Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Tommy Turrentine was born Thomas Walter Turrentine, Jr. on April 22, 1928 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and is the older brother of saxophonist Stanley Turrentine.

Tommy played in the bands of Benny Carter, Earl Bostic, Charles Mingus, Billy Eckstine, Dizzy Gillespie and Count Basie. While his brother had a successful career and recorded a number of albums over his lifetime, Tommy only recorded one album under his name with Julian Priester, Bob Boswell, Max Roach and Horace Parlan before retiring in the 1960s.

However, he recorded a number of sessions as a sideman with Sonny Clark, Booker Ervin, Lou Donaldson, Abbey Lincoln, Dexter Gordon, Jackie McLean, Archie Shepp, Sun Ra and his brother’s bands. In the late 1950s Turrentine began a working relationship with Max Roach that was spawned in part when he joined the Max Roach Quintet following the death of Clifford Brown.

In the 1970s he lived 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 who appeared at the Village Gate for an all-star tribute to Blue Mitchell. He was also adept on the piano at chord blockings and was a compositional exponent of Thelonious Monk’s earlier chordal voicing. 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. Trumpeter Tommy Turrentine passed away on May 13, 1997 in New York City.

Dose A Day – Blues Away

More Posts: trumpet