Stanley Turrentine

• Genre: Soul Jazz
• Hometown: Pittsburgh

About

Along with Hank Crawford, Stanley Turrentine put Soul Jazz saxophone on the map. Turrentine has a big, robust sound that excelled with both the Bop approach of Max Roach and the chicken-shack groove of Jimmy Smith. Turrentine spent the '60s as sideman for Herbie Hancock and Horace Silver, cutting solo albums for Blue Note, and in musical partnership with his (former) wife, organist Shirley Scott. In the early '70s, Turrentine's honey-drenched sound became big with the “ludes-in-the-jacuzzi” crowd, while his first Crossover albums (such as the deeply bluesy Sugar) were also well-received. Luckily, Turrentine's tenor saxophone has always retained its dignity no matter what the company, and he continued to record with the finest jazz musicians and vocalists until he died of a stroke in 2000.

- Nick Dedina