Earl Bostic
Encyclopedia
Earl Bostic was an American
jazz
and rhythm and blues
alto saxophonist
, and a pioneer of the post-war American Rhythm and Blues
style. He had a number of popular hits such as "Flamingo"
, "Harlem Nocturne
", "Temptation", "Sleep", "Special Delivery Stomp", and "Where or When", which showed off his characteristic growl on the horn. He was a major influence on John Coltrane
.
, Oklahoma
. He turned professional at age 18 when he joined Terence Holder's 'Twelve Clouds of Joy'. He made his first recording
with Lionel Hampton
in October 1939, with a.o. Charlie Christian, Clyde Hart
and Big Sid Catlett. Before that he performed with Fate Marable
on New Orleans
riverboat
s. Bostic graduated from Xavier University in New Orleans. He worked with territory bands as well as Arnett Cobb
, Hot Lips Page, Rex Stewart
, Don Byas
, Charlie Christian
, Thelonious Monk
, Edgar Hayes
, Cab Calloway
, and other jazz luminaries. In 1938, and in 1944, Bostic led the house band at Small's Paradise. While playing at Small's Paradise, he doubled on guitar
and trumpet
. During the early 1940s, he was a well-respected regular at the famous jam session
s held at Minton's Playhouse
. He formed his own band in 1945 and made the first recordings under his own name for the Majestic label.He turned to rhythm and blues in the late 1940s. His biggest hits
were "Temptation," "Sleep," "Flamingo," "You Go to My Head" and "Cherokee." At various times his band included Jaki Byard
, John Coltrane
, Benny Golson
, Blue Mitchell
, Stanley Turrentine
, Tommy Turrentine
, Keter Betts
, Sir Charles Thompson, Teddy Edwards
, Tony Scott
, Benny Carter
and other musicians who rose to prominence in jazz.
Bostic's King album titled Jazz As I Feel It featured Shelly Manne
on drums, Joe Pass
on guitar and Richard "Groove" Holmes
on organ. Bostic recorded A New Sound about one month later again featuring Holmes and Pass. These recordings allowed Bostic to stretch out beyond the 3 minute limit imposed by the 45 RPM format. Bostic was pleased with the sessions which highlight his total mastery of the blues but they also foreshadowed musical advances that were later evident in the work of John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy
.
He wrote arrangement
s for Paul Whiteman
, Louis Prima
, Lionel Hampton
, Gene Krupa
, Artie Shaw
, Hot Lips Page, Jack Teagarden
, Ina Ray Hutton
and Alvino Rey
.
His songwriting
hits include "Let Me Off Uptown" performed by Anita O'Day
and Roy Eldridge
and "Brooklyn Boogie" which featured Louis Prima and members of the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Bostic's signature hit, "Flamingo" was recorded in 1951 and remains a favorite among followers of Carolina Beach Music in South Carolina
, North Carolina
and Virginia
.
During the early 1950s Bostic lived with his wife in Addisleigh Park in St. Albans, Queens
in New York City
, where many other jazz stars made their home. After that he moved to Los Angeles where he concentrated on writing arrangements after suffering a heart attack
. He opened his own R&B club in Los Angeles known as the Flying Fox.
Bostic died from a heart attack
in Rochester, New York
, while performing with his band in 1965. He was buried in Los Angeles on November 2, 1965. Honorary pallbearers at the funeral included Slappy White
and Louis Prima
.
and (according to James Moody
) Coltrane in turn was influenced by Bostic. Coltrane told Down Beat
magazine
in 1960 that Bostic "showed me a lot of things on my horn. He has fabulous technical facilities on his instrument and knows many a trick." Moody mentioned that "Bostic knew his instrument inside out, back to front and upside down." If one listens carefully to Bostic's fabulous stop time choruses and his extended solo work, the roots of Coltrane's "sheets of sound" become clear.
Bostic's early jazz solos bear similarity to Benny Carter's long flowing lines. Other influences on Bostic include European concert music, bebop
and the sounds associated with his Oklahoma roots. Bostic admitted that he was interested in selling records and he went as far as to write out his popular solos note for note in order to please his admiring fans during
concerts. Nonetheless, Bostic was always ready to improvise brilliantly during his live performances.
