I hadn't knowingly heard Tina Brooks before but I've subscribed to the musicmattersjazz.com 45rpm releases and this is one of them. Most of the releases have been by people that I'm well familiar with and some famous recordings as well....like Art Blakey A Night in Tunisia which I now have on multiple formats.

After listening to the record - Wow! How did this guy manage to avoid headlining a gaggle of albums? Musta' been some serious amounts of drugs. Now it doesn't hurt that amongst others he's got Freddie Hubbard on Trumpet and Sam Jones on Bass but Tina (tenor sax) plays some long solos on each tune and carries the load playing AND he wrote most of the songs. He's soulful, the songs a little blues tinged. Not a filler tune on the record. I'm really glad they issued this album or I would have missed it.

due to his drug addiction to the sweet stuff,Heroin. I have the Mosaic Box set which has True Blue,Minor Moves and Back to the Tracks and it sounds real nice.:music: He died in 74 because of complications due to his addiction.:smoke:

Glad you discovered Tina Brooks! His tone is pretty amazing and his solos are always interesting. He's paired with Jackie McLean on Freddie Redd's Shades of Redd, another BN classic. He does some interesting things on Freddie Redd's Music from The Connection (not the BN version; can't remember the original label, but it was reissued by Boplicity).

Back in the late 70's, early 80's when you could still pick up a W63rd DG BN within reason around the Bay Area, True Blue and Introducing Herbie Nichols were the Holy Grail for many folks. It's not surprising that Michael Cuscuna and Co decided to reissue both Brooks and Nichols as some of the earliest Mosaic box sets. Cheers to Mr. Hoffman and his projects. :thmbsp:

Tina Brooks - True Blue, is a very good album.As mentioned you may want to pick up Minor Moves.

Hey Joyce, nice discovery. Always enjoyed listening to Tina Brooks. He's one of those tenor saxophonists you just don't think of right away. Like others have mentioned, check out Minor Moves featuring Lee Morgan, (tp); Sonny Clark, (p); Doug Watkins (b); and Art Blakey. Also, The Waiting Game featuring Johnny Coles, (tp); Kenny Drew, (p); Wilbur Ware, (b) and Philly Joe Jones.

Cheers

Hey Joyce, nice discovery. Always enjoyed listening to Tina Brooks. He's one of those tenor saxophonists you just don't think of right away. Like others have mentioned, check out Minor Moves featuring Lee Morgan, (tp); Sonny Clark, (p); Doug Watkins (b); and Art Blakey. Also, The Waiting Game featuring Johnny Coles, (tp); Kenny Drew, (p); Wilbur Ware, (b) and Philly Joe Jones.

Cheers

He sure managed to play with some good rhythm sections...Art Blakey and Philly Joe Jones! Too bad that mosaic set isn't available any more.

Is Tina a nickname or bad parental choice?

He was born Harold Floyd Brooks and I assume Tina was a nickname. Maybe he had it legally changed. I don't know for sure.

Cheers

Edit: Found the answer....

This close-knit family migrated en masse to the Bronx in New York City in 1944, when Harold was 12 years old. He was already being called Tina (pronounced Teena), a grade school nickname that came from his tiny or teensy size.