'Timeline Concert' honors Stanley Turrentine

There have been many talented jazz musicians who either called the D.C. area their home or were important in the district's musical life. To honor these musicians, Strathmore Hall in Bethesda, in conjunction with the Washington Area Music Association, has started a new series of concerts at Strathmore, "Timeline Concerts," one-hour concerts each focused on a specific time period and artist.

This spring the emphasis will be on the 1960s and on March 31, the emphasis will be on saxophonist Stanley Turrentine in a concert organized by and featuring another distinguished D.C.-based tenor saxophonist, Ron Holloway.

Born in Pittsburgh in 1934, Turrentine began his career with various blues and R&B bands, then in 1950 joined Lowell Fulson's band (whose piano player at the time was Ray Charles), and in 1953 left to join Earl Bostic, replacing John Coltrane.

After a brief stint in the military, Turrentine joined Max Roach's band and met organist Shirley Scott, whom he married in 1960 and recorded with often. Around the same time, he began working with organist Jimmy Smith, and also began recording as a leader for Blue Note. He is still best known and most highly regarded for his recordings on that label during this time.

After Turrentine and Scott divorced in the early 1970s, his style became more fusion-oriented and he recorded five albums in that style, including {Sugar}, probably the closest thing he had to a signature tune. However, by the '80s he was back to playing in the soul-jazz style he started with. He died in September 2000, a week after suffering a massive stroke.

There probably couldn't be a better musician than Ron Holloway to put together a Turrentine tribute because Holloway, who started playing the saxophone in junior high school, considers him a major influence on his own playing and his sound has often been compared to Turrentine's.

"The reason I was so attracted to Stanley's playing as a young guy," he says, "was the fact that he had such a distinctive sound. It was like the personification of that soulful quality you can get in a tenor saxophone. He's about the most soulful and feeling player that I can think of on my instrument. He really set a high-water mark in that style."

In fact, Holloway and Turrentine were friendly with each other. Turrentine heard his young protégé perform several times, the first time at Blues Alley with Dizzy Gillespie, who Holloway was with from 1989 to 1993.

"He always encouraged me and told me how much he liked my playing."

Sadly, although the two men talked about jamming together and making a recording, neither ever happened. Turrentine frequently invited Holloway over - "He was always after me about that, and for one reason or another I never made it" - and Holloway even went so far as to approach the Fantasy label about a possible recording. He last saw Turrentine only a few weeks before his death at a concert in Blues Alley, after which the two sat in his car and talked for a long time.

For the concert, Holloway plans to use a combo made up of people who have played with Turrentine and himself, although at press time, he had not finalized the musicians.

For the music itself, he says, "I would like to sort of re-create a typical set by Stanley Turrentine's group," choosing "a lot of tunes [that] were staples in his repertoire." These include, in addition to "Sugar," Milton Nascimento's "Salt Song," Freddie Hubbard's "Gibraltar" and John Coltrane's "Impressions."

Ron Holloway's Timeline Concert in honor of Stanley Turrentine will begin at 7:30 p.m. at Strathmore Hall, 10701 Rockville Pike, North Bethesda. For more information or to order tickets, call 301-530-0540.

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