João – Tommy Turrentine

From Don Sickler: "Trumpeter/composer Tommy Turrentine heard and wrote this composition as a 24-measure ABA format, but Stanley (his younger brother, who played tenor sax) recorded it in a more conventional AABA format on his ‘Nightwings’ album.

"To introduce this song in a way closer to Tommy's original intention, our audio excerpt starts on Stanley's second A section so you hear the A section going right into B, the same way our ABA lead sheet is written. Tommy also heard specific shifts in the melodic rhythm, especially in the B section, but Stanley made all the bridge rhythms the same on his recording. It's common for performing artists to reconstruct a song to their liking, but we've notated Tommy's rhythms in our lead sheet.. Now you can hear how Tommy's younger brother interprets his older brother's melody, and you can also see the way Tommy wrote it out."

In 1946, Tommy Turrentine, at 18, was already playing with Benny Carter in California. Tommy started recording in 1949 in the George Hudson band. After serving in the army, Tommy returned to his home town of Pittsburgh and led a rehearsal band with his younger brother Stanley (1953-1954). The brothers started recording together in the Earl Bostic band in 1953. In 1959 they were together as part of Max Roach's three-horn front line quintet, alongside trombonist Julian Priester, as well as with the Abbey Lincoln sextet. In 1960 Tommy used the same three-horn front line on his own album simply called "Tommy Turrentine" (on Time Records). This recording also introduced the instrumental version of a Turrentine/Priester composition that later, with lyric added by vocalist Oscar Brown, Jr., became a classic, recorded many times: see "Long As You're Living" in Second Floor Music's Sing JAZZ! songbook.

Don continues: "Stanley is the much more widely-known brother, with many, many recordings as a leader. However, I heard from Stanley's own lips that he felt Tommy was the strongest musical talent in the family. Tommy was a great trumpet player and very gifted composer. Check out his instrumental Gone But Not Forgotten and a composition with lyric, Big Brown Eyes."