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MUSIC |
Stanley Turrentine: Do You Have Any Sugar
Anyone who has the nerve
to ask Stanley Turrentine if
he has any sugar has clearly
never sampled the sounds the
tenor man has been laying
down for four decadesrunning.
In his own way, Turrentine
invented “Sugar” in the form
ofoneofjazz’s few lasting stan
dards from the 70s. But that’s
a mere granule of his legacy,
which continues in smooth
honeyed tones on his latest
album, Do You Have Any
Sugar (CCD-4862-2), his first
for Concord Vista. :
The project is a seamless
synthesis of traditional
groovesin a contemporary con
text that touches on a variety
of styles Turrentine has mas
tered over the years. The con
stant thread is his ever-cool,
ever-tasteful tenor saxophone
sound — as engaging, melodic
and subtly swingin’ as ever.
And staying contemporary has
always been an integral part
of Turrentine’s concept. Al
ways conscious of making
music for the people first, he
was the first artist ever to
record with strings for the Blue
Note label on an album titled
The Look of Love. Later on
CTI, he worked with a young
arranger named Bob James
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on the album Don’t Mess With
Mister T, the title track of
which was a cover of Marvin
Gaye’s cue from the film score
of Trouble Man.
Ten years later when he re
turned to Blue Note,
Turrentine recorded an entire
LP of Stevie Wonder material
titled Wonderland, with a
guest appearance from Won
der himself on “Boogie on
Raggae Woman.”
Therefore, the 11-song Do
You Have Any Sugar (CCD
-4862-2)isjust afew more miles
down a path that’s been paved
in hipness from the gate. “I'm
really pleased with this al
bum,” he states with pride.
“There’s all sorts of flavors and
moods.”
From the genesis of the
project, Stanley and John
Burk, at Concord, decided to
do a whole gamut of music.
“We didn’t try to target just
one segment of the audience.
This way, there’s a lot of mar
kets we can tap into. There’s
easy listening, blues, r&b, bop
and straight ahead” Stanley
relates. Toget all ofthis music
across, some of L.A.’s top mu
sicians were called in, many of
them old friends of Stanley’s.
“It was great seeing those cats
AUGUSTA FOCUS JULY 15, 1999
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Stanley Turrentine.
again, let alone playing with
them. They are some of the
best musicians you could ever
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want to play with you. And
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their butts off! It was a happy
.
reunion.”
A somewhat new idea for
Stanley, was the use of a vo
calist, somethinghe hasrarely
done in the past. But he had
good reason to try one when
the vocalist in question was
Niki Harris, daughter of pia
nist Gene Harris, who goes all
the way back with Stanley to
his second Blue Note album,
Blue Hour,a 1960 soul session
with Gene’s group The Three
Sounds. “Niki just knocked
me out,” Stanley enthuses.
“When I saw her I told her, ‘1
remember when you were just
a gleam in your father’s eye!™
Ms. Harris graces the sexy in
vitation of the title track, “Do
You Have Any Sugar,” the gen
tly inspirational “Pause to
Wonder,” which recalls the
muse of “70s fusion groups, and
a cover of “Calling You,” har
monica player Bob Telson’s
theme from the 1988 film,
Baghdad Case. “A friend in
troduced that songtome years
ago,” Stanley muses.
“The lyrics to both of these
songs were saying some very
important things I felt needed
to be heard. It’s not about me
trying to prove how much I
See TURRENTINE, page 9C
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