Joe Turner (piano/vocal); Hans Rettenbacher (bass); Stu Martin (drums).
(Review by Lance).
Breda Jazz Festival 1982 was a vintage year. Apart from the Saratoga Jazzmen and the River City Jazzmen, both bands from Tyneside, the Dutch also welcomed Bob Wilber, Warren Vaché, Guy Lafitte and Joe Turner.
Not the blues singer Big Joe Turner as expected by some of the audience but Joe Turner the pianist, described then, and as he was at the time of this recording in 1969 as, "The Greatest Living Stride Pianist."
No argument there. Some of the greatest piano playing I've ever heard - stride or otherwise.
Comparable with Fats, Willie the Lion or any of his contemporaries, Joe Turner may not have quite matched Tatum for technique but he swung ten times more!
Listen to Emmaline or Smashing Thirds or Willow Weep For me or Love For Sale; Effervescent; Sweet Lorraine (vocal); Rosetta; Harry Numa (?); St. Louis Blues (vocal); Cloud 15; Caravan; Song of the Vagabonds or Viper's Drag. I don't think I'll have an argument.
Difficult to single any one track out, each is so different. The changing tempos of St. Louis, the minor magic of Rudolph Friml's Vagabond song, the Waller tunes - take your pick!
Martin plays brushes most of the time swinging along quite unobtrusively. Rettenbacher is even more unobtrusive - I didn't know he was there until I read the notes. Understandable - who needs bass when you've got a left hand like Joe Turner?
Recorded by MPS in 1969 at its legendary Black Forest studio, to have Smashing Thirds once more available after all these years is even better than pigging out on a slice of their namesake gateaux.
Quote from blurb: Music that harkens back to an era when feel-good entertainment was an art form.
Lance.
Available Sept. 8
No comments :
Post a Comment