Bostic's virtuosity on the saxophone was legendary, and is evident on records such as Up There In Orbit, Earl's Imagination, Apollo Theater Jump, All On, Artistry by Bostic, Telestar Drive, Liza, Lady Be Good and Tiger Rag. He was famous as a peerless jammer and held his own against Charlie Parker
. The alto saxophonist Sweet Papa Lou Donaldson
recalled seeing Parker get burned by Bostic during one such jam session. Art Blakey
remarked that "Nobody knew more about the saxophone than Bostic, I mean technically, and that includes Bird. Working with Bostic was like attending a university of the saxophone.When Coltrane played with Bostic, I know he learned a lot." Victor Schonfield pointed out that "...his greatest gift was the way he communicated through his horn a triumphant joy in playing and being, much like Louis Armstrong
and only a few others have done." He was able to control the horn from low A without using his knee up into the altissimo range years before other saxophonists dared to stray. Bostic was able to play melodies in the altissimo range with perfect execution. He could play wonderfully in any key at any tempo over any changes. Benny Golson
, who called Bostic "the best technician I ever heard in my life," mentioned that "He could start from the bottom of the horn and skip over notes, voicing it up the horn like a guitar would. He had circular breathing before I even knew what circular breathing was - we're talking about the early 50s. He had innumerable ways of playing one particular note. He could double tongue, triple tongue. It was incredible what he could do, and he helped me by showing me many technical things." Bostic used a Beechler mouthpiece with a tenor saxophone reed on his Martin Committee model alto sax.
Bostic was a master of the blues and he used this skill in a variety of musical settings. Although he recorded many commercial albums, some notable jazz based exceptions on the King label
include Bostic Rocks Hits of the Swing Age, Jazz As I Feel It and A New Sound. Compositions like "The Major and the Minor" and "Earl's Imagination" display a solid knowledge of harmony
. In 1951, Bostic successfully toured with Dinah Washington
on the R&B circuit. Bostic was always well dressed and articulate during interviews. His live performances provided an opportunity for a departure from his commercial efforts and those who witnessed these shows remember him driving audiences into a frenzy with dazzling technical displays. Always the consummate showman, he appeared on the Soupy Sales
TV show and performed the Soupy Shuffle better than Soupy while playing the saxophone.
During the late 1940s Bostic changed his style in a successful attempt to reach a wider audience.The new sound incorporated his unmistakable rasp or growl,shorter lines than in his jazz based recordings,emphasis on a danceable back beat and a new way of wringing"...the greatest possible rhythmic value from every note and phrase." Bostic showed off the new approach in his hit "Temptation" which reached the Top Ten of the R&B chart during the summer of 1948. The addition of Gene Redd on vibes in 1950 rounded out the Bostic sound and he used the vibes on his major hits such as "Flamingo" in 1951. The 1956 version of Where or When features Bostic growling through the mid-range of the instrument behind a heavy backbeat and loud bass and it is a marked departure from his approach to the same tune recorded on Gotham in 1947 which showed off his sweet “singing’ in the upper register with barely audible percussion. Bostic proved that saxophone instrumentals could climb the hit charts and other saxists with hits including Boots Randolph
and Stanley Turrentine
have acknowledged his influence.
In February 1959 Bostic was voted #2 jazz alto sax in the Playboy
jazz poll over leading saxists including Cannonball Adderley and Sonny Stitt
. He recorded an inimitable version of All The Things You Are
released on the Playboy label. In August 1959, he performed at the famous Playboy Jazz Festival in Chicago on the same bill as the major jazz stars of the time.
Bostic discussed his approach to improvising in an interview with Kurt Mohr. "Of course I am maybe one of the few musicians who like simple recurring melody patterns and in all my playing I try to keep to keep a basic melody line in my mind and attempt to develop meaningful inversions and variations...I like the basic blues... The blues has it all; basic rhythmic quality, genuine lyric content,essential and basic chord structure and maybe above all else, personality. Blues and jazz are inseparable."
Bostic's recording career was diverse and it included small group swing based jazz, big band jazz,jump blues, organ based combos and a string of commercial successes.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
alto saxophonist
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
, and a pioneer of the post-war American Rhythm and Blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
style. He had a number of popular hits such as "Flamingo"
Flamingo (song)
"Flamingo" is a popular song and jazz standard written byTed Grouya and Edmund Anderson and first performed by Herb Jeffries and Duke Ellington...
, "Harlem Nocturne
Harlem Nocturne
"Harlem Nocturne" is a jazz standard written by Earle Hagen and Dick Rogers in 1939. The song was adopted by bandleader Randy Brooks the next year as his theme song."Harlem Nocturne" has been frequently recorded...
