- Format: CD
- Label: Fantasy
- Genre: Jazz
Recorded in San Francisco; May 19 and 20, 1960.
Don Wilkerson's recording debut, The Texas Twister, was produced by Cannonball Adderley, an auspicious event for the 27-year-old tenor saxophonist from Houston. An early bloomer, Wilkerson played with rhythm and blues bands led by Amos Milburn and Charles Brown while in his teens. At 21, he led a band in Miami, worked off and on in the mid-Fifties with Ray Charles, and played with Adderley in jam sessions. Cannonball liked what he heard and made Wilkerson's album one of his early projects when he began producing for Riverside. Nat Adderley, Barry Harris, and Sam Jones from Cannonball's own band joined Wilkerson on some pieces, Leroy Vinnegar and Billy Higgins on others. Steeped in the Southwest tenor tradition of muscle and forthrightness but also finely attuned to post-bop developments, Wilkerson fit right in with these top-flight veterans.
Track listing: Recorded in San Francisco; May 19 and 20, 1960.The Twister, Morning Coffee, Idiom, Jelly Roll, Easy to Love, Where or When, Media
