Black Music Sunday is a weekly series highlighting all things Black music, with over 260 stories covering performers, genres, history, and more, each featuring its own vibrant soundtrack. I hope you’ll find some familiar tunes and perhaps an introduction to something new.
No matter if you are a blues, R&B, rock & roll or jazz fan, we can all gather here today to celebrate the birthday of a man who contributed his artistry to multiple genres: the late, great Big Joe Turner.
New Orleans griot, poet, filmmaker, and music writer Kalamu ya Salaam wrote a bio of Turner, for his blog Breath of Life:
Before B.B. became King of the blues, Big Joe Turner was the “Boss of the Blues.” Joseph Vernon Turner Jr. was born in Kansas City, Missouri on May 18, 1911. During his long career he successfully mastered various styles of the blues, including Boogie-Woogie, jump blues, R&B, Rock and Roll, and jazz in a blues vein. … While in his early teens, he started singing professionally. When he grew up, Kansas City was a wide open, balling town that ignored the strictures of prohibition. While working in the bars, Joe earned the sobriquet “The Singing Barman.” During this period Turner partnered with pianist Pete Johnson and eventually the duo appeared on the famous 1938 “From Spiritual to Swing” Carnegie Hall concerts sponsored by impresario and record producer John H. Hammond. […]
Big Joe was comfortable in a wide variety of settings, from Boogie-Woogie piano bands to small jazz combos and the then new field of R&B, which grew out of what used to be called Jump Blues.Take note of one track, “Rocks In My Bed.” That’s from the pen of Duke Ellington and was part of the 1941 Jump For Joy program produced out in Los Angeles. Also note the track “TV Mama,” that is memorable for a number of reasons not the least of which is the slide guitar work from Mississippi’s own, Mr. Elmo James. But then again that’s T-Bone Walker on “I’ve Got A Pocket Full Of Pencil.” Of course, Big Joe’s big record was the April 1954 mega-hit “Shake, Rattle, and Roll.” Not only did that song lead to a long string of R&B hits for Atlantic Records, “Shake” was an even bigger July 1954 hit for Bill Haley & The Comets. … To understand the explosive impact of “Shake” consider all (actually only a partial listing of) the cover versions in addition to Bill Haley: Elvis Presley – August 1956, Carl Perkins – November 1958, Conway Twitty – 1960, Sam Cooke – 1963, Jerry Lee Lewis – 1975, Chuck Berry – 1975, and so forth and so on. … Big Joe was responsible for some of the more memorable of the early Rock and Roll hits such as “Honey Hush,” “Flip, Flop and Fly,” “Corrine Corrina,” and the humorous “The Chicken And The Hawk,” a take off from Nat King Cole’s “Straighten Up And Fly Right.”
And here is “Shake, Rattle, and Roll”:
Here’s a live performance of the song from 1955 with the Paul Williams Orchestra on “Showtime at the Apollo”:
Since I’m a fan of musical movie oldies, I was delighted to find the full hourlong 1955 “Rhythm & Blues Revue” movie. “Rhythm & Blues Revue” was a musical variety show filmed at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem, New York City, featuring a cast of popular Black performers like Lionel Hampton, Bill Bailey, Count Basie, Sarah Vaughn, Nat King Cole, and countless others.
As Kalamu ya Salaam mentioned, white musicians’ covers of “Shake, Rattle, and Roll” became big hits. Give a look and listen to Bill Haley & His Comets:
And the Elvis Presley version:
To get an idea of Turner’s early blues stylings, in 1956 he recorded the album “The Boss of the Blues.” Music reviewer Scott Yanow wrote about it for AllMusic:
During an era when Big Joe Turner recordings were often surprise hits with rock & roll fans (particularly “Shake, Rattle and Roll”), he occasionally recorded no-nonsense blues-oriented jazz dates too. This reissue album matched Turner for one of the last times with the veteran boogie-woogie pianist Pete Johnson and also includes a variety of top swing players: trumpeter Joe Newman, trombonist Lawrence Brown, altoist Pete Brown, tenor saxophonist Frank Wess, guitarist Freddie Green, bassist Walter Page, and drummer Cliff Leeman.