", "Temptation", "Sleep", "Special Delivery Stomp", and "Where or When", which showed off his characteristic growl on the horn. He was a major influence on John Coltrane
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...
.
Career
Bostic was born in TulsaTulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 46th-largest city in the United States. With a population of 391,906 as of the 2010 census, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with 937,478 residents in the MSA and 988,454 in the CSA. Tulsa's...
, Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
. He turned professional at age 18 when he joined Terence Holder's 'Twelve Clouds of Joy'. He made his first recording
Sound recording and reproduction
Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...
with Lionel Hampton
Lionel Hampton
Lionel Leo Hampton was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor. Like Red Norvo, he was one of the first jazz vibraphone players. Hampton ranks among the great names in jazz history, having worked with a who's who of jazz musicians, from Benny Goodman and Buddy...
in October 1939, with a.o. Charlie Christian, Clyde Hart
Clyde Hart
Clyde Hart is the director of track and field at Baylor University. Hart retired as head coach for the Baylor track program on June 14, 2005 after 42 years with the program....
and Big Sid Catlett. Before that he performed with Fate Marable
Fate Marable
Fate Marable was a jazz pianist and bandleader.Marable was born in Paducah, Kentucky, and learned piano from his mother. At age 17, he began playing on the steam boats plying the Mississippi River...
on New Orleans
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
riverboat
Riverboat
A riverboat is a ship built boat designed for inland navigation on lakes, rivers, and artificial waterways. They are generally equipped and outfitted as work boats in one of the carrying trades, for freight or people transport, including luxury units constructed for entertainment enterprises, such...
s. Bostic graduated from Xavier University in New Orleans. He worked with territory bands as well as Arnett Cobb
Arnett Cobb
Arnett Cobb was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.Cobb was born Arnette Cleophus Cobbs in Houston, Texas. His musical career began with the local bands of Chester Boone, from 1934 to 1936, and Milt Larkin, from 1936 to 1942...
, Hot Lips Page, Rex Stewart
Rex Stewart
Rex Stewart was an American jazz cornetist best known for his work with the Duke Ellington orchestra....
, Don Byas
Don Byas
Carlos Wesley "Don" Byas was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, long-resident in Europe.- Oklahoma and Los Angeles :...
, Charlie Christian
Charlie Christian
Charles Henry "Charlie" Christian was an American swing and jazz guitarist.Christian was an important early performer on the electric guitar, and is cited as a key figure in the development of bebop and cool jazz. He gained national exposure as a member of the Benny Goodman Sextet and Orchestra...
, Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser"...
, Edgar Hayes
Edgar Hayes
Edgar Hayes was an American jazz pianist and bandleader.Hayes attended Wilberforce University, where he graduated with a degree in music in the early 1920s. In 1922 he toured with Fess Williams, and formed his own group, the Blue Grass Buddies, in Ohio in 1924...
, Cab Calloway
Cab Calloway
Cabell "Cab" Calloway III was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was strongly associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City where he was a regular performer....
, and other jazz luminaries. In 1938, and in 1944, Bostic led the house band at Small's Paradise. While playing at Small's Paradise, he doubled on guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
and trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
. During the early 1940s, he was a well-respected regular at the famous jam session
Jam session
Jam sessions are often used by musicians to develop new material, find suitable arrangements, or simply as a social gathering and communal practice session. Jam sessions may be based upon existing songs or forms, may be loosely based on an agreed chord progression or chart suggested by one...
s held at Minton's Playhouse
Minton's Playhouse
Minton’s Playhouse is a jazz club and bar located on the first floor of the Cecil Hotel at 210 West 118th Street in Harlem. Minton’s was founded by tenor saxophonist Henry Minton in 1938...
. He formed his own band in 1945 and made the first recordings under his own name for the Majestic label.He turned to rhythm and blues in the late 1940s. His biggest hits
Hit record
A hit record is a sound recording, usually in the form of a single or album, that sells a large number of copies or otherwise becomes broadly popular or well-known, through airplay, club play, inclusion in a film or stage play soundtrack, causing it to have "hit" one of the popular chart listings...
were "Temptation," "Sleep," "Flamingo," "You Go to My Head" and "Cherokee." At various times his band included Jaki Byard
Jaki Byard
Jaki Byard was an American jazz pianist and composer who also played trumpet and saxophone, among several other instruments. He was noteworthy for his eclectic style, incorporating everything from ragtime and stride to free jazz...
