Stanley Turrentine - Comin' your Way
Released - 1987
Recording and Session Information
Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, January 20, 1961
Tommy Turrentine, trumpet; Stanley Turrentine, tenor sax; Horace Parlan, piano; George Tucker, bass; Al Harewood, drums.
tk.1 Then I'll Be Tired Of You
tk.9 My Girl Is Just Enough Woman For Me
tk.15 Stolen Sweets
tk.22 Fine Lil' Lass
tk.26 Thomasville
tk.43 Someone To Watch Over Me
Session Photos
Photos: © Francis Wolff/Mosaic Images
https://www.mosaicrecordsimages.com/
Track Listing
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Tommy and Stanley Turrentine were born (in 1928 and 1934 respectively) into a musical family in Pittsburgh. Tommy held a trumpet chair in the big bands of Billy Eckstine, Benny Carter, Count Basie and Dizzy Gillespie in the late forties and early fifties. Stanley's Texas-sounding tenor saxophone earned him employment in 1951 with Lowell Fulson's R & B band, which at the time included pianist Ray Charles. The brothers worked together from 1953 to 1955 with Earl Bostic's band. But it was not until mid 1958 that Tommy and Stanley made their initial impact on the jazz scene with Max Roach's quintet.
Alfred Lion was immediately taken with Stanley's ability to blend a time-honored, big, soulful tenor sound with contemporary jazz concepts. In 1960, Stanley, who had already recorded on Blue Note with Jimmy Smith and Duke Jordan, became a Blue Note recording artist with a classic debut entitled LOOK OUT. Tommy Turrentine never recorded as a leader for the label, but his fluid, rich playing and his compositions appeared on albums by brother Stanley, Jackie McLean, John Patton, Dexter Gordon and others.
COMIN' YOUR WAY was to have been Stanley's third album for the label after LOOK OUT and a collaboration with The Three Sounds entitled BLUE HOUR. Although it was given a catalog number and a cover and was listed in catalogs and on album jackets, it was never issued at the time. It appeared briefly in the late seventies as part of a Blue Note twofer with JUBILEE SHOUT. There were a surprising number of other such albums (including JUBILEE SHOUT), but these were very active years and Alfred Lion frequently responded to an artist's enthusiasm by recording a new project before a previous one was issued. Over the years, many an excellent date was left behind in the momentum of the era.
What makes this album special beyond the sibling empathy and brilliance of the Turrentine Brothers is the magnificent rhythm section of Horace Parlan, George Tucker and Al Harewood. The magical trio first recorded on April 20, 1960 for Parlan's US THREE. They were at that time working in Lou Donaldson's quartet. They also worked as c trio, with Turrentine, and with Booker Ervin, as the house rhythm section at Minton's Playhouse in Harlem and in the same capacity for a number of Blue Note sessions including Dexter Gordon's DOIN' ALRIGHT, Lou Donaldson's MIDNIGHT SUN and some of Parlan's and Stanley's finest recordings.
Horace Parlan and Stanley had been friends and had played together since their high school years in Pittsburgh. It was logical that Parlan's trio should support Stanley on his Blue Note debut, the outstanding LOOK OUT. Later on the tenor saxophonist's UP AT MINTON'S, volumes one and two, guitarist Grant Green was added to the quartet. And for this album and SPEAKIN' MY PIECE and ON THE SPUR OF THE MOMENT Tommy Turrentine completes the quintet.
Based on the evidence left us by three studio albums, I'd venture to say that this quintet would have become as popular and influential as any of Horace Silver's or Art Blakey's had they been able to stay together, tour and develop.
COMIN' YOUR WAY was recorded six months after SPEAKIN' MY PIECE and two months before ON THE SPUR OF THE MOMENT. All three albums feature beautifully selected and paced repertoire. What separates this album from the two Parlan-led sessions is the preponderance of lesser-known, tasty standards.
