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This piece is a lovely Tommy Turrentine ballad, performed by the legendary Lou Donaldson. Like many Tommy Turrentine compositions, Bonnie has a classic, familiar sort of sound—as if it were a standard everyone knew—yet it's a relatively obscure composition: it's only been recorded one other time (in 2007, by Chris Greene) since Lou Donaldson first recorded it in 1969. The beautiful contour of the melody makes one wonder why it never became more well known. Perhaps you'll be the one to record Bonnie next and give it the acclaim it deserves!
Bonnie is dedicated to the Turrentine brothers' sister. Tommy had played trumpet on two of Lou Donaldson's previous recordings ("Natural Soul" [1962] Blue Note, and "Signifyin'" [1963] Argo). There was a gap in Tommy's recording career between 1967 and 1978, but he still continued to write music, as evidenced by this recording.
Trumpeter Tommy Turrentine, brother of saxophonist Stanley, started his performing career with the band of Earl Bostic. He often played and recorded with Max Roach during the 1950s and 60s. During this time, Tommy collaborated with Julian Priester to write the hit song As Long As You're Living, to which Oscar Brown soon wrote a lyric (titled Long As You're Living). The vocal version was first recorded by Abbey Lincoln in 1959 and has gone on to be recorded by several other major jazz vocalists like Karrin Allyson, Claudia Acuña, and more recently, Cyrilee Aimèe. This composition is available in Second Floor Music's Sing JAZZ! Read more...