, John Coltrane
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...
, Benny Golson
Benny Golson
Benny Golson is an American bebop/hard bop jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and arranger.-Biography:While in high school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Golson played with several other promising young musicians, including John Coltrane, Red Garland, Jimmy Heath, Percy Heath, Philly Joe Jones, and...
, Blue Mitchell
Blue Mitchell
Richard Allen Mitchell was an American jazz, rhythm and blues, soul, rock, and funk trumpeter, known for many albums recorded as leader and sideman for Riverside, Blue Note and then Mainstream Records.-Biography:...
, Stanley Turrentine
Stanley Turrentine
Stanley William Turrentine, also known as "Mr. T" or "The Sugar Man", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.-Biography:Turrentine was born in Pittsburgh's Hill District into a musical family...
, Tommy Turrentine
Tommy Turrentine
Thomas Walter Turrentine, Jr. was a swing and hard bop trumpeter of the 1940s to 1960s, the older brother of saxophonist Stanley Turrentine.-Biography:...
, Keter Betts
Keter Betts
Keter Betts was an American jazz double bassist. Born William Thomas Betts in Port Chester, New York, he was nicknamed "Keter", a short form of the word mosquito.-Career:...
, Sir Charles Thompson, Teddy Edwards
Teddy Edwards
Theodore Marcus "Teddy" Edwards was an American jazz tenor saxophonist based on the West Coast of the US. Some consider him to be one of the most influential jazz saxophonists.-Biography:...
, Tony Scott
Tony Scott
Anthony D. L. "Tony" Scott is an English film director. His films include Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop II, The Last Boy Scout, True Romance, Crimson Tide, Enemy of the State, Spy Game, Man on Fire, Déjà Vu, The Taking of Pelham 123, and Unstoppable...
, Benny Carter
Benny Carter
Bennett Lester Carter was an American jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. He was a major figure in jazz from the 1930s to the 1990s, and was recognized as such by other jazz musicians who called him King...
and other musicians who rose to prominence in jazz.
Bostic's King album titled Jazz As I Feel It featured Shelly Manne
Shelly Manne
Shelly Manne , born Sheldon Manne in New York City, was an American jazz drummer. Most frequently associated with West Coast jazz, he was known for his versatility and also played in a number of other styles, including Dixieland, swing, bebop, avant-garde jazz and fusion, as well as contributing...
on drums, Joe Pass
Joe Pass
Joe Pass was an Italian-American jazz guitarist of Sicilian descent. He is generally considered to be one of the greatest jazz guitarists of the 20th century...
on guitar and Richard "Groove" Holmes
Richard Holmes (organist)
Richard Arnold "Groove" Holmes was an American jazz organist who performed in the hard bop and soul jazz genre...
on organ. Bostic recorded A New Sound about one month later again featuring Holmes and Pass. These recordings allowed Bostic to stretch out beyond the 3 minute limit imposed by the 45 RPM format. Bostic was pleased with the sessions which highlight his total mastery of the blues but they also foreshadowed musical advances that were later evident in the work of John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy
Eric Dolphy
Eric Allan Dolphy was an American jazz alto saxophonist, flutist, and bass clarinetist. On a few occasions he also played the clarinet and baritone saxophone. Dolphy was one of several multi-instrumentalists to gain prominence in the 1960s...
.
He wrote arrangement
Arrangement
The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
s for Paul Whiteman
Paul Whiteman
Paul Samuel Whiteman was an American bandleader and orchestral director.Leader of the most popular dance bands in the United States during the 1920s, Whiteman's recordings were immensely successful, and press notices often referred to him as the "King of Jazz"...
, Louis Prima
Louis Prima
Louis Prima was a Sicilian American singer, actor, songwriter, and trumpeter. Prima rode the musical trends of his time, starting with his seven-piece New Orleans style jazz band in the 1920s, then successively leading a swing combo in the 1930s, a big band in the 1940s, a Vegas lounge act in the...
, Lionel Hampton
Lionel Hampton
Lionel Leo Hampton was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor. Like Red Norvo, he was one of the first jazz vibraphone players. Hampton ranks among the great names in jazz history, having worked with a who's who of jazz musicians, from Benny Goodman and Buddy...
, Gene Krupa
Gene Krupa
Gene Krupa was an American jazz and big band drummer and composer, known for his highly energetic and flamboyant style.-Biography:...
