wrote three intriguing originals for this date, there is one good standard in "Just In Time" and Walter Perkins wrote "No Man's Land". June 19, 1963 was a good day for all these gentlemen and for us. Exult in "Exultation!"