The Three Sounds

But I get ahead of myself.  After Stanley Turrentine recorded Look Out!, but before he sat in with Horace Parlan for Speakin' My Piece, he recorded a set with a trio that called themselves The Three Sounds for the LP Blue Hour.

The Three Sounds were Gene Harris (piano), Andrew Simpkins (bass), and Bill Dowdy (drums). Turrentine's presence on tenor made them a quartet.  

The set that became Blue Hour was recorded on June 29, 1960, right after the Look Out! session (June 16, 1960) and just before the Horace Parlan Speakin' My Piece session (July 14, 1960).

Blue Hour is a decidedly bluesy affair.  Most of it is played at a slow tempo, and Rudy Van Gelder's pristine recording allows a lot of empty space to be heard between notes.  As a result, the listener can really savor each and every note of Turrentine's playing and appreciate his tone and timber.(as well as pianist Gene Harris).  Songs like the not-at-all-creepily titled I Want A Little Girl sound like some late-night, after-hours session by some musicians pouring their hearts and souls into every note, but with great restraint (it's late - you don't want to disturb the good folks getting their final hours of sleep before getting up for church service). 

Turrentine sat in with The Three Sounds again for a couple of additional tracks on December 16, 1960.  All of their Blue Note sessions were eventually compiled into one of those "Complete Sessions" anthology box sets.  

Twenty-five years later, Turrentine recorded with Gene Harris again.   By 1985, The Three Sounds were no more, but the Gene Harris Trio included Ray Brown on bass and Mickey Roker on drums. In November and December of that year, Turrentine joined them for some sets at the Blue Note club in New York. Some of the sets were collected and released as The Gene Harris Trio Plus One on the Concord Jazz label.  This is as good an opportunity as any to leap ahead and preview the funkier, more soulful sound that Turrentine would later develop (and the reason for this extended review of his discography).