Stanley's First Masterpiece

Now it's 1963.  Stanley Turrentine, 28 years old, has been a member of Earl Bostic's big band, served time in the U.S. Army, and then played with the Max Roach Quintet for a year.  Starting in April 1960, he became a session player for the Blue Note label, recording under his own name and with various other Blue Note stars.  He married the organist Shirley Scott in 1960 and recorded several albums with her. 

For some reason, things slowed down for Stanley in 1962.  While he performed on 10 to 12 albums during each of 1960 and 1961, he only performed on four sets in all of 1962, including one that was rejected by Blue Note.

Things picked up again in 1963.  On January 8 of that year, he entered Van Gelder Studios in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey to perform on guitarist Kenny Burrell's terrific album, Midnight Blue.

The album is probably Burrell's best-known work for Blue Note and is widely considered a jazz guitar masterpiece.  Jazz Improv magazine wrote, "If you need to know 'the Blue Note sound,' here it is."  In 2005, NPR included the album in its "Basic Jazz Library," describing it as "one of the great jazzy blues records." The album has been in constant release since it first dropped, being re-issued countless times by Blue Note in the U.S. and abroad.  

In addition to Stanley on tenor sax, Burrell is backed by bassist Major Holley, drummer Bill English, and Ray Barretto on conga.  The absence of piano lends a very "open," uncluttered sound to the session, which holds up remarkably well today for a 1963 recording.  

The whle album is great and I couldn't select one single to post, so that whole LP is up above. The track list is as follows:

1. Chitlins con Carne (5:30)
2. Mule (6:56)
3. Soul Lament (2:43)
4. Midnight Blue (4:02)
5. Wavy Gravy (5:47)
6. Gee, Baby, Ain't I Good to You (4:25)
7. Saturday Night Blues (6:16)
8. Kenny's Sound (4:43) (Bonus track on CD)
9. K Twist (3:36) (Bonus track on CD)

Several of the tracks have since become jazz and blues standards, such as Wavy Gravy and Chitlins Con Carne, which has been covered by Stevie Ray Vaughn among others. Both tracks were released by Blue Note as 45-rpm singles.  

Hugh Romney Jr., peace activist, professional hippy, and inspiration for a Ben & Jerry's ice-cream flavor, reportedly got his name "Wavy Gravy" from blues guitarist B.B. King at the 1969 Texas International Pop Festival, two weeks after the Woodstock festival.  According to legend, Romney was lying onstage, exhausted, when it was announced that B.B. King was going to play.  Romney began to get up, and felt a hand on his shoulder.  It was King, who asked, "Are you Wavy Gravy?" (meaning "Are you high?") to which Romney replied "Yes." 

"It's OK; I can work around you," King replied and then proceeded to jam with Johnny Winter for hours. Romney said he considered this a mystical event, and assumed Wavy Gravy as his legal name.

It's not clear from the story, but Wavy Gravy was one of the classic tracks and a single from Midnight Blue.  If King didn't also know the expression from jazzman slang, the blues guitarist was undoubtedly familiar with Burrell's track. So, indirectly, Wavy Gravy actually got his name from Kenny Burrell via B.B. King.  It's ironic that Stanley Turrentine performed on two tracks named for iconic figures from the 1969 Woodstock festival - Chip Monck on Les McCann Ltd. in New York (1961) and Wavy Gravy on Midnight Blue (1963). 

The pairing of Burrell's bluesy-cool guitar and Turrentine's warm tenor worked very well, and the two recorded together again many times.  Burrell appeared on at least eight subsequent Turrentine LPs, and Stanley later appeared on Burrell's Freedom LP.  In addition, they played together on sets for Donald Byrd and Jimmy Smith.

It would be tempting to say that after a slow 1962, Stanley's career really took off after this recording. While that may be technically true, the reasons for his success probably had as much to do with the Turrentine sound as his reputation from Midnight Blue.