Great Players Earl Bostic

[Sue]

Geez Sue AC/DC!? At least your Dad had good taste...

If you ever visit Kiwiland you can have a feed at Phil Rudd's restaurant

http://www.philsplacenz.com/

Greg S.

I know. Lol. I did go off them a bit when Bott Scott died. Moved onto Springsteen in the 80s and Clarence Ckemons made me sit up and hear saxophone.

NZ is on our list of places to visit so I'll look out the restaurant and hope it's better than Bill Wyman's venture into the catering business in the 90s.

 

[ProfJames]

Once went to Dirty Harry's burger restaurant in Carmel. Clint was not there however.

 

[John Laughter]

Always enjoyed his style!

On the tenor reed story I have found the following information over the years;

Earl Bostic: alto: Beechler m/p on a Martin Committee. Bostic used a tenor reed on his mouthpiece according to one web site. It is also claimed that Earl Bostic used to put a sliver of Gillette razor blade in his mouthpiece to get that Bostic sound. The razor apparently worked like a baffle. Others say that the sound came from within. Per an SOTW contributor, “I asked Herb Gordy, his bassist for many years (50's) on the road about the tenor reed thing and he said no. He may have tried it, but played his Martin horn and different reeds, but alto reeds”.

 

[ProfJames]

Just ordered several Earl Bostic CDs off eBay for £8. What a bargain, what a player

 

[Colin the Bear]

He was my dad's favourite player and he tried for years during my teens/twenties to get me into saxophone and jazz/blues music. Me knowing better (like all teenagers) derided him and went on watching/listening/dancing to the likes of Floyd, The Who, Stones, Bowie, Slade and then onto heavy metal and AC/DC were my favourites for a long time. If I could back and give my younger self a slap (gentle), I would have got into music like this many years before I did (as a very old teenager of about 40) . Still never too late and he is amongst my favourites now - thanks Dad x

It matters not how and when we get there. Getting there is the important thing. It took me years of listening to all sorts of stuff to get where I am now. I came the juke box route via soul , metal, reggae and pop, My mates used to find me odd for rooting out Glen Miller and Sinatra in their parents collections of vinyl, when ELP and Sabbath were the order of the day. All the artists you mention are quality and have stood the test of time. No regrets.

 

[altissimo]

here's an excellent thesis on Earl Bostic - http://wesscholar.wesleyan.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1786&context=etd_hon_theses which includes a transcription and analysis of "Up There In Orbit"

it should be noted that Bostic had his characteristic sound on "Temptation" recorded in late 1947, Elmer Beechler wasn't in business making mouthpieces until 1950, so whatever gave him his sound, it wasn't the mouthpiece
http://youtu.be/CWSjRW4iu9E
it was probably due to lengthy practice -
"I approached it like a job. I would start [practicing] at 8 o’clock, take a lunch break from 12 to 1 and play to 5, every day except Sunday"

a few quotes about Mr Bostic -
Benny Golson:
"I recall being at Minton's Playhouse in Harlem around 1950 when Earl Bostic came to town and sat in. Coltrane was with me and we heard Bostic play in any key, any tempo, playing almost an octave above the range of the alto saxophone. We talked with him and he told us how each brand of saxophone should sound. He said, 'On the Martin you finger it this way, the Buescher is that way, and like so on the Selmer.'"

John Coltrane:
"I went with Earl Bostic, who I consider a very gifted musician. He showed me a lot of things on my horn. He has fabulous technical facilities on his instrument and knows many a trick."

James Moody:
"He knows this instrument inside out, back to front, and upside down."

Art Blakey:
"If Coltrane played with Bostic, I know he learned a lot. Nobody knew more about the saxophone than Bostic. I mean technically, and that includes Bird [Charlie Parker]. Bostic could take any make of saxophone and tell you its faults and its best points. Working with Earl Bostic is like attending a university of the saxophone."

 

[Nick Wyver]

here's an excellent thesis on Earl Bostic - http://wesscholar.wesleyan.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1786&context=etd_hon_theses which includes a transcription and analysis of "Up There In Orbit"

Thanks for that. Fascinating stuff.

 

[Melissa]

I can't believe some ole farts here have not heard of Earl, crikey- I think I have everything done by him, there are hoards of players from around that time which were just excellent, like Benny Carter- well known for sax, but he played a good stick and Trumpet too.

Thanks for adding those quotes Altissimo, all I need is someone whom can play like him so I can record my Tango being played like it ought to be!

 

[Nick Wyver]

I think I have everything done by him,

That would be an awful lot then.

 

[Melissa]

That would be an awful lot then.

A real awful lot, all in lps/singles and cd's.... bit of a vinyl freak me!

 

[O.C.V.]

I'm old enough to remember Bostic's Flamingo when it was on all the jukeboxes in town. It was a sensation but it's only recently that I realised just how good he was.
It was the era of the touring big bands and of course several of them did a cover of Flamingo. The best I heard, or so it seemed to me at that time, was the one played by Ivy Benson's lead alto, whose name I have long since forgotten. She was a very good player in a band which contained some really good musicians but was sadly underrated, probably because they were all women.

O.C.V.

 

[Melissa]

You are certainly not wrong, she was an amazing player:

 

[Melissa]

Together with

 

[Colin the Bear]

Maaaan! I only lasted 30 seconds before I had to turn that Ivy Benson off. What a racket.

 

[Melissa]

Horses again, technically it was brilliant, she was a band leader for a real long time, so by rights must have been fairly successful. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_Benson

 

[altissimo]

http://www.ivybenson-online.co.uk/Biographies/Ivy_Benson.htm

 

[Nick Wyver]

Maaaan! I only lasted 30 seconds before I had to turn that Ivy Benson off. What a racket.

You might have lasted for the other 30 secs.

Great stuff.

 

[jourard]

I have admired and studied Bostic for years; I created a website in his honor, the aptly-named earlbostic.com. His vibrato technique is learnable but unless mastered it sounds very bad, like any bad vibrato. He had favored notes that use alternative fingerings, usually a fifth below the intended note, but played with a tighter embouchure to pop the note up a fifth. In alto sax notation the G, A, Bb and C were favorites, but Bostic had perfect pitch-alternation on those notes and a fast vibrato and a dark sound that can only be approximated. It's double-or-nothing with Bostic emulations! He does the Texas Wobble on the Bb note for sure. Those alternative fingerings can be discovered through experimentation. He loved to alternate the side C, the front C and the low C fingerings with double and triple tonguing thrown in, check out "Lester Leaps In" for that. I've concluded that no player had better facility on the instrument technically, and that's not even considering his arranging skills and sense of swing.