Walter Booker

Archie Shepp: The Way Ahead, Kwanza, The Magic of Ju-ju Revisited

by Stefano Merighi
August 15, 2024

In questa compilation dedicata ad un periodo importante di Archie Shepp, si dovrebbe iniziare l'ascolto dalla fine. Infatti, i quasi venti minuti di “The Magic of Ju-Ju," posti in chiusura del CD, sono dell'aprile 1967; il resto del repertorio è invece stato inciso nel biennio successivo. Pur non riuscendo a comprendere il criterio con cui si assemblano questi cataloghi sonori, è indubbiamente utile comparare alcuni lavori vicini eppure assai differenti di un autore come Shepp, all'epoca sugli scudi ...

Cannonball Adderley: Poppin In Paris: Live At L'Olympia 1972

by Mike Jurkovic
April 26, 2024

In his most natural setting--onstage alongside brother Nat Adderley--and accompanied by pianist George Duke, bassist Walter Booker and the trusty Roy McCurdy on drums, Cannonball Adderley pops and bops to all heart's content on Poppin' In Paris: Live at the Olympia 1972 . Appearing as part of the Paris Jazz Festival, the band holds true to its unspoken credo--defy expectations--and steams straight ahead into Duke's epic rent party stomp “Black Messiah." It is a colorful jazz-rock fireworks display ...

Archie Shepp: The Way Ahead, Kwanza, The Magic Of Ju-Ju Revisited

by Mark Corroto
January 20, 2023

Allow me to expand on a much restated quote from Albert Ayler: “Coltrane was The Father, Pharoah was The Son, and I was... The Holy Ghost." If we remain with the Christian iconography, that makes Archie Shepp, Simon Peter, or the Apostle Peter whom Jesus called the rock upon which he built his church. Christened by his tenure in the early 1960s with Cecil Taylor, Shepp was baptized into what we now call a modernist approach. In meeting Coltrane, a ...

Archie Shepp: The Way Ahead, Kwanza, The Magic Of Ju-ju Revisited

by Chris May
January 13, 2023

2023 kicks off with the bangingest back-in-the-day bang from the Swiss-based ezz-thetics label, whose carefully curated and remastered 1960s sessions from Archie Shepp, Horace Silver, John Coltrane and Albert Ayler lit up the reissue calendar in 2022. Shepp's The Way Ahead, Kwanza, The Magic Of Ju-ju Revisited comes in at a whisker over seventy-nine minutes and includes all four tracks from The Way Ahead (Impulse!, 1968), two tracks from Kwanza (Impulse!, recorded 1969, released 1974) and the ...

Walter Booker Quintet: Bookie's Cookbook

by AAJ Staff
February 1, 2001

Although bassist Walter Booker has played with some of the biggest figures in jazz history (Cannonball and Nat Adderley; Stan Getz; Sonny Rollins; Thelonious Monk), recorded material under his own name remains elusive. Bookie's Cookbook documents a September '99 swinging session from his working quintet. This group features the versatile sounds of Cecil Payne's baritone sax, which span the range from throaty bellows to birdlike flight. Payne and trumpeter Marcus Belgrave cover most of the melodic ground: laying down solos ...

Walter Booker: December 17, 1933 - November 24, 2006

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services
November 25, 2006

It is with a sad heart that I announce the passing of my beloved husband, bassist Walter Booker, on Friday, November 24, 2006. As soon as I finalize the details, I will advise you of when the celebration of his life will be held at St Peters Church 53rd and Lexington. --Bertha Hope

Walter Booker was born in Prairie View, Texas in 1933 and moved with his family to Washington, D.C. in the mid 1940s. It wasn't until 1959, at ...
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