BLP 4240

Stanley Turrentine - Rough 'N Tumble

Released - October 1966

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, July 1, 1966
Blue Mitchell, trumpet; James Spaulding, alto sax; Stanley Turrentine, tenor sax; Pepper Adams, baritone sax; McCoy Tyner, piano; Grant Green, guitar; Bob Cranshaw, bass, electric bass; Mickey Roker, drums; Duke Pearson, arranger.

1752 tk.2 What Could I Do Without You
1754 tk.11 The Shake
1755 tk.12 Walk On By
1756 tk.15 And Satisfy
1757 tk.22 Baptismal
1753 tk.23 Feeling Good

Session Photos

Photos: Francis Wolff

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
And Satisfy	Ronnell Bright	July 1 1966
What Could I Do Without You	Ray Charles	July 1 1966
Feeling Good	Newley, Bricusse	July 1 1966
Side Two
Shake	Sam Cooke	July 1 1966
Walk On By	Bacharach, David	July 1 1966
Baptismal	John Hines	July 1 1966

Liner Notes

IN the beginning of jazz, horns took their cue from the human voice. Players imitated the sounds and textures of the singers they heard doing spirituals and the blues. Now no one is going to duplicate exactly the performance of a great blues singer without using words. That's one feeling. But while a musician cannot project actual words, he can do things with his instrument that a singer cannot reach. He is into another area.

As jazz moved through the years the hornmen ceased trying to merely simulate the human voice. They added many new twists and turns. The best also retained the human vocal quality. The phrase, "he's really 'singing' on his horn" has been used to describe a man's achievement of a state of oneness with his instrument. Often it refers to the handling of a ballad. Well, Stanley Turrentine can "sing" a ballad and he can also "sing" the blues. He has demonstrated both sides of his personality before in small group and big band contexts. Here, in the unique context of a big-little band, he turns in a set of performances that contains an unusual amount of passion, fervor and soul, even for him.

Despite the presence of some other very fine musicians, Stanley is out there by himself as the main soloist. Blue Mitchell, Grant Green, Pepper Adams and McCoy Tyner receive some time in the spotlight but their main function, along with James Spaulding; Bob Cranshaw and Mickey Roker, is to supply the setting for Turrentine. Despite their lack of solo space they are not wasted. Duke Pearson's fine, functional arrangements make excellent use of the various instruments' different textures.

If any of you have doubts about the vocal quality of jazz horns and, specifically, the tenor saxophone as the most human-voiced of them all, I'm sure they will be dispelled by Turrentine.

Stanley starts right in as the plaintive lead voice as the group rocks behind him on pianist Ronnell Bright's And Satisfy, a number previously recorded by singer Nancy Wilson. In addition to Turrentine's earthy statements, there are two equally blues-soaked solos from two men who are well-known as Blue Note leaders in their own right—Blue Mitchell and Grant Green. If this track were a cigarette it might be called a Chesterfield.

Ray Charles' What Could I Do Without You is given a treatment that I'm sure could not please the writer more. Tyner puts you into a R.C. groove and accompanies Turrentine to perfection. The band is subdued underneath, playing complementary organ chords under Stan's pleading, preaching tenor. This one is really crying time.

The tempo brightens to a medium sock for Feeling Good, the Leslie Bricusse tune from the Broadway success The Roar of the Greasepaint, etc., etc. This song lends itself well to the interpretation given it by Pearson and Turrentine. Stanley blows forcefully and with feeling at beginning and end, while Tyner does some effective trilling in his solo spot.

Side two continues the format of playing songs originally associated with singers. Shake, by Sam Cooke, is a joyous blues with a bridge. Roker shakes things up pretty good behind Turrentine. The surge of Stan's power has the ability to move an entire house. Green has a short one here.

Walk On By, written by Hal David and popularized by Dionne Warwick is treated in a lazy, sensuous, Latin tempo. Turrentine's tenor is intimate and warm, Mitchell's trumpet blue and misty. The whole track strikes a certain wistful mood and maintains it beautifully throughout.

The closer, Baptismal, is the only song not previously done by a singer. In fact, this is its first recording. Written by a Chicago trumpet player, John Hines (he also wrote a bossa nova, Passionova, for tenor man Billy Mitchell a few years ago), it is a number that Turrentine has been hankering after since 1958. That was the year, while a member of the Max Roach group, he met Hines and first heard Baptismal. Recently, on a visit to Chicago, he saw Hines and was presented with the lead sheet.

The composer can be proud of the way his song has been interpreted. Turrentine and Cranshaw (on Fender bass) engage in a call and response dialogue with the band. Pearson's voicings are majestic and Roker underlines everything with finesse. Stanley's solo is a model of economy—a forthright, lean statement that gets right to the heart of the song. good example of Tyner's versatility can be seen here by comparing his accompaniment to Turrentine's solo with his accompaniment on What Could I Do Without You. McCoy's own solo, and a particularly good one from Pepper Adams follow, before the theme is reintroduced.

If I may borrow some of the song titles from the album: Shake a leg, Walk On By and pick up on this record. You will find that it will delight And Satisfy, and leave you Feeling Good. Stanley thinks it is the best thing he has done to date. After listening to it, one would have trouble disagreeing.

- IRA GITLER

Cover Photo by FRANCIS WOLFF
Cover Design by GEORGE WRIGHT
Art Direction by REID MILES
Recording by RUDY VAN GELDER