Here’s the full album:
James Nadal at AllAboutJazz continues Turner’s story:
In the ’60s, Big Joe Turner moved to Los Angeles, where he occasionally recorded for Kent and Coral while continuing to tour Europe and America regularly. He performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1964 and toured Europe with the American Folk Blues Festival in 1966. Recording for the BluesWay label in 1967, Turner worked with the Johnny Otis Show in the late ’60s, appearing with his show at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1970. In 1971 Turner recorded for the French Black & Blue label, later issued on Evidence Records, and subsequently returned to his jazz and blues style for two albums with Count Basie on Pablo Records. He appeared with Basie in the 1974 documentary film on Kansas City jazz, “The Last of the Blue Devils.”
Big Joe Turner recorded albums for Pablo throughout the ’70s, accompanied by Pee Wee Crayton, trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie and Roy Eldridge, and alto saxophonist Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, among others. By the early ’80s, Turner was suffering from diabetes and arthritis, walking on crutches and having to perform sitting down. He recorded with Roomful of Blues in 1983 and Knocky Parker and the Houserockers in 1984, recording his final album with Jimmy Witherspoon in 1985.
He died of a heart attack in Inglewood, California, on November 24, 1985, at the age of seventy-four. Big Joe Turner was inducted into the Blues Foundation’s Hall of Fame in 1983 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.
Music critic and historian Billy Altman wrote about Turner for The New York Times:
Even for a man who stood 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighed better than 250 pounds, the blues singer Big Joe Turner, whose booming voice propelled 1950’s classics like “Honey Hush,” “Flip Flop and Fly” and “Shake, Rattle and Roll,” cast a giant shadow. Of all the pioneers who blazed the rock-and-roll trail, only Turner could boast that he hadn’t had to change his style one iota since his days as a 1930’s blues-shouting Kansas City bartender to be considered one of rock’s standard-bearers.
Considering the sizable role he played in creating both that shouting style of blues singing and the raucous, dance-oriented rhythm-and-blues that succeeded it in the 1940’s, it’s probably not surprising that Turner was one of rock’s chief architects. And one of its most notoriously lusty instigators. As early as 1946, on the boogie-woogie hit “Sally Zu-Zazz Blues,” Turner was concocting lyrics like “It takes a rocking chair to rock, a rubber ball to roll/ A long tall baby makes my blood run cold.”
Still, while Turner, who died at 74 in 1985, was inducted into the Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame two years later, general awareness of his pivotal role in shaping the rock-and-roll revolution has remained unexpectedly low. Until now. For with the recent release of the eye- (and ear-) popping 61-track anthology, “Big, Bad and Blue” (Rhino R2 71550; three CD’s), Big Joe Turner’s place in the rock pantheon has finally, deservedly, moved into the spotlight.
Here’s “Lowdown Dog” from the anthology:
We see Turner in filmmaker Bruce Ricker’s documentary “The Last of the Blue Devils:
His first and most critically acclaimed film work, The Last of the Blue Devils (1979) is a feature-length portrait of Kansas City’s old-time jazz men, including legends Jay McShann, Big Joe Turner and Count Basie. Made on a low-budget with the help of friends, the film combines performance footage, interviews with musicians, and archival material. The Last of the Blue Devils was celebrated not only for its honest portrayal in capturing the essence of Kansas City jazz during the Depression, but also for its cinema verite approach to music documentary.
In 1984, a year before Turner joined the ancestors, he was recorded with jazz vocalist Joe Williams, on a television program I have still not identified.
Join me in the comments section below for more Turner blues, and please post your favorites.
Happy Birthday, Big Joe Turner!