Jump to content

What ever happen to Tommy Turrentine?


Hardbopjazz

Recommended Posts

He had a nice sound on the trumpet, then one day he was no longer on the scene. I don’t want to speculate, but did he have a drinking or drug habit? Could this have been the reason?

I once saw him playing on a street corner in Manhattan in the early 90's and often wondered what went wrong. I didn't have the heart to go up and speak with him. I did through 2 bucks in the bucket he and the other musicians were using for collections.

Edited by Hardbopjazz
Link to comment
Share on other sites

According to Leonard Feather and Ira Gitler's Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999; Oxford University Press, NYC) Tommy Turrentine was sporadically active from the mid 1960s. In the 1970s and 1980s he was associated with the "University of the Streets" on NYC's Lower East Side, frequently performing there with saxophonist Clarence Sharpe. He appeared with Barry Harris at Symphony Space, NYC in the 1980s, and he played and recorded with Sun Ra in 1988. Although ill health forced him to stop playing in 1988, he continued to write and contribute compositions to recordings by Stanley Turrentine and others. He died in NYC on May 13, 1997.

Edited by J.A.W.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes. That must have been very shortly before his death.

The interviews are in a variety of settings and include all the right folks such as Blue Note heroes Herbie Hancock and Horace Silver, session players Bob Cranshaw and Tommy Turrentine, industry figures Gil Melle and Michael Cuscuna, Alfred Lion's former wife Lorraine Gordon (interviewed while taking reservations at the Village Vanguard!)and his widow, Ruth Lion, plus several of Lion and Wolff's colleagues from Europe, who give a valuable perspective on the reception of jazz as high art.

Blue Note - A Story of Modern Jazz (1997)

Edited by Claude
Link to comment
Share on other sites

His scenes are difficult to watch because he looks so prematurely aged.

If I remember rightly, he is shown on this film looking at a Francis Wolff print of himself. Maybe this was one of the scenes filmed in the back of Mosaic's warehouse (with endless racks of black boxes in the background)?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tommy T. had an unstable personality, perhaps a chemical imbalance, which was exacerbated by various abuse issues. I get this from a very close friend who witnessed him "in action" in person in NYC in the early 1980s. It's a tragic story, from what I can gather.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...