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Price: $250.00

NEAR MINT CONDITION

EARL BOSTIC - ALTO SAXOPHONIST

Autographed and inscribed 3” x 5” Associated Booking Corp photo card to bluesman Clyde Robinson with a list of 17 of his albums on the King Record label c. 1957.

Bostic (1913-1965) was considered to be the greatest technical jazz alto saxophonist of the 20th Century.  Extremely dexterous fingers, big runs and 3 octaves led his contemporaries to think of him as more proficient on the instrument than Charlie Parker. (Direct statement from the legendary saxophonist Art Blakely.)

Born in Tulsa, he was playing alto sax in bands in the first few years of the 1930’s.  He then decided to go to Xavier College in Louisiana to study music.  Leaving New Orleans in 1935, he toured for a year with bands led by Charlie Creath and Fate Marable.  Moving to New York in 1937, he played solo alto sax with bands led by Don Redman, Edgar Hayes, Hot Lips Page and Lionel Hampton through 1944. While he was recognized, he never hit the big time during those years.  In 1945 he formed his own smaller combos, hiring the likes of Jimmy Cobb, John Coltrane, Benny Golson, Blue Mitchell and Stanley Turrentine at various times.  Rather than go the bop route, Bostic began fiddling with arrangements from the mide 1940’s and was at the forefront of r&b. His album “Flamingo” in 1951 was a hit and all of a sudden, Bostic was a star in his own right.  His hallmarks were the glissando and the exaggerated vibrato.  King Records put out endless Bostic Records which were hot sellers.

In the mid 1950’s he was forced to stop performing due to a heart ailment and moved from New York City to California to write film arrangements.  He died of a massive heart attack at the age of 52. 

A rare jazz autograph!