Booker Ervin was yet another gifted jazz musician who fell well short of racking up his allotted three score and ten. Sadly, this gruff, big toned tenor sax man from Texas was to cash in his chips, in 1970, aged just 39 from kidney disease. However, in that relatively short period he managed to not only shine brightly on such key Mingus albums as Blues & Roots, Oh Yeah, Mingus Ah Um, Mingus Dynasty, Mingus At Antibes, Black Saint And The Sinner Lady, Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus but to acquit himself on his celebrated series of ‘Cookbook’ LPs.

Though not featured here, this release corrals the first three albums made under his own leadership of which That's It! (in truth by pianist Horace Parlan's Quartet in which Booker was a member) is a cracker. It's an album that reveals the full extent of a style that easily accommodated old school influences from Lester Young, Don Byas and assorted Texan top guns to Coltrane's New Thing innovations. For confirmation check out the lengthy ‘Booker's Blues’, but then, you should check out most things with Booker's name on it.