 Stanley Turrentine CTI Records, for all its demon spawn in the smooth jazz world, is one of those entities whose influence is felt in all the wrong places, yet when you look back to the source you realize there's a lot of class and quality. The recent CTI relaunch by Legacy Records may or may not prove to draw listeners back into the CTI opium den, but if it does, I hope with all my heart that they re-release Don't Mess With Mr. T, one of Stanley Turrentine's best albums and one of my favorite jazz albums, period. For those who don't know from CTI, it had its heyday in the years following Blue Note's "decline" and was the trendsetter for most of the slick feel-good jazz of the 70s. But as I say, you can't blame the parents when the kid starts smoking weed. Producer Creed Taylor, having left Impulse! records, continued along his peculiar path toward jazz enlightenment, which found him now encouraging a new sort of contemporary jazz, rooted in tradition but not without some of the side-effects of fusion: electric pianos, organs, Latin percussion, background singers, full orchestras: jazz was slowly evolving into a porno soundtrack shadow of its big band former identity. Yet even though the music was miles away from the serious and important sound of the Blue Note era, it was (and is) still jazz. Oh, the album: Don't Mess With Mr. T was T's last CTI album and is a total masterpiece of the genre. Stanley's tone is big and round, fuller than ever, and he blows through five smoldering cuts with total commitment. "Don't Mess With Mr. T" (a cover of the Marvin Gaye classic from Trouble Man) gets things going, perfectly setting the tone for the rest of the record. Turrentine's phrasing and melodic inventiveness have rarely been better, he's truly digging into the songs. The musicians on the date are almost all famous, typical of the CTI "all star" house band approach. Bob James is on piano and electric piano, and also serves as the arranger and conductor for the orchestra; this is easily the best thing Bob James has been associated with. Harold Mabern also clocks some time on piano and electric piano; Richard Tee is on organ; Idris Muhammed is on drums; the omnipresent (or possible cyborg) Ron Carter is on bass; Eric Gale (also a cyborg) on guitar; Randy Brecker, Pepper Adams, Joe Farrell … DAMN. The title track is deep and soulful, perfectly played and full of dynamic tension like Charles Atlas. "Two For T." is a Turrentine original that breezes along but also groovessomething like an urban 70s update of the Mulligan/Baker band. Spellbinding stuff. "Too Blue" is another original, another one of Stanley's blues masterworks featuring some very Blue Note interplay between the tenor and the backline horns. (Rudy Van Gelder, a megacyborg from the 28th century, is the engineer here, so the Blue Note influence isn't surprising. How many albums did this guy engineer or produce, anyway?) Soulful organ too. Mm-MM! The unlikely masterpiece among masterpieces here is "I Could Never Repay Your Love," an eight-minute epic ballad that is partly "You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman," part "Moon River," all soul, pure emotion, all beauty, perfect grace. Stanley's playing here is unparalleled, almost tearjerking in its power, and the horns kick my ass every time. Eric Gale and Richard Tee turn in some phenomenally bluesy, nearly gospel solos, and the strings are just gorgeous. One of my all-time favorite jazz performances, blending the best of big band, string jazz, blues, soul, and smooth jazz into one perfect package. Not to be missed. This track originally closed the album; on the CD issue it is followed by "Pieces of Dreams," a Michel Legrand tune that was left off the album due to time constraints. While it doesn't top the previous track, it serves as a fine recap to the album, bringing the strings to the forefront and giving Stanley another chance to shine. The man is simply great, he's a titan, he's a god on earth, he's very nearly a cyborg. It's likely that jazz snobs and even some regular folks will disagree entirely and dismiss this album as another overproduced throwaway from the CTI vaults. Damn shame that would bethis is the real thing, accept no imitations, and for goodness sake, stop blaming everything on CTI.
Review by Regina Angina |