Steve Turre

Steve Turre – Spiritman

Jazz musician Steve Turre (pronounced too-ray) occupies a most unique patch of real estate in the art form as a virtuoso trombonist with a specialty in playing and making sea shells as an ancestral Aztecan birthright instrument…as a composer, arranger, bandleader and educator…as one who straddles the perceived boundaries of Jazz, Big Band, Latin Jazz and R&B/Funk… Avant Garde…and as a session player who has held down the “bone” chair in the “Saturday Night Live” television show band for three decades. Having released 18 albums as a leader between his critically acclaimed latest Spiritman (Smoke Sessions Recordings – 2015) and his remarkable debut LP Viewpoint in 1987 (Stash Records - with a passionate liner note appreciation by Max Roach), Turre organically earned his reputation as a musician of the highest order with a humble purposed soul akin to an artisian master. For his endeavors, Turre has been the recipient of a prestigious Jazz Journalist Award, and has been a near-perennial winner of the critics and readers polls of JazzTimes, Downbeat and Jazziz magazines for Best Trombone and Best Miscellaneous Instrumentalist (sea shells).

“I’ve always felt that music is about giving,” Turre states in explanation of his Spiritman concept and his philosophy of music in general. “You give of your life force through your instrument to create a vibration that can heal. In that sense, a musician is like a doctor: the more you give of yourself, the better you can make people feel. Within every culture music is a vital part of people’s nature…yet each culture is different. Jazz brings a lot of those elements together, drawing from many sources. It’s the first world music.”

Turre’s Spiritman, ten songs entirely recorded June 1, 2014 is an impeccably balanced quintet offering featuring one band: Bruce Williams on alto and soprano saxophones, Xavier Davis on piano, Gerald Cannon on bass, Willie Jones III on drums and Chembo Cornell on congas for the Latin/African 6 outing “Nangadef.” The project opens with the hard swingin’ “Bu” (the shortened nickname of legendary jazz drummer Art “Buhaina” Blakey, the man responsible for bringing Turre to New York). The recording is further highlighted by a sensitive reworking of Horace Silver’s “Peace” (recorded just after his dear friend passed – Turre recorded on Silver’s The Hard Bop Grandpop CD), and the transfixing ballad “It’s Too Late Now” (inspired by a favorite recording of Turre’s by Nancy Wilson).

Turre’s originals are especially inspired beginning with “Trayvon’s Blues,” a suite-like meditation reflecting the fatal final minutes of 17 year-old hate crime victim Trayvon Martin’s life – from nocturnal cool to fear and a struggle, then a final cry for help (hauntingly evoked by Turre on a shell).“That could have been my son So when that incident happened, I felt it.”

On the lighter side is “Funky T,” a teaser/precursor to an entire project Turre is itching to do. “Funk comes from the blues and blues is the root of it all,” he emphasizes. “I wrote that for the Saturday Night Live Band.” Spiritman is rounded out by varying tempos of straight swingin’ on the standards “Lover Man,” “With a Song in My Heart” and “`S Wonderful.”

Steve Turre developed an appreciation for Jazz at a young age. The Bay Area, California native began playing trombone in 4th grade, eager to follow his brother Mike who played sax. His first professional association was with Rahsaan Roland Kirk at San Francisco’s fabled nightclub The Jazz Workshop in 1966. “People who had that Life Force in their sound and played with strong rhythmic drive were essential influences for me. I played football and basketball in high school, and in sports, you give up all your energy: mentally, physically and spiritually. The best team is “many bodies/one mind” - same with music. When a quintet is in the zone, everybody feels each other…empathically.”

Those beginnings led Turre to record and/or perform with some of the most progressive minds in Jazz including Archie Shepp, Pharaoh Sanders, McCoy Tyner, Cedar Walton, Dexter Gordon, Dizzy Gillespie, Lester Bowie and Woody Shaw, the latter of whom he remained with for 7 years/14 albums. But Turre didn’t limit himself to jazz. He also contributed his talents to Latin music with the greats Tito Puente, Mongo Santamaria, Celia Cruz, Manny O’Quendo, Oscar Deleon and more. His first big break was his first world tour in 1972 with Rhythm & Blues legend Ray Charles, and he later worked with B.B. King, Lou Rawls and Gladys Knight. He was part of the ensemble for the score of “School Daze” under Spike Lee’s father, Bill Lee. And he’s worked with rock greats from Van Morrison, Santana and the Eurythmics. Steve Turre never stops searching.

It was while on a tour stop in Mexico City that Turre learned from members of his family of his Aztecan ancestral connection to playing sea shells. And although Steve had previously been introduced to the shells by Rahsaan Roland Kirk, it was his family’s revelation that spurred his passion and inspired him to create the “shell choir’ group called Sanctified Shells. A shell typically provides an interval “4th” which Turre manipulates by inserting his hand into the shell. Sometimes Turre plays two shells simultaneously. And on the title track of Spiritman (the CD’s closing medley with a cover of Miles Davis’ “All Blues”), Turre blows shells into an open piano and the pitches cause the strings inside to resonate creating otherworldly acoustic sounds that those unknowing might assume were synthesized or overdubbed “effects.” In his insightful liner note Q&A, Turre proclaims, “When you really get deep into music, it’s not about notes. It’s about language and vibrations.”

With a steadily growing catalog of highly inspired, conceptual and unique recordings as a leader, all around artist and music scholar Steve Turre forges forward, hearing and presenting music in innovative ways yet never forgetting the bedrock roots of blues, swing, rhythm and empathic vibration that resonate within the greater all. “My gigs are like the album,” he says. “I can’t just sit in one place.”

“Anything musical has got to mean something,” Turre concludes. “I realize you have to be an entertainer and all, but I’m most interested in playing trombone on the highest level that I possibly can. J.J. Johnson was my biggest influence. J.J. playing on my record (two numbers from 1996’s self-titled Steve Turre – Verve) was tantamount to an alto player playing with Charlie Parker, it was inspiring and humbling at the same time”.

“I’ve learned something from everybody I’ve ever worked with. Dizzy talked about rhythm more than anything. You can always do your homework and figure out your notes, but if the rhythm ain’t right…nothin’s happenin’. I once saw Diz with his mouth wide open in amazement as he watched Giovanni Hidalgo play congas. After the set, Dizzy asked him to show him what the hell he was doin’! That’s why Dizzy was so great, man. He was always trying to learn”.

“Though I am inspired by the energy, enthusiasm and fresh perspectives of the youth, I’ve gained the most profound knowledge from people who came before me. I firmly believe that building a foundation on the wisdom of those who came before us will directly influence how far forward you can go. Your intuitive understanding of the roots anchors you so you can truly take it forward. I got that from Rahsaan.”


(July 2015)