Born in Pittsburgh in 1934, Stanley Turrentine took up saxophone at the age of eleven, encouraged by his father, who had played the same instrument with Al Cooper's Savoy Sultans. Turrentine's first professional gig was with Lowell Fulson's blues band. "I guess my sound started back then," he says, "I couldn't avoid the blues. That band had a blind piano player in it, name of Ray Charles." Charles was already writing songs, which Turrentine would transcribe after they finished work in the joints and barns the band played. ...show more

Born in Pittsburgh in 1934, Stanley Turrentine took up saxophone at the age of eleven, encouraged by his father, who had played the same instrument with Al Cooper's Savoy Sultans. Turrentine's first professional gig was with Lowell Fulson's blues band. "I guess my sound started back then," he says, "I couldn't avoid the blues. That band had a blind piano player in it, name of Ray Charles." Charles was already writing songs, which Turrentine would transcribe after they finished work in the joints and barns the band played.

After leaving Fulson, Turrentine moved to Cleveland, where he gigged with Tadd Dameron before going on the road again in Earl Bostic's R&B combo. Following two years in the army (1956-1958), he joined Max Roach. It was at this point that Turrentine began to make an impression in the jazz world. In particular, he caught the attention of Alfred Lion, who signed him to an exclusive contract with Blue Note Records that lasted until 1969.

During this ten-year period, Turrentine recorded regularly as a sideman for the label on albums by Horace Parlan, Art Taylor, Jimmy Smith, Duke Jordan, Horace Silver, Duke Pearson, and Kenny Burrell. For several years in the 1960s, he co-led a combo with his wife, organist Shirley Scott. "We called it the 'Chitlins Circuit.' A lot of small places, with bad sound systems, small audiences. We used to deadhead a lot. ...show less