Structurally Sound, a 1967 album by the tenor saxophonist Booker Ervin, is getting a vinyl reissue as part of the acclaimed Blue Note Tone Poet Series.
Best known for his association with Charles Mingus in a variety of outfits, the Texas-born musician was a distinctive soloist with an assertive and immediately recognizable sound. He cut Structurally Sound in 1966 soon after returning to the U.S. from a two-year period of living in Barcelona and working across Europe. The next year, he played a set at the legendary Newport Jazz Festival, which was later released as an album, Newport 1967.
The first of two albums released on Pacific Jazz, Structurally Sound established Ervin as a bandleader. The quintet here includes Ervin, Charles Tolliver on trumpet, John Hicks on piano, Red Mitchell on bass, and Lenny McBrowne on drums. In the original liner notes, Ervin mentioned that all four talented jazz artists “deserve to be heard from more often.”
The album’s tracklist included originals by Ervin (“Boo’s Blues”) and Tolliver (“Franess”), songbook standards (“Dancing In The Dark,” “You’re My Everything,” and “Deep Night”), and pieces by eminent jazz composers: Billy Strayhorn’s “Take The ‘A’ Train,” Oliver Nelson’s “Stolen Moments,” and Randy Weston’s “Berkshire Blues.”
Ervin followed up Structurally Sound that same year with Booker ‘n’ Brass.
In 1968, Ervin released his first album for Blue Note, The In Between, featuring exclusively original compositions. Up next was Back From the Gig, a double LP of performances recorded in 1963 and 1968. The collection was released in 1976. Ervin died in 1970 from kidney disease.
The Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series was born out of Blue Note President Don Was’ admiration for the exceptional audiophile Blue Note LP reissues presented by Music Matters. Was brought Joe Harley, a.k.a. the “Tone Poet,” on board to curate and supervise a series of reissues from the Blue Note family of labels.
