BST 84298

Stnaley Turrentine - Always Something There

Released - 1968

Recording and Session Information

A&R Studios, NYC, October 1, 1968
Burt Collins, flugelhorn; Jimmy Cleveland, trombone; Dick Berg, Jim Buffington, French horn; Jerry Dodgion, alto sax, flute, clarinet; Stanley Turrentine, tenor sax; Jerome Richardson, tenor sax, flute, clarinet; Hank Jones, piano; Barry Galbraith, guitar; Bob Cranshaw, bass, electric bass; Mel Lewis, drums; Thad Jones, arranger; 10 strings overdubbed on, including Gene Orloff, violin.

4024 Fool On The Hill
4025 Little Green Apples

A&R Studios, NYC, October 14, 1968
Burt Collins, flugelhorn; Jimmy Cleveland, trombone; Dick Berg, Brooks Tillotson, French horn; Jerry Dodgion, alto sax, flute, clarinet; Stanley Turrentine, tenor sax; Jerome Richardson, tenor sax, flute, clarinet; Herbie Hancock, piano; Kenny Burrell, guitar; Bob Cranshaw, bass, electric bass; Mel Lewis, drums; Thad Jones, arranger; 11 strings overdubbed on, including Gene Orloff, violin.

4026 Hey Jude
4027 Light My Fire
4028 There's Always Something There To Remind Me

A&R Studios, NYC, October 28, 1968
Thad Jones, trumpet, arranger; Burt Collins, flugelhorn; Jimmy Cleveland, trombone; Dick Berg, Jim Buffington, French horn; Jerry Dodgion, alto sax, flute, clarinet; Stanley Turrentine, tenor sax; Jerome Richardson, tenor sax, flute, clarinet; Herbie Hancock, piano; Kenny Burrell, guitar; Bob Cranshaw, bass, electric bass; Mickey Roker, drums; 12 strings overdubbed on, including Gene Orloff, violin.

4041 Home Town
4042 Stoned Soul Picnic
4043 When I Look Into Your Eyes
4044 Those Were The Days
4045 Song For Bonnie

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me	Burt Bacharach, Hal David	October 14 1968
Little Green Apples	Bobby Russell	October 1 1968
When I Look into Your Eyes	Leslie Bricusse	October 28 1968
Light My Fire	John Densmore, Robbie Krieger, Ray Manzarek, Jim Morrison	October 14 1968
Those Were the Days	Gene Raskin	October 28 1968
Side Two
Stoned Soul Picnic	Laura Nyro	October 28 1968
Home Town	Thad Jones	October 28 1968
Song for Bonnie	Tommy Turrentine	October 28 1968
Hey Jude	John Lennon, Paul McCartney	October 14 1968
The Fool on the Hill	Lennon, McCartney	October 14 1968

Liner Notes

DURING his long and distinguished career as a Blue Note recording artist, Stanley Turrentine has been heard in a dazzling variety of contexts. He has recorded hard, down the line modern combo jazz; organ trio music, featuring Shirley Scott Turrentine; quartet and quintet sessions with a variety of personnels and instrumentations; and memorable big band dates with Oliver Nelson, Joy Ride (4201) and Thad Jones, The Look Of Love (4286).

The present session by Stanley is not quite like any of its predecessors. I suppose it might be classified as a commercial album, at least in the sense that the tracks are short and that many of the tunes are recent hits appropriated from the world of pop. However, such a classification might tend to imply some compromising of artistic principles. On the contrary, far from selling out or adjusting himself to the songs, Stanley saw to it that this material would be capable of adaptation to his own personal requirements.

Producer Duke Pearson and Turrentine were in agreement that Thad Jones would be the ideal candidate for Musical Director to bring this concept into proper focus. Thad's background in jazz (he toured as a trumpeter and arranger with the Count Basie band from 1954-63) led to a highly successful career in New York, composing, arranging and conducting for a variety of jazz and pop sessions.

"I gave Thad a completely free hand in the matter of interpreting the tunes," says Turrentine. "I have always respected his taste and judgment, so there was never any doubt in my mind that everything would turn out comfortable for me."

