Take Five with Eric Person

Have you ever wondered what your favorite musicians are listening to or what recordings influenced them? “Take Five” is a look at the music that inspires and excites them. It’s difficult to choose ONLY five recordings!

Fearlessness and respect for innovation are in Eric Person’s DNA. At the tender age of nineteen, he left his home of St. Louis, MO, to move to New York City to pursue a full-time career as a jazz musician. Over forty years later, his endeavors created a successful career as a saxophonist, composer, arranger, bandleader, and educator.

His resume includes collaborations with drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson, Chico Hamilton, Dave Holland, the McCoy Tyner Big Band, the World Saxophone Quartet, tenor titan Houston Person, and Wallace Roney among others. Throughout his career Eric consistently takes chances; he never followed the mainstream trajectory expected of jazz musicians of his generation (“The Young Lions” of the 1980s and 1990s). He has consistently documented his path including a series of recordings on his label, Distinction Records. This year, Person remastered and reissued one of his most critically acclaimed and enduring recordings “Rhythm Edge.” He’s often asked if he’s related to Houston Person and for the answer? Well, you’ll have to ask the younger Person.

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John Coltrane – A Love Supreme (Impulse!)
For most John Coltrane fans, A Love Supreme is the summit for his great quartet, as well as for him as a recording artist. A Love Supreme highlights a sound that was slowly perfected since his great quartet was formed. The band’s high energy unified sound along with Coltrane’s spiritual quest. all came together perfectly. It is one of the albums that inspired me to compose my Thoughts on God Suite, record, and release it. Until that time, John Coltrane had never recorded an album as intense as A Love Supreme. Although Coltrane would record more albums with this unit, it is A Love Supreme that maintains the most fascination.

Miles Davis – Four and More – (Columbia)
This was Miles’s greatest live record. A disagreement about payment for this performance between Miles Davis and his band members lit a flame in each musician that reverberated in each tune they performed. Four and More presents many new and old Miles Davis favorites that fans and musicians loved. Except for the standard, “There is No Greater Love,” all the other tunes are performed at break-neck speed! It’s a great concept for an album. It was an album that put Miles Davis closer to finishing one chapter and advancing to another.

Woody Shaw – Woody III (Columbia)
Woody Shaw’s career was a slow build. He was not given a Blue Note record deal because the label was already crowded with some of the greatest trumpeters on the scene. Lee Morgan and Freddie Hubbard were blazing a hot trail on that label. So, the young upstart had to bide his time and look elsewhere. After releasing a few records that showed his fascination with the avant-garde, Woody found his way onto Muse Records which featured his expanded ensembles and solid compositions. Woody got Miles Davis’s attention, who called Columbia for them to sign the innovative trumpeter. Woody III is his third release on Columbia Records and represents Woody Shaw’s greatest conceptual work. It’s thrilling! I have a Woody Shaw transcription book which contains his solos from most of this album. It is fascinating to follow his dazzling notes!

Jackie McLean – It’s Time (Blue Note)
All great records feature great rhythm sections; in that regard, Its Time is no different. The rhythm section includes the ever-exciting veteran drummer Roy Haynes. The rock-solid Cecil McBee and the still-new-on-the-scene pianist Herbie Hancock. This record contains some of the finest Herbie Hancock accompaniment anywhere. I am including even with the Miles Davis Quintet. The melodies are off-the-chain dynamic and there is not one boring solo to be found. The music contained has Jackie spreading his wings, finding fertile ground playing modal jazz. But as new as the music was, he still recognized the importance of the blues in his music.

McCoy Tyner -The Real McCoy (Blue Note)
The Real McCoy is McCoy Tyner’s first album as a leader to feature all his original compositions. All of which became standards. It is McCoy’s first record release since leaving the John Coltrane Quartet, and his first for Blue Note Records. It features tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson who never disappoints. Bassist Ron Carter is solid and inspired. Drummer Elvin Jones is fiery, but also supportive, and beautifully understated. The Real McCoy is dynamic, introspective, and soulful. Like Jackie Mclean’s album, It’s Time, the blues is there. The album ends with McCoy’s tune “Blues On The Corner.” Some of the most musically successful albums that came out of the new music era of the ’60s had more than their share of blues connotation in the music. The Real McCoy is considered a “pure jazz” record. McCoy Tyner’s goal was to deliver his unique harmonic concept on his fresh original compositions, straight, no chaser. I say, mission accomplished!

More on Eric Person:
Website: Eric Person
Instagram – Eric Person

Selected Discography:
As a leader
Arrival (Soul Note)
Prophecy (Soul Note)
More Tales to Tell (Soul Note)
Extra Pressure (Distinction Records)
Live at Big Sur (Distinction Records)
The Grand Illusion (Distinction Records)
Rhythm Edge (Remastered 2024) (Distinction Records)
Triokinesis (Distinction Records)
Thoughts On God (Distinction Records)
Duoscope (with Shin Takashashi) (Distinction Records)
Blue Vision (featuring Houston Person) (Distinction Records)

As a sideman
With Ronald Shannon Jackson
When Colors Play (Caravan of Dreams Productions)
With Chico Hamilton
Arroyo (Soul Note)
Trio! (Soul Note)
My Panamanian Friend (Soul Note)
With the Dave Holland Quartet
Dreams Of The Elders (ECM)
With The World Saxophone Quartet
Moving Right Along (Soul Note)
With Ben Harper
The Will To Live (Virgin)
With Moon Pool
Eclipse (Distinction Records)

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