Dorothy Fields' "My Girl Is Just Enough Woman For Me" is given just enough muscle and swing without losing its tender tone. Stanley caresses the melody, treading lightly, and then digs into a concise, lusty solo followed by brother Tommy and Parlan. George Tucker is an ever moving pillar of strength, driving the whole piece with brilliant but unobtrusive bass lines.
'*Then I'll Be Tired Of You" by E. Y. Harburg (of "Over The Rainbow" fame) is introduced by Tommy playing the verse and melody. Stanley completes the song form and launches into one of his typically beautiful ballad solos. Both the tenor and trumpet solos have a subtle but poignant bittersweet edge.
" Fine L'il Lass" is a sly minor blues with dynamics that snake up and down in the Jazz Messenger tradition. This tune was contributed by Philadelphia composer Leon Mitchell, who also wrote "Oh So Blue" on SPEAKIN' MY PIECE and "Ray C' on ON THE SPUR OF THE MOMENT. Stanley rips his way out of the theme like a bull and sets a soulful, lowdown tone for the solos that follow by Tommy, Horace and Tucker. A wonderful alternate take recorded immediately prior to the master follows.
Tommy Turrentine's "Thomasville" is a decidedly boppish, 24-bar tune with an excellent set of solos. Stanley really gets into an early R & B attitude with Horace comping Lionel Hampton-type riffs behind him. As Bob Porter has pointed out, Tommy's solo here bears a strong Fats Navarro influence. Parlan takes a marvelous solo followed by brief statements from Tucker and Harewood. In all cases, these men make their most developed and best constructed solos on this track.
Gershwin's "Someone To Watch Over Me" which has been brutalized by hundreds of soulless singers, is redeemed here by Stanley. This is his spot, and once again he proves himself a master of the ballad. He claims Ben Webster and Don Byas as his earliest and strongest influence. He has learned his lessons well.
Wild Bill Davis' jazz standard "Stolen Sweets" has long been a tenor player's favorite. And here Stanley's solo is an absolutely brilliant, unending string of ideas. Both Tommy and Parlan have brief, sparkling solos before Stanley comes back for more.
"Just In Time" is given a swinging, uptempo jazz treatment with fine solos from all. The performance is not quite as cohesive as the other titles on this session, which might explain its exclusion from the original vinyl album.
It is regrettable that the Turrentine brothers and Parlan's trio did nor become a permanent performing ensemble. The three albums that they recorded whet the appetite fir what they might have developed with time. Fortunately, these albums are also enormously satisfying on their own terms.
- MICHAEL CUSCUNA
Produced by ALFRED LION
Engineered by RUDY VAN GELDER
Udiscover Music Notes
The sound of Stanley Turrentine’s tenor saxophone is unmistakable. Firstly, it’s big and warm. Secondly, it’s robust yet athletic. And finally – and most impressive of all, perhaps – it’s imbued with a husky, earthy tone that helps to give it a sanctified soulfulness. Once heard, it’s never forgotten. So how, then, some bemused fans might ask, did Blue Note Records – Turrentine’s recording home from 1960 to 1969 – forget about the recording he made for them on January 20, 1961? After all, it had been given a title – Comin’ Your Way – but it didn’t see the light of day until 17 years later.
Why was it shelved?
The truth is, Blue Note didn’t forget. For some reason, however, what was intended to be the Pittsburgh-born saxophonist’s third album for the label was shelved, even though it had been assigned a catalogue number and artwork. Ironically, despite its title, the session wasn’t released until 1978, when the Blue Note vaults were raided for a double-LP compilation called Jubilee Shouts, assembled by producer and jazz historian Michael Cuscuna (by this time, the label was owned by United Artists). Even so, it wasn’t until 1987, in the CD age, when Blue Note – then under the aegis of EMI – finally gave Comin’ Your Way an official separate release.
Comin’ Your Way should have been released after Blue Hour, Turrentine’s collaboration with The Three Sounds, but it was dropped from the schedule at the last minute in favor of Up At “Minton’s”, a live album recorded at Minton’s Playhouse, a famous Harlem venue, just one month after the Comin’ Your Way session. The album must have proved popular as Blue Note issued a second volume of recordings from Turrentine’s Minton’s gig as the follow-up LP, later in 1961.
