BST 84315

Stanley Turrentine - Common Touch

Released - September 1969

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, August 30, 1968
Stanley Turrentine, tenor sax; Shirley Scott, organ; Jimmy Ponder, guitar; Bob Cranshaw, electric bass; Leo Morris, drums.

3095 tk.2 Blowin' In The Wind
3096 tk.8 Boogaloo
3097 tk.10 Common Touch
3098 tk.21 Buster Brown
3099 tk.24 Living Through It All
3100 tk.28 Lonely Avenue

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Buster Brown	Stanley Turrentine	August 30 1968
Blowin' in the Wind	Bob Dylan	August 30 1968
Lonely Avenue	Doc Pomus	August 30 1968
Side Two
Boogaloo	Shirley Scott	August 30 1968
Common Touch	Stanley Turrentine	August 30 1968
Living Through It All	Stanley Turrentine	August 30 1968

Liner Notes

I'm often asked...In which direction is jazz headed? (As if I were an authority.) Is it going commercial? Are you for experiments, advancement, new ventures, electronic instruments and all that jazz? My usual answer to the first question is "Jazz will eventually go commercial only if those of us who make up the jazz society permit it to happen" and as for the second question. “of course we're (or new things as long as it remains jazz and we don't forget from whence we come.”

Perhaps that’s one of the reasons I regard this album as a pure delight. It’s nice sometimes to just sit back and listen to music that still retains warm and comfortable blues rooted feeling or you might say foot patting, swinging, finger popping music and that's exactly what the Common Touch is all about.

There are times when we just don't want to look into the souls of the musicians or decipher the message that is there...we just wont to listen and groove...so let's groove with Stanley Turrentine, a man who besides being a down to earth musician also digs trying new things such as a recent release on Blue Note, The Look Of Love 4286 which contained beautiful string arrangements as a backdrop for his soulful horn. Soon after fol!owed another Blue Note release, Always Something There 4298 in which Mr. Turrentine gave some of the commercial tunes the unique Turrentine treatment and emerged quite naturally with a style and sound that was unmistakeably jazz.

Back to this album, Stan’s wife Shirley Scott is featured on it and when the two of them team up...WOW!... Well, you know the musical rapport Shirley and Stanley have going for them don't you? If not you only hove to listen. There are three other outstanding features about this release. It's the accompaniment namely... Jimmy Ponder, Bob Cranshaw and Leo Morris... they're pulsating and swinging and always definitely there. And now that all are accounted for, let's get ready for some good listening.

Starting in the usual place, we find Buster 8rown waiting for us. Buster is the type of little guy that is supposedly attracting the young set to the jazz idiom...because it's danceable, up tempo and easy to listen to.

Still swinging but in a more moderato tempo, Stanley and the group go into Bob Dylan's Blowin In The Wind, a tune made popular by the late Sam Cooke...Ponders groovy guitar solo followed by Shirley's organ solo and Stanley's horn with Bob and Leo's ever present, firm rhythmic support makes this cut a real gas.

Let's walk...down a crowded avenue of any big city, the hustle and bustle of people coming, going...going, coming...all doing their own thing but you.

You have the blues, you're completely oblivous to what's going on around you... to you and your blues it's a Lonely Avenue. Stanley's horn wails the ups and downs, the confusion and uncertainty of the lonely. Jimmy Ponder’s presence is felt again on a solo that portrays quite vividly, the blues. Shirley comes to the forefront to add her tale of woe as Bob Cranshaw walks (with bass) keeping in step with the others and Leo keeps a steady pace going for those who amble down Lonely Avenue.

And now it's time to get out of that blue funk bag and get ready to dance again...that is if you can make it. At the onset of this track you will perhaps be reminded of Herbie Hancock's Blind Man, Blind Man but hang in there for a few more bars and you'll discover a very stimulating tune which was written by Mrs. Turrentine. It's the only Turrentine original on this album but with a superb original like Boogaloo who needs more than one to an album. My thing, as for as listening to an album for the first time is usually a very casual affair, sometimes perhaps, even with divided attention...often there is no positive immediate reaction but with the Common Touch it was an instant, and I quote V. R. “Hey. I really dig that one,” and I'm sure you will too. Common? No, not by any standards, just tho familiar always welcome...touch of Turrentine.

Yes, those of us who dig jazz are very fortunate to be Living Through It All, commercialism, electronics, gadgets and what have you. It's interesting to see the various trends and now directions in jazz today. We are for advancement, experiments and new ventures but we also dig down to earth uncomplicated listening... such as you're about to enjoy on the Common Touch.

—VIV ROUNDTREE WLIB.FM NEW YORK