Stanley Clark

After giving Clarke's fans a taste of some live tapes of the School Days band on I Wanna Play for You, Epic waited until 1991 to put another batch of them out, well after it would have been commercially feasible to do so. But no matter, for this CD captures one of Clarke's best electric bands – maybe his best band, period – in a number of gigs in the U.S. and U.K., mixing up the jazz, funk, and rock into a high-energy, musically literate brew. A lot of this album recycles then-existing material, but the live conditions add flashes of spontaneity and sometimes considerable interest to jazz fans.

Recorded on October 18, 1962.
Featuring Turrentine with Sonny Clark on piano and Kenny Burrell on guitar. Also including Tommy Turrentine (tp), Butch Warren (b), and Al Harewood (d). Recorded at Englewood Cliffs, NJ, by Rudy Van Gelder. Here is classic funky soul-jazz groove, three up-tempo, three slow. Sonny Clark (p) soars, Turrentine red-hot.

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…

Stanley Turrentine is the featured artist in this big band session with an all-star orchestra arranged and conducted by Oliver Nelson. While Nelson's charts are funky and easygoing (without providing any solo space for the likes of Phil Woods, Clark Terry, and Jay Jay Johnson), they serve the purpose to inspire the tenor saxophonist. Turrentine is quite soulful on Percy Mayfield's "River's Invitation," and his huge tone carries the day in a waltzing chart of the 1960s hit "A Taste of Honey." The artist also contributed some originals to the date, including the easygoing "Little Sheri," which features the unison flutes of Danny Bank and Jerry Dodgion, and "Mattie T," a gospel-like song that almost seems like a march.

This first album as a leader by Stan Turrentine was done in a relaxed, crisp, swinging style. Stan had the assistance of George Duvivier, whose bass is a foundation that makes any group feel secure; Max Roach on drums, whose taste is impeccable and always constructive. The piano was equally divided among the old reliable Tommy Flanagan and Sonny Clark, whose swinging piano has caused many a musician to sit up and take notice. Listening to Stan Turrentine you realize his inspiration and early schooling goes back to Coleman Hawkins era. But Stan's style is unique.