Customer Reviews

Heavy

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I won't say 'forget the rest' but this is an *essential* record for any serious fan of the tenor saxaphone. I own a brace of Ervin's other recordings -' The Blues Book', 'The Space Book', 'The In-Between' and the obscure, but available 'Cracklin' ' (****, by the way) and this is by far my favorite, as it stikes a very nice balance between large arrangements and strong solo performances.

If you like muscular hard-bop and soulfully rendered ballads, this album is for you.

This is three days now that I've been listening to that wonderful record issued in 1966 for Prestige. There's Deepness, Soul, Life and Death, sensibility, grand art, musicians at their summit. It's funny, I find stupid to mark an album and particularly this one. What for after all? I think this is the last time I'm going to mark a record. This record is not for people living quickly. This album is for gentlemen and gentlewomen. Mature people. People who know the price of life, love (You don't know what love is) and death (Ode to Charlie Parker).. That's all.

Before Booker Ervin took his talents to Blue Note in the late 60s, he recorded "Heavy!!!" for the Prestige label. Just like on his classic series of "Books" in 1963-64, he is joined on this September 1966 session by the amazing trio of Jaki Byard on piano, Richard Davis on bass and Alan Dawson on drums. Along with Ervin, this quartet rivaled any and all jazz groups of the 1960s. On the standard "You Don't Know What Love Is" just the quartet performs, but on the remainder of the album the band also includes Jimmy Owens on trumpet (and flugelhorn on the first track) and Garnett Brown on trombone. While this title is notch below "The Freedom Book" or "The Space Book," the disc certainly lives up to its "Heavy" billing.