Skip to main content

Booker Ervin - Mojo

Many jazz artists who were active in the 1950s will tell you that the rise of rock 'n roll marked the death of jazz as a form of popular music. While there might be truth in that observation, it seems equally true that, without jazz, rock 'n roll might never have happened, at least it wouldn't have happened as it did. And the connective tissue between jazz and rock 'n roll is the post WWII rhythm and blues performed by artists such as Louis Jordan, Roy Brown, Wynonie Harris and many others, most of whom came out of the Big Band Jazz Swing Era.

Although many of the early rhythm and blues singers performed with big band accompaniment, the primary element that separated their music from other big band music at the time was this, The R&B artists were black and performing and recording for a predominantly black audience. But a lot of white music lovers were paying attention, as well, as were young musicians of all races. Pioneering rockers such as Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry took elements of postwar R&B and incorporated them into their smaller, electrified, guitar driven ensembles... songs which were influenced by jazz, but which helped pave the way for rock 'n roll.


Booker Ervin - Mojo
  • Release in: October 2, 1964
  • Genre: Jazz
  • Recording in: Van Gelder Studios, Englewood Cliffs, NJ

"After studying music in Boston for two years, Booker Ervin, made his recording debut, 1956. A very distinctive tenor with a hard, passionate tone and an emotional style that was still tied to chordal improvisation."

See previous Song of the Day 

Labels:
Location: United States

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Veronica Swift - A Little Taste

There has always been an uncomfortable tension between rhythm and blues and rock and roll, a cyclical influence that vacillates between inspiration, appropriation and separation. Popular music has broken off into categories of rock, pop, country, and R&B, each with their own origin stories. But R&B and rock, usually codified as vastly different, Black and white styles, have long been intertwined in ways our historical memory may have us forget.  Despite the innovation that comes from separation, rock and R&B always find their way back to each other. In recent years, rock veterans have turned to the genre’s classics for inspiration. Queens of the Stone Age veered from their typical hard rock with 2017’s Villains, a dance y album inspired by frontman Josh Homme’s love of 1920s jazz and swing, other Black genres that laid the groundwork for the popular music of today. The whitewashing of rock’s history has oversimplified music’s malleability and silenced the voices of Amer...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Gap Band - The Sun Don't Shine Everyday

The Gap Band - The Sun Don't Shine Everyday Genre: RnB Released in: 1984 Duration: 5:14 "The Gap Band was most successful when working with producer Lonnie Simmons, with four consecutive gold records. Their party train soon slowed to a stop. They reformed in the 90s and occasionally toured and attempted a comeback album." See Previous Song of the Day 
Post a Comment
Read more

Moondog - Behold

The history of jazz has been one of fusion. Its musicians and composers have continually drawn upon a huge range of different musics to create the rich and diverse tapestry that is world jazz today. Jazz is an evolving tradition of music making. And how often, in the life stories of individual jazz musicians, do we see these same patterns operating at microcosm? The richness of Turkish music and culture sometimes seems at odds with its turbulent and cruel history. In 1979... the country suffered its third military take over in thirty years... Every kind of music was in Turkey at that point. But it was not appreciated. To understand the culture of the country, with those three military takeovers, Turkey could not go anywhere. Musically, it was very difficult. But things were beginning to happen. Traditional Turkish music is essentially monophonic, rich in melody and rhythm but with little by way of harmony. The contrast with western music, with its beautiful harmonies but rhythmic weakn...
Post a Comment
Read more