And Now, On Tenor Sax, We Bring You the Great Booker Erwin
Did you know that Booker Erwin is the tenor sax player on the album Mingus Ah Um? Or that it is the tenor saxophone that Sonny Stitt plays on the album Saxophone Supremacy? Or that John Coltrane wrote the song Afro Blue on the Impulse album Live at Birdland? I didn’t know any of this because none of it is true. Except that’s what it says in the liner notes or on the labels. In the process of doing my weekly two-hour radio show/podcast I’m discovering a surprisingly large number of typos and misinformation on liner notes. I was playing the Verve Dizzy Gillespie album Sonny Side Up with Sonny Rollins and Sonny Stitt. I looked at the liner notes for On the Sunny Side of the Street. It said quite clearly that Rollins has the opening solo and then Stitt has the solo after Dizzy. Listen to the record.
Within four notes of the first solo you’ll know immediately that it was Stitt, and within two notes of the second solo, you’ll know it was Rollins. Nat Hentoff, one of the giants in jazz journalism and a personal hero, was responsible for writing the liner notes. Is it possible he missed something, or is it just a typo that somehow got past the reviewers? I have no idea, but having been a journalist for my entire career, these kinds of mistakes drive me crazy and should be caught well before they ever see the light of day. These are just a few of the examples I’ve encountered since I began doing the radio show six months ago. I’m sure you’ve all encountered many more, which you are welcome to share here. Booker Erwin? Really?
I wonder if Hentoff was given a test pressing to listen to but different takes were ultimately chosen. Or maybe even a reel to reel… I used to CDs weeks in advance of the actual release date (no notes, different text on the CD) and it wasn’t unheard of to have a different final mixing and/or mastering.
Um, note my lack of editing above.
I used to receive CDs weeks…
Aloha Al, now you have me going down a rabbit hole, lol! Will be checking my record covers now. Mahalo!
Mistakes happen.
Marion Brown was adamant that he recorded his debut for ESP before making the date with Coltrane for Ascension; he related this to me and I wrote the reissue liners. Of course Marion’s memory was soon decided to be quite faded, and the error is in print.
The book I just wrote has a couple of very small typos and I credited a musician as a “percussionist” when I should have written “multi-instrumentalist.” The longer I’ve been in the writing field, the less I kick myself for these slip-ups. It’s impossible to avoid them sometimes.
Quite right, that’s the way it goes some times. I worked at a publishing house for eleven years up until last month, started there as an intern.
First book I worked on during my internship came from the printer with a typo smack dab in the middle of the title page which I’m pretty sure was my fault. I was mortified, but when I told the publisher he just shrugged, smiled and said something along the lines of ‘Eh, these things happen’.
Clifford and Cellery, yes, any of us in the world of publishing has been there, and it’s always worst in print, because there’s no fixing it. If you make a typppo online, you can always fix it and no on will ever know. I’ll never forget, my very first feature article as a daily newspaper journalist was butchered by the typesetting department at the Syracuse Post-Standard. I wanted to frame the article, but parts of it were unreadable. Even with that proviso, you would think at Columbia Records someone would have caught something as egregious as Booker Erwin, which appears twice in the liner notes. Just sayin’.
Just came across this typo in the liner notes (credited to George Russell) to The Jazz Workshop on RCA Victor LPM-1372 – “the personnel remains the same except for the drumming, which is supplied by newcomer Paul Mobian”. Poor Paul – on his first recording, they goofed up his name.
Archie Sheep is the best typo I’ve seen!
Aloha Al, question: were these typos, mistakes corrected in later issues, re-release or the original liner notes just continue to exist? On another note, I remember hearing from folks that listened to the Beatles about what they called the “Butcher” lp and how the record label tried to cover over the original front picture to reuse them. Sounds like those are worth a bit! Mahalo!
I am still struggling with Booker Ervin on Mingus Ah Um. Was convinced of his presence on this Columbia album. Or is it just the misspelling Erwin?
Erwin also appears on the Warwick Teddy Charles album from the Museum of Modern Art.
There’s a typo on the liner notes for the original pressing of “night dreamer” by Wayne Shorter. When discussing the title track of the album it states that Herbie Hancock is the pianist; not McCoy Tyner!
Not sure if this was corrected on later pressings or CD reissues?
Crenshaw, Bob, appeared on the Sidewinder cover on repressings over 50 years until corrected to Cranshaw by Music Matters and then subsequently Blue Note.
Jazz Record Center has a new auction of 27 lp’s today with bids starting from $100-1500. The Duke Jordan BLP 4046 has the starting bid of $1500, with one bid on it already. Should be interesting to follow the results.
Way back in the Stone Age, some under-contract players gave fake names to be able to collect some scratch from session at a rival label. “Charlie Chan” & “Blind Boy Grunt” are two that come to mind. But, more likely, just a mistake involving a musician that no one that reviewed the copy had heard of. And I am sure a man-in-the-street survey of 100 random people would likely reveal Booker Ervin is still relatively, if not completely, unknown, despite the most excellent ‘The Song Book’, “The Space Book” etc.
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=25&_trksid=p3692&_ssn=jazzrecordcenter
JRC current auction
JRC auctions always get premium prices.
I think I once wrote Charles Minus on Jazz Collector instead of Charles Mingus. That’s a pretty good one.