Stanley Turrentine

These nine ballads were recorded by Stanley Turrentine between 1962 and 1969. Apart from being a genuinely wonderful set of romantic tunes, Music for Lovers showcases a soft side of the great tenor's playing. Turrentine is one of the quintessential soul-jazz saxophonists. His Blue Note recordings from the 1960s with Shirley Scott are generally the works cited, but there is so much other material on offer that a small collection like this is welcome. A pair of ballads with Scott on organ are here, representing that darker groove aspect, but so are tunes with pianists like Sonny Clark, McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, Horace Parlan, and Cedar Walton. There are two cuts with guitarist Kenny Burrell in a front-line role, and there are the trumpeters who Turrentine loved to work with like brother Tommy and Blue Mitchell, as well as rhythm sections that feature drummers like Mickey Roker, Al Harewood, and even Candy Finch. Bassists like Buster Williams, Bob Cranshaw, Sam Jones, Earl May, and George Tucker also appear here. These are gorgeous tunes, beautifully selected and sequenced -- not a bad thing on a budget compilation amassed for Valentine's Day. The finest moments here are the opening read of Rodgers & Hart's "Little Girl Blue," where Turrentine works around the melody until it's been set by Burrell and Clark and then takes his solo directly from it. Then there is the deeply intimate read of Burt Bacharach's "What the World Needs Now Is Love," where Tyner and Turrentine achieve a near symbiotic interplay -- and hearing the great pianist work his sleight of hand with blues phrasing on a pop tune like this one, as the saxophonist blows in the groove, is something to behold. This is a worthy pop for your buck even if you already have everything by Stanley Turrentine. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide