Nightwings Stanley Turrentine

These nine ballads were recorded by Stanley Turrentine between 1962 and 1969. Apart from being a genuinely wonderful set of romantic tunes, Music for Lovers showcases a soft side of the great tenor's playing. Turrentine is one of the quintessential soul-jazz saxophonists. His Blue Note recordings from the 1960s with Shirley Scott are generally the works cited, but there is so much other material on offer that a small collection like this is welcome. A pair of ballads with Scott on organ are here, representing that darker groove aspect, but so are tunes with pianists like Sonny Clark, McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, Horace Parlan, and Cedar Walton…

One of the giants of soul-jazz, Stanley Turrentine and his mellow, agile, bluesy saxophone can be heard on many of the most seminal recordings of the genre, including Jimmy Smith's Back at The Chicken Shanck. But Turrentine also made a steady torrent of solo recordings over the years, most of which adhered to the soul-jazz template he'd helped perfect.

This 1961 groove date by Stanley Turrentine is an example of him at his fiery peak. Far from the slow groover of the CTI years, Turrentine's early Blue Note sides were massive and bright, saturated in deep soul and blues. This set featured Turrentine's wife, organist and composer Shirley Scott, and a pair of alternating rhythm sections. The first is Major Holley on bass and Al Harewood on drums, and the second is with Sam Jones and Clarence Johnston. Latin Conguero Ray Barretto appeared with the Holley/Harewood band. The set opens with a stomping version of Lloyd Price's "Trouble," with Scott taking the early solo while driving the groove…

Stanley Turrentine's stint with Creed Taylor's CTI label may not have produced any out-and-out classics on the level of the very best LPs by Freddie Hubbard, Hubert Laws, or George Benson, but the bluesy tenorist's output was consistently strong and worthwhile for all but the most stridently anti-fusion listeners. Salt Song was Turrentine's second album for CTI, and while it's perhaps just a small cut below his debut Sugar, it's another fine, eclectic outing that falls squarely into the signature CTI fusion sound: smooth but not slick, accessible but not simplistic. In general, keyboardist Eumir Deodato's arrangements have plenty of light funk and Brazilian underpinnings, the latter often courtesy of percussionist Airto Moreira.

Much of the music here comes from such sessions, which have often been dismissed for their lack of jazz content. But with brilliant arrangements from the likes of Duke Pearson and Hank Jones, they fit well alongside the smaller group sides as the sheer depth and beauty of Stanley's tenor always shines through. The chart toppers that are taken on here are often very high on repetitive phrases but short on melodic variation leaving a jazz soloist very exposed, and leaving decent interpretation open only to the most skilled of artists. Stanley has all the quality required as he makes every one of these tunes his own, with his laid back but ultimately assertive playing dominating tunes from many rock music's first division.

If ever there were a record that both fit perfectly and stood outside the CTI Records' stable sound, it is Sugar by Stanley Turrentine. Turrentine, a veteran of the soul-jazz scene since the '50s, was accompanied by a who's who of groove players, including guitarist George Benson, Lonnie Liston Smith on electric piano, Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, bassist Ron Carter, organist Butch Cornell, and drummer Billy Kaye, among others. The title track is a deep soul blues workout with a swinging backbeat and the rhythm section fluidly streaming through fours and eights as Benson, Hubbard, and Turrentine begin slowly and crank up the heat, making the pace and stride of the cut simmer then pop - especially in Hubbard's solo. This is truly midnight blue, and the party's at the point of getting really serious or about to break up…