According to prevailing modern jazz wisdom, when one locked horns with altoist-tenor player Sonny Stitt (1924-1982), one had to be armed to the teeth with licks. Booker Ervin (1930-1970), whose tenor saxophone cry was among the most urgent sounds of the post-to-free-bop era, was solely on the basis of that sound, more than equal to the task of jamming with Stitt. Backed expertly by organist Don Patterson (1936-1988), who had worked extensively with Stitt, Soul People (which also includes a previously unreleased Patterson feature, the mellow bossa reading of “There Will Never Be Another You”) is a consistently rewarding set.

with Vinnie Corrao, Grant Green, Billy James