When it was time for Turrentine’s next studio album, it appears that Blue Note’s producer, Alfred Lion, opted for a new recording from his star saxophonist rather than serve up the canned Comin’ Your Way. Consequently, Turrentine recorded Dearly Beloved, another session featuring his wife, Shirley Scott, on organ, and so Comin’ Your Way, now no longer a vital, up-to-date document of Stanley Turrentine’s art, was left to gather dust.
An exciting discovery
When Blue Note finally liberated the neglected January 1961 session 17 years after the fact, it proved an exciting discovery. Turrentine was accompanied by his elder brother, Tommy, a trumpeter six years Stanley’s senior, plus pianist Horace Parlan, with George Tucker on bass and Al Harewood on drums (all five musicians had previously collaborated together on Parlan’s Speakin’ My Piece LP for Blue Note the previous year).
The opener, “My Girl Is Just Enough Woman For Me,” is Turrentine’s version of a song recorded in 1959 by the velvet-voiced crooner Jesse Belvin. It was written by noted songwriters Dorothy Fields and Al Hague, and is transformed by the saxophonist and his quintet into a supple swinger. Tucker and Harewood create a bouncy groove over which Turrentine plays the main melody in a smooth, lyrical vein, before he ups the ante with a sinewy solo. His brother Tommy then follows with a rangy trumpet solo before Horace Parlan – who’s been playing tasteful background chords up to this point – shows his skill as an improviser.
Previously recorded by singers Ella Fitzgerald and Nat “King” Cole in the 50s, “Then I’ll Be Tired Of You” is another lesser-known standard and was penned by EY “Yip” Harburg (writer of the lyrics to “Over The Rainbow”) and Arthur Schwartz. It’s a shimmering nocturnal ballad showcasing Tommy Turrentine’s gilded trumpet at the opening, before Stanley enters and shows how adept he is at playing in a tender, more expressive way on slower songs. Tommy then returns for another spell in the spotlight, his solo aching with a languorous melancholy. On Stanley’s next entrance, the tempo and mood pick up and brighten a tad before the original tone is resumed and the two Turrentine siblings’ horns intertwine elegantly at the end.
In contrast, “Fine L’il Lass” is a slightly subdued soulful swinger led by a mellow, harmonized horn motif before the younger Turrentine brother takes the first solo in a typically robust but soulful fashion. The tune is also notable for George Tucker’s only bass solo of the album.
A vivid snapshot of the soul jazz style
Tommy Turrentine wrote the cooking groove “Thomasville,” a swinging slice of hard bop driven by Al Harewood’s locomotive drums, though it’s Stanley who contributes the first solo. Tommy follows, then Horace Parlan, who really brings a funky piano vibe to the proceedings. Al Harewood also has a brief unaccompanied moment.
Stanley shows his prowess as a balladeer on a sensitive rendition of the Gershwin brothers’ immortal “Someone To Watch Over Me,” a much-covered jazz standard that has lived a charmed life since it was written in 1926 for the musical Oh, Kay! Tommy Turrentine drops out for this performance, allowing his younger brother’s plaintive tenor saxophone to dominate while the rhythm section offers understated accompaniment throughout.
Tommy rejoins the band on the closing number, the uptempo “Stolen Sweets,” a song penned by the R&B organ maestro Wild Bill Davis. After a fanfare-like intro, the Turrentine brothers’ twin horns state a theme composed of a sequence of rising melodies before Stanley shows his virtuosity with a bop-influenced sax solo that grows in emotional intensity. Interestingly, Turrentine recorded the song again in 1963, for his wife Shirley Scott’s Prestige album The Soul Is Willing.
Though it took almost 20 years for Comin’ Your Way to get released, the album didn’t disappoint when it finally hit the record stores. A solid collection flecked with moments of both individual and collective brilliance, it offers a vivid snapshot of the soul jazz style at the peak of its popularity. Perhaps, more importantly, it affirmed the genius of Stanley Turrentine
