Three By Earl Bostic – Past Daily Nights At The Round Table

The legendary Earl Bostic this weekend – three tracks cut during his years with King Records and during the 78 rpm era of the early-mid 1950s. Dive into his bio if you aren’t already familiar:

Bostic’s recording career was diverse, his musical output encompassing jazz, swing, jump blues and the post-war American rhythm and blues style, which he pioneered. He had a number of popular hits such as “Flamingo”, “Harlem Nocturne”, “Temptation”, “Sleep”, “Special Delivery Stomp”, and “Where or When”, which all showed off his characteristic growl on the horn. He was a major influence on John Coltrane.

Bostic was born in 1913 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In his youth, he played the clarinet in school and saxophone with the local Boy Scout troop. He turned professional at the age of 18 when he joined Terence Holder’s “Twelve Clouds of Joy”. Bostic made his first recording with Lionel Hampton in October 1939, with Charlie Christian, Clyde Hart and Big Sid Catlett. Before that, he performed with Fate Marable on New Orleans riverboats. Bostic graduated from Xavier University in New Orleans. He worked with territory bands as well as Arnett Cobb, Hot Lips Page, Rex Stewart, Don Byas, Charlie Christian, Thelonious Monk, Edgar Hayes, Cab Calloway, and other jazz luminaries. In 1938, and in 1944, Bostic led the house band at Smalls Paradise. While playing at Small’s Paradise, he doubled on guitar and trumpet. During the early 1940s, he was a well-respected regular at the famous jam sessions held at Minton’s Playhouse. He formed his own band in 1945 and made the first recordings under his own name for the Majestic label. He turned to Jump Blues in the late 1940s. His biggest hits were “Temptation”, “Sleep”, “Flamingo”, “You Go to My Head” and “Cherokee”. At various times, his band included Keter Betts, Jaki Byard, Benny Carter, John Coltrane, Teddy Edwards, Benny Golson, Blue Mitchell, Tony Scott, Cliff Smalls, Charles Thompson, Stanley Turrentine, Tommy Turrentine, and other musicians who rose to prominence, especially in jazz.

Bostic’s King album entitled Jazz As I Feel It (1963) featured Shelly Manne on drums, Joe Pass on guitar and Richard “Groove” Holmes on organ. Bostic recorded A New Sound about one month later, again featuring Holmes and Pass. These recordings allowed Bostic to stretch out beyond the three-minute limit imposed by the 45 RPM format. Bostic was pleased with the sessions, which highlight his total mastery of the blues, but they also foreshadowed musical advances that were later evident in the work of John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy.

During the late 1940s, Bostic changed his style in a successful attempt to reach a wider audience. The new sound incorporated his unmistakable rasp or growl, shorter lines than in his jazz-based recordings, emphasis on a danceable back beat and a new way of wringing “…the greatest possible rhythmic value from every note and phrase.” Bostic showed off the new approach in his hit “Temptation”, which reached the Top Ten of the R&B chart during the summer of 1948. The addition of Gene Redd on vibes in 1950 rounded out the Bostic sound and he used the vibes on his major hits such as “Flamingo” in 1951. The 1956 version of “Where or When” features Bostic growling through the mid-range of the instrument behind a heavy backbeat and loud bass and it is a marked departure from his approach to the same tune recorded on Gotham in 1947 which showed off his sweet “singing” in the upper register with barely audible percussion. Bostic proved that saxophone instrumentals could climb the hit charts and other saxists with hits including Boots Randolph and Stanley Turrentine have acknowledged his influence.

In February 1959, Bostic was voted No. 2 jazz alto sax in the Playboy jazz poll over leading saxists including Cannonball Adderley and Sonny Stitt. He recorded an inimitable version of “All The Things You Are” released on the Playboy label. In August 1959, he performed at the famous Playboy Jazz Festival in Chicago on the same bill as the major jazz stars of the time.

Bostic discussed his approach to improvising in an interview with Kurt Mohr. “Of course I am maybe one of the few musicians who like simple recurring melody patterns and in all my playing I try to keep a basic melody line in my mind and attempt to develop meaningful inversions and variations…I like the basic blues…. The blues has it all; basic rhythmic quality, genuine lyric content, essential and basic chord structure and maybe above all else, personality. Blues and jazz are inseparable.”

Bostic’s recording career was diverse and it included small group swing-based jazz, big band jazz, jump blues, organ-based combos and a string of commercial successes.

If you aren’t familiar with Earl Bostic – no excuses – dive in, grab any of the hundreds of recordings he made – soak up his influence like a sponge and go exploring.

Here’s three numbers to start.