Jimmy Smith Takes Stanley Turrentine Back to the Chicken Shack

Stanley Turrentine's recording career began with a two-year gig playing with Earl Bostic's swing band. Their music, in my opinion, has not aged well, but if you like swing dancing you might disagree. Turrentine replaced John Coltrane as Bostic's tenor in 1953 and then moved on himself by the time he was 20.

Turrentine was fairly quiet for the next five years but resurfaced in 1959 playing on a handful of Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln albums before recording his debut LP, Stan "The Man" Turrentine, in early 1960.   

Turrentine's big breakthrough occurred on April 25, 1960 when he sat in on a session for Blue Note Records with the jazz organist Jimmy Smith.  Turrentine was the lone horn in the session and Kenny Burrell sat in on guitar.  The drummer was Don Bailey (Jimmy Smith doesn't need a bass player).  At least three albums came out of that session, including Midnight Special (released in 1961) and Back at the Chicken Shack (released in 1963).  The track On the Sunny Side from the session appeared in a 1981 Jimmy Smith release of the same name.

Turrentine had sat in on one Blue Note session prior to this, a Dizzy Reese set released as Comin' On! and featuring Art Blakey on drums.  But not only did Jimmy Smith teach young Stanley the funk back behind the chicken shack, afterwards Turrentine became a Blue Note all star himself, recording some 19 albums there over the next 10 years.

Here's Back at the Chicken Shack.