What Ervin Brought to the Table in 1961
Ira Gitler heard Ervin's best work to date, a saxophonist fully in command of his sound.
Booker Ervin walked into the Candid studio in 1961 with something to prove. By this point in his career, he had paid his dues in hard-bop and soul-jazz contexts, but he was still searching for the right setting to let his voice come through without compromise. That's It! gave him exactly that — a session where his tenor saxophone could dominate, where his approach to melody and timbre could be the primary subject rather than one voice in a ensemble texture.
What makes this album distinctive is Ervin's sheer clarity of purpose. He plays with a full, woody tone and an unhurried approach to phrasing that feels almost conversational. He doesn't rush. He doesn't oversell. The rhythm section gives him room to breathe, and Ervin uses that space to craft solos that build logically, thought by thought. For a saxophonist working in the early 1960s soul-jazz world, this kind of restraint and clarity was itself a statement — a refusal to chase the flashy or the trendy.
DownBeat reviewer Ira Gitler recognized what was happening here, calling it Ervin's best work up to that time. The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings also rated it highly. Those assessments hold up because Ervin sounds comfortable in his own skin, neither derivative nor searching. He simply plays the music he hears.
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