Big Joe Turner - Pioneers Of Rhythm & Blues Vol 9

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 39:12
Size: 89.8 MB
Styles: R&B, Urban blues
Year: 2008
Art: Front

[2:58] 1. Shake, Rattle & Roll
[3:01] 2. Chains Of Love
[3:53] 3. Piney Brown Blues
[2:58] 4. Roll 'em Hawk
[3:06] 5. Cherry Red
[4:24] 6. Nothin' From Nothin'
[3:21] 7. Honey Hush
[3:02] 8. Corrine, Corrina
[4:54] 9. Wee Baby Blues
[3:02] 10. Tv Mama
[4:29] 11. Squeeze Me, Baby

Known variously as The Boss of the Blues, and Big Joe Turner (due to his 6’2”, 300+ lbs stature), Turner was born in Kansas City and first discovered his love of music through involvement in the church. Turner’s father was killed in a train accident when Joe was only four years old. He began singing on street corners for money, leaving school at age fourteen to begin working in Kansas City’s club scene, first as a cook, and later as a singing bartender. He eventually became known as The Singing Barman, and worked in such venues as The Kingfish Club and The Sunset, where he and his piano playing partner Pete Johnson became resident performers. The Sunset was managed by Piney Brown. It featured “separate but equal” facilities for white patrons. Turner wrote “Piney Brown Blues” in his honor and sang it throughout his entire career.

At that time Kansas City was a wide-open town run by “Boss” Tom Pendergast. Despite this, the clubs were subject to frequent raids by the police, but as Turner recounts, “The Boss man would have his bondsmen down at the police station before we got there. We’d walk in, sign our names and walk right out. Then we would cabaret until morning”.

His partnership with boogie-woogie pianist Pete Johnson proved fruitful. Together they headed to New York in 1936, where they appeared on a bill with Benny Goodman, but as Turner recounts, “After our show with Goodman, we auditioned at several places, but New York wasn’t ready for us yet, so we headed back to K.C.”. Eventually they were spotted by the talent scout, John H. Hammond in 1938, who invited them back to New York to appear in one of his “From Spirituals to Swing” concerts at Carnegie Hall, which was instrumental in introducing jazz and blues to a wider American audience.

Due in part to their appearance at Carnegie Hall, Turner and Johnson scored a major hit with “Roll ‘Em Pete”. The track contained one of the earliest recorded examples of a back beat. It was a song which Turner recorded many times, with various combinations of musicians, over the ensuing years.

In 1939, along with boogie players Albert Ammons and Meade Lux Lewis, they began a residency at Café Society, a club in New York City, where they appeared on the same bill as Billie Holiday and Frank Newton’s band. Besides “Roll ‘em, Pete”, Turner’s best-known recordings from this period are probably “Cherry Red”, “I Want a Little Girl” and “Wee Baby Blues”.

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