, Artie Shaw
Artie Shaw
Arthur Jacob Arshawsky , better known as Artie Shaw, was an American jazz clarinetist, composer, and bandleader. He was also the author of both fiction and non-fiction writings....
, Hot Lips Page, Jack Teagarden
Jack Teagarden
Weldon Leo "Jack" Teagarden , known as "Big T" and "The Swingin' Gate", was an influential jazz trombonist, bandleader, composer, and vocalist, regarded as the "Father of Jazz Trombone".-Early life:...
, Ina Ray Hutton
Ina Ray Hutton
Ina Ray Hutton was an American female leader during the Big band era, and sister to June Hutton.Hutton was born as Odessa Cowan in Chicago, Illinois of African American descent. She began dancing and singing in stage revues at the age of eight. Cowan's mother Marvel Ray was a local pianist and...
and Alvino Rey
Alvino Rey
Alvin McBurney , known by his stage name Alvino Rey, was an American swing era musician and pioneer, often credited as the father of the pedal steel guitar...
.
His songwriting
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
hits include "Let Me Off Uptown" performed by Anita O'Day
Anita O'Day
Anita O'Day was an American jazz singer.Born Anita Belle Colton, O'Day was admired for her sense of rhythm and dynamics, and her early big band appearances shattered the traditional image of the "girl singer"...
and Roy Eldridge
Roy Eldridge
Roy David Eldridge , nicknamed "Little Jazz" was an American jazz trumpet player. His sophisticated use of harmony, including the use of tritone substitutions, his virtuosic solos and his strong influence on Dizzy Gillespie mark him as one of the most exciting musicians of the swing era and a...
and "Brooklyn Boogie" which featured Louis Prima and members of the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Bostic's signature hit, "Flamingo" was recorded in 1951 and remains a favorite among followers of Carolina Beach Music in South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
, North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
and Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
.
During the early 1950s Bostic lived with his wife in Addisleigh Park in St. Albans, Queens
St. Albans, Queens
St. Albans is a middle class community in the New York City borough of Queens around the intersection of Linden Boulevard and Farmers Boulevard, about two miles north of JFK Airport. It is southeast of Jamaica, west of Cambria Heights and north of Springfield Gardens and Laurelton.The neighborhood...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, where many other jazz stars made their home. After that he moved to Los Angeles where he concentrated on writing arrangements after suffering a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
. He opened his own R&B club in Los Angeles known as the Flying Fox.
Bostic died from a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
in Rochester, New York
Rochester, New York
Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...
, while performing with his band in 1965. He was buried in Los Angeles on November 2, 1965. Honorary pallbearers at the funeral included Slappy White
Slappy White
Slappy White was an American comedian and actor. He worked with Redd Foxx on the Chitlin' circuit of stand-up comedy during the 1950s and 1960s. He appeared on the television shows Sanford and Son, That's My Mama, Blossom, and Cybill and in the films Mr...
and Louis Prima
Louis Prima
Louis Prima was a Sicilian American singer, actor, songwriter, and trumpeter. Prima rode the musical trends of his time, starting with his seven-piece New Orleans style jazz band in the 1920s, then successively leading a swing combo in the 1930s, a big band in the 1940s, a Vegas lounge act in the...
.
Style and Influence
Bostic was influenced by Sidney BechetSidney Bechet
Sidney Bechet was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer.He was one of the first important soloists in jazz , and was perhaps the first notable jazz saxophonist...
and (according to James Moody
James Moody (saxophonist)
James Moody was an American jazz saxophone and flute player. He was best known for his hit "Moody's Mood for Love," an improvisation based on "I'm in the Mood for Love"; in performance, he often improvised vocals for the tune.-Biography:James Moody was born in Savannah, Georgia...
) Coltrane in turn was influenced by Bostic. Coltrane told Down Beat
Down Beat
Down Beat is an American magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond" to indicate its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chicago, Illinois...
magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
in 1960 that Bostic "showed me a lot of things on my horn. He has fabulous technical facilities on his instrument and knows many a trick." Moody mentioned that "Bostic knew his instrument inside out, back to front and upside down." If one listens carefully to Bostic's fabulous stop time choruses and his extended solo work, the roots of Coltrane's "sheets of sound" become clear.
