Tommy Turrentine
Encyclopedia
Thomas Walter Turrentine, Jr. (April 22, 1928 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
– May 15, 1997) was a swing and hard bop
trumpeter of the 1940s to 1960s, the older brother of saxophonist Stanley Turrentine
.
, Earl Bostic
, Charles Mingus
, Billy Eckstine
, Dizzy Gillespie
, and Count Basie
. He later recorded with Sonny Clark
, Lou Donaldson
, and his brother's bands. His working relationship with Max Roach was spawned in part when he joined the Max Roach Quintet in the late 1950s following the death of Clifford Brown.
While his brother had a successful career and recorded a number of albums over his lifetime, Tommy only recorded one album under his name before retiring in the 1960s. In the 1970s he lived with his wife on the ground floor of a brownstone with his wife Jane on West 82nd Street in New York City, a street which during that period had a number of jazz luminaries living along its blocks between Broadway and Central Park, including Tommy Flanagan and Pharoah Sanders. In the summer of 1979 Turrentine was one of several star trumpeters (including John Faddis and others) who appeared at the Village Gate for an all-star tribute to Blue Mitchell. Turrentine was also adept on the piano at chord blockings and was a compositional exponent of Thelonious Monk's earlier chordal voicings. His bebop compositions combined a sophisticated and emotional fusion and poignant lyricism reminiscent of Benny Golson and with the passionate, spirited influence of the Brown/Roach Quintet.
With Lou Donaldson
With Booker Ervin
With Dexter Gordon
With Ahmed Abdul Malik
With Jackie McLean
With Horace Parlan
With John Patton
With Archie Shepp
With Sun Ra
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
– May 15, 1997) was a swing and hard bop
Hard bop
Hard bop is a style of jazz that is an extension of bebop music. Journalists and record companies began using the term in the mid-1950s to describe a new current within jazz which incorporated influences from rhythm and blues, gospel music, and blues, especially in the saxophone and piano...
trumpeter of the 1940s to 1960s, the older brother of saxophonist Stanley Turrentine
Stanley Turrentine
Stanley William Turrentine, also known as "Mr. T" or "The Sugar Man", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.-Biography:Turrentine was born in Pittsburgh's Hill District into a musical family...
.
Biography
He played in the bands of Benny CarterBenny Carter
Bennett Lester Carter was an American jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. He was a major figure in jazz from the 1930s to the 1990s, and was recognized as such by other jazz musicians who called him King...
, Earl Bostic
Earl Bostic
Earl Bostic was an American jazz and rhythm and blues alto saxophonist, and a pioneer of the post-war American Rhythm and Blues style. He had a number of popular hits such as "Flamingo", "Harlem Nocturne", "Temptation", "Sleep", "Special Delivery Stomp", and "Where or When", which showed off his...
, Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus Jr. was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and civil rights activist.Mingus's compositions retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop and drew heavily from black gospel music while sometimes drawing on elements of Third stream, free jazz, and classical music...
, Billy Eckstine
Billy Eckstine
William Clarence Eckstine was an American singer of ballads and a bandleader of the swing era. Eckstine's smooth baritone and distinctive vibrato broke down barriers throughout the 1940s, first as leader of the original bop big-band, then as the first romantic black male in popular...
, Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...
, and Count Basie
Count Basie
William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...
. He later recorded with Sonny Clark
Sonny Clark
Conrad Yeatis "Sonny" Clark was an American jazz pianist who mainly worked in the hard bop idiom.-Biography:...
, Lou Donaldson
Lou Donaldson
Lou Donaldson is a jazz alto saxophonist. He was born in Badin, North Carolina. He is best known for his soulful, bluesy approach to playing the alto saxophone, although in his formative years he was, as many were of the bebop era, heavily influenced by Charlie Parker.His first recordings were...
, and his brother's bands. His working relationship with Max Roach was spawned in part when he joined the Max Roach Quintet in the late 1950s following the death of Clifford Brown.
While his brother had a successful career and recorded a number of albums over his lifetime, Tommy only recorded one album under his name before retiring in the 1960s. In the 1970s he lived with his wife on the ground floor of a brownstone with his wife Jane on West 82nd Street in New York City, a street which during that period had a number of jazz luminaries living along its blocks between Broadway and Central Park, including Tommy Flanagan and Pharoah Sanders. In the summer of 1979 Turrentine was one of several star trumpeters (including John Faddis and others) who appeared at the Village Gate for an all-star tribute to Blue Mitchell. Turrentine was also adept on the piano at chord blockings and was a compositional exponent of Thelonious Monk's earlier chordal voicings. His bebop compositions combined a sophisticated and emotional fusion and poignant lyricism reminiscent of Benny Golson and with the passionate, spirited influence of the Brown/Roach Quintet.
As leader
- 1960: Tommy Turrentine (Bainbridge Records) - with Stanley Turrentine, trombonist Julian PriesterJulian PriesterJulian Priester is an American jazz trombonist and composer.He has played with many artists including Sun Ra, Max Roach, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane and Herbie Hancock.-Biography:...