The evidence is immediately at hand on the title track. This bold, brass-bright, beat-brilliant performance never lets up. Stanley, familiar with this Bacharach-David tune through the Dionne Warwick interpretation, remains faithful both to the theme and to his own personality as an instrumentalist. The drummer on this and some other tracks, incidentally, is Mel Lewis, Thad Jones' partner in one of the best part-time big bands on the contemporary jazz scene. Sharing the percussion chores is Mickey Roker, and on all tracks another longtime associate of Turrentine's, Bob Cranshaw, is the bassist.

Little Green Apples came to the pop scene from the O.C Smith orchard of hits. "Thad's conception," says Stanley, "is different from most arrangements I have heard on this tune." After a mood-setting introduction by the strings, Stanley plays the melody with an infectious puckishness reminiscent at times of Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis. The suspended rhythm passages lend this performance an irresistible sense of tension-and-release contrast.

Leslie Bricusse's When I Look Into Your Eyes is, according to Stanley, "The most beautiful arrangement I've heard on this tune. I was particularly impressed with Gene Orloff, the first violinist. We were lucky to have such a fine concert master."

Light My Fire, ignited some months ago by Jose Feliciano, has something in common with the latter's version, in that there is an inherent blues quality in the performance though the song itself technically is not in the blues from. Turrentine cooks on all burners here.

Those Were The Days is a song with a curious history. Written by Gene Raskin, a professor of architecture at Columbia University and part-time folk singer, it was recorded seven years ago by the Limeliters. In 1965 Raskin and his wife, Francesca, sang it in a London club; Paul McCartney of the Beatles heard them and arranged for a protégée, Mary Hopkins, to record it. The rest is pop history.

Stanley's version, despite the nostalgia implied in the title, supplies clear evidence that these are the days. The strings provide an admirable foil for his own solo work at certain points, and a steady eight beat bossa-nova-like underpulse lends the track a delightful, easy-listening flavor.

Stoned Soul Picnic, written and recorded by Laura Nyro, was later closely identified with the Fifth Dimension. The Turrentine treatment emphasizes that this song was never merely a strong lyric with a token melody. Notice how the strings are held in reserve, but when at last used prominently they become twice as potent for it. Stanley builds to a very emotional climax, producing an almost human whimper on the saxophone just before the final fade.

Home Town is an original by Thad Jones, with effective use of brass and stings on the orchestration. The tune, a funky, minor opus in 16 bar blocks, makes an admirable medium for Stanley's inspired improvisation. The whole performance rolls smoothly down a well paved musical road, almost as though it were a product of Thad's home town, Pontiac, Michigan.

Song for Bonnie is strictly a family affair. Composed by Stanley's young trumpeter brother, Tommy Turrentine, it was dedicated to their sister. "I thought this was a very melodic tune," says Stanley, "and a good musical reflection of Bonnie."

Hey Jude, at last reports, had sold some three million records for the Beatles, a staggering fact that does not necessarily relate to its suitability as an instrumental. Fortunately it has its own validity as a tune; in fact, Stanley commented, "I like the changes and I enjoyed blowing on it." No comparison with the original version is required; Thad's arrangement and Stanley's contribution have their own personal merits. The warm Turrentine sound and his jazz qualities are very much in evidence.

The album concludes with another Lennon-McCartney composition, Fool On The Hill, which rapidly became a pop standard after the release of their own version. Done in a lyrical 6/8, this too makes a suitable vehicle for the talents of Turrentine and Jones.

Summing up his feelings about these sides, Stanley remarked: "This was a really superb band, made up of the most talented and versatile men in town. I think this is one of the best albums I've ever done."

As you might suspect, his evaluation is no casual boast. I'm reminded of the appropriateness of the album title, for whenever Stanley Turrentine is involved, whether the circumstances call for a simple jazz trio date or a large scale enterprise such as the present endeavour, you can be sure that there will always be something there, and something of value.

—LEONARD FEATHER

75th Anniversary Reissue Notes

Stanley Turrentine's "The Look Of Love" recorded in the spring of 1968 with strings, brass and rhythm was a big budget record for Blue Note, but it must have done well because Turrentine was back in the studio with arranger Thad Jones and producer Duke Pearson with an even larger orchestra in October.

Like the previous album, the music is only works well when the songs fit the artist. Unfortunately, "Little Green Apples", "Light My Fire" and "Hey Jude" give Turrentine little to work with as a soloist and the originals by Thad and Tommy Turrentine are a breath of fresh air. Stanley would return large, productions a decade later for a number of Fantasy and Elektra albums with mixed results.

Michael Cuscuna