Bostic's early jazz solos bear similarity to Benny Carter's long flowing lines. Other influences on Bostic include European concert music, bebop
Bebop
Bebop differed drastically from the straightforward compositions of the swing era, and was instead characterized by fast tempos, asymmetrical phrasing, intricate melodies, and rhythm sections that expanded on their role as tempo-keepers...
and the sounds associated with his Oklahoma roots. Bostic admitted that he was interested in selling records and he went as far as to write out his popular solos note for note in order to please his admiring fans during
concerts. Nonetheless, Bostic was always ready to improvise brilliantly during his live performances.
Bostic's virtuosity on the saxophone was legendary, and is evident on records such as Up There In Orbit, Earl's Imagination, Apollo Theater Jump, All On, Artistry by Bostic, Telestar Drive, Liza, Lady Be Good and Tiger Rag. He was famous as a peerless jammer and held his own against Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....
. The alto saxophonist Sweet Papa Lou Donaldson
Lou Donaldson
Lou Donaldson is a jazz alto saxophonist. He was born in Badin, North Carolina. He is best known for his soulful, bluesy approach to playing the alto saxophone, although in his formative years he was, as many were of the bebop era, heavily influenced by Charlie Parker.His first recordings were...
recalled seeing Parker get burned by Bostic during one such jam session. Art Blakey
Art Blakey
Arthur "Art" Blakey , known later as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina, was an American Grammy Award-winning jazz drummer and bandleader. He was a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community....
remarked that "Nobody knew more about the saxophone than Bostic, I mean technically, and that includes Bird. Working with Bostic was like attending a university of the saxophone.When Coltrane played with Bostic, I know he learned a lot." Victor Schonfield pointed out that "...his greatest gift was the way he communicated through his horn a triumphant joy in playing and being, much like Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
and only a few others have done." He was able to control the horn from low A without using his knee up into the altissimo range years before other saxophonists dared to stray. Bostic was able to play melodies in the altissimo range with perfect execution. He could play wonderfully in any key at any tempo over any changes. Benny Golson
Benny Golson
Benny Golson is an American bebop/hard bop jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and arranger.-Biography:While in high school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Golson played with several other promising young musicians, including John Coltrane, Red Garland, Jimmy Heath, Percy Heath, Philly Joe Jones, and...
, who called Bostic "the best technician I ever heard in my life," mentioned that "He could start from the bottom of the horn and skip over notes, voicing it up the horn like a guitar would. He had circular breathing before I even knew what circular breathing was - we're talking about the early 50s. He had innumerable ways of playing one particular note. He could double tongue, triple tongue. It was incredible what he could do, and he helped me by showing me many technical things." Bostic used a Beechler mouthpiece with a tenor saxophone reed on his Martin Committee model alto sax.
Bostic was a master of the blues and he used this skill in a variety of musical settings. Although he recorded many commercial albums, some notable jazz based exceptions on the King label
King Records (USA)
King Records is an American record label, started in 1943 by Syd Nathan and originally headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio.-History:At first it specialized in country music, at the time still known as "hillbilly music." King advertised, "If it's a King, It's a Hillbilly -- If it's a Hillbilly, it's a...
include Bostic Rocks Hits of the Swing Age, Jazz As I Feel It and A New Sound. Compositions like "The Major and the Minor" and "Earl's Imagination" display a solid knowledge of harmony
Harmony
In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches , or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic...
. In 1951, Bostic successfully toured with Dinah Washington
Dinah Washington
Dinah Washington, born Ruth Lee Jones , was an American blues, R&B and jazz singer. She has been cited as "the most popular black female recording artist of the '50s", and called "The Queen of the Blues"...
on the R&B circuit. Bostic was always well dressed and articulate during interviews. His live performances provided an opportunity for a departure from his commercial efforts and those who witnessed these shows remember him driving audiences into a frenzy with dazzling technical displays. Always the consummate showman, he appeared on the Soupy Sales
Soupy Sales
Soupy Sales was an American comedian, actor, radio-TV personality and host, and jazz aficionado. He was best known for his local and network children's television show, Lunch with Soupy Sales; a series of comedy sketches frequently ending with Sales receiving a pie in the face, which became his...
TV show and performed the Soupy Shuffle better than Soupy while playing the saxophone.
