Earl Bostic - Jazz Time (Le Jazz / Charly)

I was listening not long ago to guitarist Rodney Jones' The "X" field, a 1995 Musicmasters set featuring frequent collaborator Greg Osby. Fine, stream-lined M-Base style date, and on it Osby takes several unusually up tempos. That's when I started hearing, of all things, an Earl Bostic influence in that "skipping" rhythm Osby trips into here. I'd always pegged this characteristic of Osby's playing as an Anthony Braxton influence, and thus something that came partly out of the elder reedman's study of Paul Desmond. But what if those steps were first laid on the light fantastic by Bostic? Which got me to thinking and flipping through the private collection...

Beginning in the late 1940's and carrying through to the early 1960's (at the least), there was collection of sax players that, in hindsight, really straddled the worlds of R & B, rock 'n roll, and jazz. Louis Jordan (justly celebrated), Big Jay McNeely, Lee Allen, Lynn Hope, King Curtis, Tab Smith, Red Prysock, Eddie Chamblee, and Bostic -- arguably Bird's rival as the most immediatedly recognizable alto saxophonist of the era. And, as my friend Jim Sangrey said when I once asked him if he thought Rahsaan Rolad Kirk "was familiar" with the Bostic school of playing:

Dude, you look at the background of SO many "avant garde" players, and what do you find?

R&B backgrounds. Blues backgrounds. Southern/Midwestern/and/or rural backgrounds. Gospel backgrounds. "Common" backgrounds.

Coincidence?

I think not.

But despite (or because of?) his popular success, and even thought he was probably the most technically accomplished of these musicians -- not that that's any guarantee of good music -- Bostic seems to have been treatly pretty roughly by critical opinion over the years. Granted, I don't really enjoy hearing him play "Twilight Time", and some of the Latin numbers he did are terminally ricky-ticky, mechanical affairs (though they sure do remain dance-inducing). But turn Bostic loose on a good blues or a ballad; wow. One of the best examples of his abilites as a "true jazzman"... whatever that ultimately means; its helpful to remember that at certain points in their careers, jazz "stars" such as Arnett Cobb, Lockjaw Davis, Gator Jackson, and even Gene Ammons were given the same high hat flipped to Hal "Cornbread" Singer... can be found on the 1963 King session Jazz As I Feel It (reissued on Charly / Le Jazz as Jazz Time), with Joe Pass, Shelly Manne, Groove Holmes, Jimmy Bond, Charles Blackwell, and Buddy Collette (as arranger). Fantastic stuff that shows off Bostic's improvising chops, his infectious rhythmic feel, and his distinctive, piquant but huge, tone.

Of course, Bostic's earlier King material can be found in plentiful supplies on CD, of course, and at budget prices (usually), but Chronological Classics has recently issued Bostic's very first recordings in a package that finally begins to accord him some of the respect he deserves. 1945-1948 collects Gotham and King material, and those interested in the transition from swing to bop should certainly look at the bands Bostic assembeled here; sidemen include Tony Scott, Tiny Grimes, Cozy Cole, Benny Morton, John Hardee, Don Byas, Little Benny Harris, Jimmy Shirley, and others. Still, doubters should start with this release.

~ Joe Milazzo