Stanley Turrentine Sugar

Featured in Michael Fremer's Heavy Rotation in the September 2009 Issue of Stereophile! Pressed at Pallas in Germany!
Stanley Turrentine, the jazz tenor saxophone player, was also known to some as "Mr. T" or "The Sugar Man". The jazz musician was greatly influenced at a young age by family and others, having been invited to sit in with Illinois Jacquet at the tender age of 12. Turrentine's only formal musical training came from a stint in the military in the mid 1950s. The rest he learned from life experiences and influences.
Sugar sits among the best-received of Turrentine's albums in which he added upbeat funk and rock elements to his mixture of soul jazz, a combination that led to significant sales.
If ever there was one record that fit perfectly into the label sound of CTI Records and then completely escaped this categorization, it was "Sugar" by Stanley Turrentine. Turrentine, a veteran of soul jazz since the '50s, is accompanied by the crème de la crème of the groove scene, including guitarist George Benson, Lonnie Liston Smith on electric piano, trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, bassist Ron Carter, organist Butch Cornell and Billy Kaye on drums. The title track is a masterpiece of soul blues with a swinging offbeat, the rhythm section stays nicely flowing with quarters and eighths, while Benson, Hubbard and Turrentine start slowly, step on the gas, increase tempo and pace until the climax – especially in Hubbard's solo.
At this point, the mood of the album is such that the party really gets going or gets completely out of control. When Benson takes over his part, full of skilful, radiant and warm arpeggios, everything goes off the rails. Butch Cornell's "Sunshine Alley" is a solid, funky-groovy piece, pacemakers here are the organ and the double-bar notes of Kaye. Turrentine and Hubbard take over the melody and improvise masterfully, now you really can no longer attach the label Blues to the piece and the speed is increased even further. But the big surprise is the last piece, played with the biggest drive and deepest gut feeling since John Coltrane's "Impressions". Turrentine feels deep inside his saxophone, produces a wonderful legato on his instrument – and that's remarkable. The bass of Ron Carter flows through the modal interludes, creating the basis for the wonderful interval fantasies of Benson and Smith, who build a series of harmony bridges through harmonic transitions – from the interplay to the solos. It's hard to believe that this is Turrentine and yet it couldn't be anyone else.
If there are jazz fans who are interested in Turrentine after his time at Blue Note, and they should, then this LP provides the greatest satisfaction.

Features:

• 180g Vinyl
• Pressed at Pallas in Germany
• Audiophile re-mastering
• Reissue of 1970 release

Musicians:

• Freddie Hubbard (tp)
• Stanley Turrentine (ts)
• Lonnie Liston Smith (el-p)
• Butch Cornell (org)
• George Benson (g)
• Ron Carter (b)
• Billy Kaye (dr)
• Richard "Pablo" Landrum (cga)

Selections:

Side A
1. Sugar
2. Sunshine Alley
Side B
1. Impressions
2. Gibraltar