Gordon takes a look at the not-so-well-known tenor saxophonist Booker Ervin. While his recording career only lasted around 10 years, Ervin appeared on some of the best recordings from bassist Charles Mingus including “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” and “Better Git It In Your Soul.” During the 1960s, Booker recorded with his own quartet and showed signs of brilliance influenced by jazz giants like John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, and Sonny Stitt.

Gordon welcomes in master clarinetist/saxophonist Eddie Daniels in to talk about his life in jazz and how he got to where he is today. Born in New York City to immigrant parents, Daniels began on his father’s old alto saxophone at age 9 and by age 16 was playing regular gigs in the Catskill Mountains. In his career, Eddie has recorded on over 150 albums with with legends like Thad Jones, Freddie Hubbard, and Jimmy McGriff among others.

This segment focuses not on the entire breadth of John Coltrane’s work, but instead a period in Coltrane’s career from around 1957-1961. This was a very important transitional period in his life and his music. In 1957, he recorded a record called “Blue Train,” which wasn’t his first record as a leader, but perhaps his first important album as a leader. This segment traces his life from this point in his career and into his work with the famous quarter with McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones and Jimmy Garrison.

Born in 1919 in Alabama as Nathaniel Coles, Nat quickly became exposed to great music after his family moved to Chicago in 1923. Although his first exposure to music was of the sacred vareity thanks to his father being a preacher, Cole soon found a love for many of the artists living in Chicago at the time including Earl Hines, Louis Armstrong, and Jimmy Noone.

Gordon welcomes clarinetist and jazz historian Dr.Michael White into the studio to talk about his life playing and studying traditional New Orleans jazz. A relative of early New Orleans jazz pioneers Papa John Joseph and Earl Fouche, White grew up listening to and playing music but it wasn’t until college when he fell in love with the sounds of Dixieland.

This two-part segment of Jazz Insights focuses on the great Benny Carter. Carter is known today as one of the great arrangers, composers, bandleaders, film scorers and alto saxophone players in jazz and his influence can be heard on music throughout the 20th century.