, bassist Bob Boswell, drummer Max RoachMax RoachMaxwell Lemuel "Max" Roach was an American jazz percussionist, drummer, and composer.A pioneer of bebop, Roach went on to work in many other styles of music, and is generally considered alongside the most important drummers in history...
, pianist Horace ParlanHorace ParlanHorace Parlan is an American hard bop and post-bop piano player.He is noted for his contributions to the classic Charles Mingus recordings Mingus Ah Um and Blues & Roots....
As sideman
With Sonny ClarkSonny Clark
Conrad Yeatis "Sonny" Clark was an American jazz pianist who mainly worked in the hard bop idiom.-Biography:...
- Leapin' and Lopin'Leapin' and Lopin'Leapin' and Lopin is a 1961 album by jazz pianist Sonny Clark, released on Blue Note Records. Michael Nastos of Allmusic writes that "Top to bottom Leapin' and Lopin' is a definitive recording for Clark, and really for all time in the mainstream jazz idiom." All About Jazz stated "Although...
(1961)
With Lou Donaldson
Lou Donaldson
Lou Donaldson is a jazz alto saxophonist. He was born in Badin, North Carolina. He is best known for his soulful, bluesy approach to playing the alto saxophone, although in his formative years he was, as many were of the bebop era, heavily influenced by Charlie Parker.His first recordings were...
- The Natural SoulThe Natural SoulThe Natural Soul is an album by jazz saxophonist Lou Donaldson recorded for the Blue Note label in 1962 and performed by Donaldson with Grant Green, Tommy Turrentine, Big John Patton, and Ben Dixon....
(1962) - Signifyin'Signifyin' (album)Signifyin' is an album by jazz saxophonist Lou Donaldson recorded for the Argo label in 1963 and performed by Donaldson with Roy Montrell, Tommy Turrentine, Big John Patton, and Ben Dixon....
(1963)
With Booker Ervin
Booker Ervin
Booker Telleferro Ervin II was an American tenor saxophone player. He was perhaps best known for his association with bassist Charles Mingus....
- The Book CooksThe Book CooksThe Book Cooks is the debut album by American jazz saxophonist Booker Ervin featuring performances recorded in 1960 for the Bethlehem label.-Reception:...
(1960)
With Dexter Gordon
Dexter Gordon
Dexter Gordon was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and an Academy Award-nominated actor . He is regarded as one of the first and most important musicians to adapt the bebop musical language of people like Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Bud Powell to the tenor saxophone...
- Landslide (1961)
With Ahmed Abdul Malik
- The Music of Ahmed Abdul Malik (1962)
With Jackie McLean
Jackie McLean
John Lenwood McLean was an American jazz alto saxophonist, composer, bandleader and educator, born in New York City.-Biography:McLean's father, John Sr., played guitar in Tiny Bradshaw's orchestra...
- A Fickle SonanceA Fickle SonanceA Fickle Sonance is an album by American saxophonist Jackie McLean recorded in 1961 and released on the Blue Note label.-Reception:The Allmusic review by Al Campbell awarded the album 3 stars and stated -Track listing:...
(1961)
With Horace Parlan
Horace Parlan
Horace Parlan is an American hard bop and post-bop piano player.He is noted for his contributions to the classic Charles Mingus recordings Mingus Ah Um and Blues & Roots....
- Speakin' My PieceSpeakin' My PieceSpeakin' My Piece is the third album by American jazz pianist Horace Parlan featuring performances recorded and released on the Blue Note label in 1960.-Reception:...
(1960)
With John Patton
John Patton (musician)
John Patton , sometimes nicknamed Big John Patton, was a hard bop and soul jazz organist....
- Blue JohnBlue John (album)Blue John is an album by American organist John Patton recorded in 1963 but not released on the Blue Note label until 1986.-Reception:The Allmusic review by Steve Huey awarded the album 4½ stars and stated "While the grooving interplay between Patton, Green, and Dixon is as instinctive as ever,...
(1963)
With Archie Shepp
Archie Shepp
Archie Shepp is a prominent African-American jazz saxophonist. Shepp is best known for his passionately Afrocentric music of the late 1960s, which focused on highlighting the injustices faced by the African-Americans, as well as for his work with the New York Contemporary Five, Horace Parlan, and...
- Mama Too TightMama Too TightMama Too Tight is an album by Archie Shepp released on Impulse! Records in 1966. The album contains tracks recorded by Shepp, Tommy Turrentine, Grachan Moncur III, Roswell Rudd, Howard Johnson, Perry Robinson, Charlie Haden and Beaver Harris in August 1966. The Allmusic review by Thom Jurek states...
(1966)
With Sun Ra
Sun Ra
Sun Ra was a prolific jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, poet and philosopher known for his "cosmic philosophy," musical compositions and performances. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama...
- Blue DelightBlue Delight-Track listing:#"Blue Delight" - 11:10#"Out of Nowhere" - 5:26#"Sunrise" - 11:48#"They Dwell on Other Planes" - 14:41#"Gone with the Wind" - 5:51#"Your Guest is as Good as Mine" - 5:53#"Nashira" - 4:09...
(1989)