During the late 1940s Bostic changed his style in a successful attempt to reach a wider audience.The new sound incorporated his unmistakable rasp or growl,shorter lines than in his jazz based recordings,emphasis on a danceable back beat and a new way of wringing"...the greatest possible rhythmic value from every note and phrase." Bostic showed off the new approach in his hit "Temptation" which reached the Top Ten of the R&B chart during the summer of 1948. The addition of Gene Redd on vibes in 1950 rounded out the Bostic sound and he used the vibes on his major hits such as "Flamingo" in 1951. The 1956 version of Where or When features Bostic growling through the mid-range of the instrument behind a heavy backbeat and loud bass and it is a marked departure from his approach to the same tune recorded on Gotham in 1947 which showed off his sweet “singing’ in the upper register with barely audible percussion. Bostic proved that saxophone instrumentals could climb the hit charts and other saxists with hits including Boots Randolph
Boots Randolph
Homer Louis "Boots" Randolph III was an American musician best known for his 1963 saxophone hit, "Yakety Sax"...
and Stanley Turrentine
Stanley Turrentine
Stanley William Turrentine, also known as "Mr. T" or "The Sugar Man", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.-Biography:Turrentine was born in Pittsburgh's Hill District into a musical family...
have acknowledged his influence.
In February 1959 Bostic was voted #2 jazz alto sax in the Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
jazz poll over leading saxists including Cannonball Adderley and Sonny Stitt
Sonny Stitt
Edward "Sonny" Stitt was an American jazz saxophonist of the bebop/hard bop idiom. He was also one of the best-documented saxophonists of his generation, recording over 100 albums in his lifetime...
. He recorded an inimitable version of All The Things You Are
All the Things You Are
"All the Things You Are" is a song composed by Jerome Kern, with lyrics written by Oscar Hammerstein II.It was written for the musical Very Warm for May , where it was introduced by Hiram Sherman, Frances Mercer, Hollace Shaw, and Ralph Stuart...
released on the Playboy label. In August 1959, he performed at the famous Playboy Jazz Festival in Chicago on the same bill as the major jazz stars of the time.
Bostic discussed his approach to improvising in an interview with Kurt Mohr. "Of course I am maybe one of the few musicians who like simple recurring melody patterns and in all my playing I try to keep to keep a basic melody line in my mind and attempt to develop meaningful inversions and variations...I like the basic blues... The blues has it all; basic rhythmic quality, genuine lyric content,essential and basic chord structure and maybe above all else, personality. Blues and jazz are inseparable."
Bostic's recording career was diverse and it included small group swing based jazz, big band jazz,jump blues, organ based combos and a string of commercial successes.
Albums
- Earl Bostic and His Alto Sax, Volume 1
- Earl Bostic and His Alto Sax, Volume 2
- Earl Bostic and His Alto Sax, Volume 3
- Earl Bostic and His Alto Sax, Volume 4
- Earl Bostic Plays the Old Standards
- Dance to the Best Of Bostic (1956)
- Earl Bostic For You (1956)
- Alto-Tude (1956)
- Dance Time (1956)
- Let's Dance with Earl Bostic (1956)
- Invitation to Dance from Earl Bostic (1956)
- C'mon and Dance with Earl Bostic (1956)
- Bostic Rocks Hits of the Swing Age (1957)
- Bostic Showcase of Swinging Dance Hits (1958)
- Alto Magic in Hi-Fi (1958)
- Sweet Tunes of the Fantastic 50's (1959)
- Bostic Workshop (1959)
- Earl Bostic Play's Sweet Tunes of the Roaring 20's (1959)
- Earl Bostic Plays the Sweet Tunes of the Swinging ‘30s (1959)
- Sweet Tunes of the Sentimental 40sSweet Tunes of the Sentimental 40s (album)Sweet Tunes of the Sentimental 40s is a swing album released by Earl Bostic & his Orchestra in 1959 on King 640.-Track listing:# "Moonlight in Vermont"# "Long Ago and Far Away"# "That Old Black Magic"# "It Might as Well Be Spring"# "I Think of You"...
(1959) - Musical Pearls (1959)
- Earl Bostic Plays Hit Tunes of Big Broadway Shows (1960)
- By Popular Demand (1962)
- Earl Bostic Plays Bossa Nova (1963)
- Jazz as I Feel It (1963)(featuring Groove Holmes)
- The Best of Earl Bostic, Volume 2 (1964)
- The New Sound (1964)(featuring Groove Holmes)
- Earl Bostic Plays the Great Hits Of 1964 (1964)
- The Great Earl Bostic: 24 Songs That Earl Loved the Most (1966)