Tracklist:
Vol. I
1. Lament (06:21)
2. In a Sentimental Mood (07:19)
3. Who's Kiddin' (04:07)
Vol. II
1. Viewpoint (05:16)
2. Mercury (06:57)
3. Midnight Montuno (Descarga) (06:22)
4. All Blues (06:19)
One of the finest trombonists of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, Steve Turre is also one of its most diverse. He is a composer, sideman, arranger, bandleader, and educator; he introduced conch shells to the jazz world as a musical instrument in 1970, and his 1993 album, Sanctified Shells, is considered a classic. Turre has been a member and music director of the Saturday Night Live Band since 1985 and has taught jazz trombone at the Manhattan School of Music since 1988. He has recorded with a who's-who of jazz talent. Viewpoint, Turre's 1987 solo debut, made the jazz press aware of a major talent. Turre's '90s recordings for Antilles and Verve -- Sanctified Shells, The Rhythm Within, Steve Turre, and Lotus Flower -- all placed on the jazz charts. His bluesy 'bone tinge, conch shells, and innovative rhythmic invention bridged seams between Ellington-ian swing, bop, modal and avant-jazz, and Afro-Latin and Caribbean grooves. In the 21st century, he lit up the charts with an homage to former boss and mentor Woody Shaw on 2012's Woody's Delight, 2015's Spiritman, and 2016's Colors for the Masters. 2024's Sanyas, his fifth outing on Smoke Sessions, was also his first live album as a leader.
Turre was born in Nebraska in 1948 but was raised by his Mexican-American parents in the San Francisco Bay area. There he absorbed daily doses of mariachi, blues, and jazz. He took up trombone in fourth grade at age ten, having previously studied violin. He won a football scholarship to California State University at Sacramento and studied music theory there for two years. While attending, he found time to play with the Escovedo Brothers salsa band before transferring to the University of North Texas College of Music. He completed his studies in 1969 and played in a jazz group led by trumpeter Hannibal Peterson. Also in 1968, he began his on-and-off apprenticeship with Roland Kirk.
In 1970, Turre relocated to California, and recorded with Santana, and in 1972 he toured with Ray Charles. This was the beginning of Turre's real jazz education. He played tours with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra (both in 1973) and played trombone and electric bass regularly with Chico Hamilton (1974-1976), while recording with Woody Shaw and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. It was Kirk, an eternal sound explorer, who inspired Turre to play exotic shells professionally. After Kirk's death, Turre toured with McCoy Tyner, Dexter Gordon, Slide Hampton, Poncho Sanchez, Hilton Ruiz, and Tito Puente, among others. In 1987, he joined Dizzy Gillespie's United Nations Orchestra, and he also played regularly with Lester Bowie's Brass Fantasy, the Leaders, and the Timeless All-Stars. Turre performed with his Sanctified Shells (a group featuring four trombonists doubling on shells, trumpeter E.J. Allen, bass, drums, and several percussionists) at the 1995 Monterey Jazz Festival and has recorded as a leader for Stash, Antilles, Verve, and Telarc. His '90s recordings for Antilles all charted and became his calling card on world stages.
After a pair of albums for TelArc at the turn of the century (TNT and One4J), began his long relationship with Highnote in 2004 with the celebrated Kirk tribute album The Spirits Up Above. Rainbow People, recorded in 2007 at Knoop Studios in New Jersey, appeared in 2008 from Highnote Records and featured a program of revisioned bop tunes by Charlie Parker as well as originals, and performed by a quintet that included drummer Ignacio Berroa, pianist Mulgrew Miller, bassist Peter Washington, and trumpeter Rodney Jones. Delicious and Delightful followed in 2010. In early 2012, Turre realized his longstanding ambition to cut a tribute album to the late Woody Shaw, whose road and recording bands he had played with for eight years, from 1981-1989. The album, Woody's Delight, featured the talents of alternating trumpet players Wallace Roney, Jon Faddis, Alfredo "Chocolate" Armenteros, and Claudio Roditi; it also introduced a new star on the horn, 23-year-old Freddie Hendrix. It placed inside the Top 50. In the summer of 2013, Turre released The Bones of Art, an album that showcased a multi-trombone frontline comprised of himself, Frank Lacy, Robin Eubanks, and Steve Davis, to name a few, but it didn't chart. In 2015, he issued a collection of redone standards entitled Spiritman for Smoke Sessions, and followed it with the charting Colors for the Masters the next year. The set featured drummer Jimmy Cobb, bassist Ron Carter, and pianist Kenny Barron, and was comprised of tunes by Thelonious Monk, Antonio Carlos Jobim, and Wayne Shorter among a handful of Turre originals; it peaked at number 16. In 2017, Turre was among the guests chosen to appear with the United States Air Force Band for the album Airmen of Note. Other guests included Cyrus Chestnut and Terell Stafford. Two years later, Turre attained another long-held goal and cut The Very Thought of You for Smoke Sessions, a collection of ballads featuring Barron, bassist Buster Williams, drummer Willie Jones III, tenor saxophonist George Coleman, guitarist Russell Malone, with strings, arranged by Marty Sheller.
2022's Generations highlighted younger jazz musicians alongside elder peers. It features the trombonist's son, drummer Orion Turre, trumpeter Wallace Roney, Jr, pianist Isaiah J. Thompson, and bassist Corcoran Holt. They were joined by saxophonist James Carter, guitarists Ed Cherry and Andy Bassford, keyboardist Trevor Watkis, bassists Buster Williams and Derrick Barnett, drummers Lenny White and Karl Wright, and percussionist Pedrito Martinez. In 2024, Turre released Sanyas, his first live album, on Smoke Sessions. Its title reflects the fourth stage of the Hindu spiritual system preceded by Brahmacharya, Grihastha, and Vanaprastha. Turre re-enlisted Thompson, White, and Williams, alongside trumpeter Nicholas Payton and saxophonist Ron Blake, a longtime partner in the SNL Band.
Biography by Scott Yanow
