Booker Erwin – Tex Book Tenor (UHQCD)

After sideman appearances with pianist Horace Parlan in the early 1960s, Booker Ervin recorded two outstanding Blue Note albums as a leader in 1968, including “Tex Book Tenor, whose first independent release took almost 40 years! With an elegant post-bop quintet consisting of trumpeter Woody Shaw, pianist Kenny Barron, bassist Jan Arnet, and drummer Billy Higgins, the Texas-born saxophonist plays his way through a series of compelling originals by his band members: Barron’s winding melody on “Gichi”, Shaw’s lively waltz “In A Capricornian Way”, Ervin’s lovely ballad “Lynn’s Tune” and the hard-swinging “Den Tex”, named after his hometown of Denison. G. Filtgen wrote in Jazzthing: “Tenor saxophonist Booker Ervin became known for his gripping playing in Charles Mingus’ groups. His own records are at least as compelling, displaying a surprising diversity, as does “Tex Book Tenor”.”

As part of the extremely popular “Blue Note 85th Anniversary Reissue Series” Universal Music Japan presents the sonically impressive remastering of this jazz classic by the legendary Kevin Gray, who is also responsible for Blue Note US’s analog reissues such as “Tone Poet” and “Classic Vinyl” – as a limited Japan only UHQCD with OBI stripe. The original recording session for “Oblique” took place on June 24, 1968 at Rudy Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

UHQCD stands for Ultimate High Quality Compact Disc and is a joint development of the Japanese CD replication company Memory-Tech and the Audio Quality CD Company from Hong Kong. Unlike conventional CDs, UHQCDs are not pressed from polycarbonate, but cast from a photopolymer and cured with UV light. Another layer of high-purity polycarbonate is applied to the softer photopolymer for scratch protection. The combination results in significantly reduced reflection of laser light inside the CD and an unmatched precise edge transition between pits and lands of the CD. UHQCDs are 100% compatible with standard CD players. Musically, the result is a sound image strongly reminiscent of analog master tapes.

While Universal Music Japan’s first UHQCD series relied on the DSD data of previous SHM-SACD releases, with increasing popularity, albums that had not previously been released as SHM-SACD are now appearing. Typically, the Universal Archive master tapes are re-converted to DSD for this purpose. UHQCDs are ideal for music lovers who want to get as close as possible to the sound of the recording, but do not own an SACD player.

Lista pieselor

UHQCD

1. Gichi

2. Den Tex

3. In A Capricornian Way

4. Lynn’s Tune

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