GG Train

John Handy (alto sax), Booker Ervin (tenor sax), Horace Parlan (piano), Charles Mingus (bass) and Dannie Richmond (drums). From the album Mingus Ah Um (1959).

Shafi Hadi is an American alto and tenor saxophonist who plays rhythm and blues, bebop and hard bop. He started playing in rhythm and blues bands and then recorded with the double bassist Charles Mingus from 1956 to 1958, participating in albums such as The Clown, Tijuana Moods and Mingus Ah Um, where you can hear his solos combining bebop and blues. He also recorded with the tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley, improvised the soundtrack of the John Cassavetes’s movie Shadows and returned with Mingus in 1959.

Booker Ervin was an American tenor saxophonist with a hard and passionate tone, and an emotional style that was still linked to improvisation with chords. His first recording was with the Ernie Fields’s rhythm and blues group in 1956. He then moved to New York and joined Horace Parlan’s quartet, with whom he recorded two albums. From 1956 to 1963 he gained prestige working with Charles Mingus and during the 1960s he led his own quartet. He also played and recorded with the pianist Randy Weston from 1963 to 1966 and traveled throughout Europe. He died of kidney disease in New York in 1970 at the age of 39.

After a brief introduction by the rhythm section, Handy makes his solo at high speed directly, as there is no theme. His phrases invite enthusiasm and hope with contagious sincerity. Looks like all his problems are gone. Then he exchanges four-bar solos with Richmond, who tries hard to do a good job, and to finish, suddenly the group plays the theme that was missing at the beginning.