Turrentine Jazzes Up His Approach

Tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine, who has been a pro going on four decades, is another improvising artist who can take or leave the word “Jazz.” “It’s too ambiguous,” the Kensington, Md., resident said from a San Francisco tour stop Monday. “I always say, ‘Ask 50 people what jazz is and you get 50 different opinions.’ It seems that anything that people don’t understand, well, that’s jazz.”

Turrentine--who plays Birdland West in Long Beach with his quintet through Saturday--says that all the labels people have given him over the years prove his point. “It’s been said that I’m a blues player, that I play jazz/fusion, bebop, rock ‘n’ roll, con-fusion. I’ve been through it all,” he laughed. “Still, I’m playing the same style that I always did, so I try to think in terms of music, and just hope the fans like it and keep comin’ on in.”

Blues, coupled with a capacity for playing long, swinging lines, has always been the essential ingredient of the Turrentine approach. “That’s a good foundation, at least it has been for me,” said the former Pittsburgh, Pa. native. “I’ve been into the blues from my first road job, which was with (blues guitarist/singer) Lowell Fulsom when I was 16. Ray Charles was the featured vocalist and pianist with that group. We’d get on the bandstand and he’d bring tears to my eyes.”

And while the 55-year-old horn man said that his band members--Bob Fox, keyboards; Dave Stryker, guitar; Scott Ambush, bass, and Ernie Adams, drums--occasionally employ some synthesizers and electric instruments, their use hasn’t adulterated his presentations. “I surround myself with some of that stuff to get that ‘today’ feel,” he said, “but the technology doesn’t distort my style. I’m still playing acoustically and I don’t use any gadgets.”

Turrentine said his current repertoire reaches from such early-’70s CTI LPs as “Pieces of Dreams” and “Sugar” to his most recent Blue Note effort, “La Place.” “I play a little bit of the old, a little of the new,” he said. “I try to keep it to flexible. It seems that a lot of the music I have recorded is still valid. At least it’s entertaining to me, and I guess entertaining to the people who come in.”

Briefly hospitalized in October due to an onset of pulmonary edema, Turrentine said he’s back on his feet and feeling great. “I’m following my doctor’s orders, sticking to my diet and taking my high blood pressure pills and it’s like nothing ever happened. I do thank all the people for their cards and prayers. They really helped.”

Upcoming Turrentine engagements include a slot on the David Letterman show on Tuesday, a New Year’s Eve date at the World Trade Center in Manhattan and a benefit for Enter--a comprehensive alcohol and drug treatment center located in East Harlem--at the Apollo Theatre on Jan. 27. “It’s one of my pet projects,” he said, adding that such associates as Jimmy Smith, Les McCann, Shirley Scott, Hubert Laws, Michael Brecker and Jean Carne are donating their services. Angelenos wishing to make donations may write to Enter, 302 E. 111th St., New York, N.Y., 10029.

Eskovitz on the Run

Saxophonist Bruce Eskovitz says one of the biggest drawbacks in the current music scene is the difficulty in keeping a band together. That’s why he’s so pleased that his quintet--which plays at the Overland Cafe in Palms on Friday at 8:30 p.m.--has remained intact for a couple of years.

“The guys and I--Stuart Elster, keyboards; David Hart, guitar; Bob Feldman, bass, and Rod Harbour, drums--have been friends for many years and there’s nothing better than people who like each other playing together, grooving and having the audience like it,” the CSUN grad said. “I think Paul McCartney said that having a band is more fun than driving a Rolls-Royce. Well, I’ve never had a Rolls, but I can tell you, having a band is great.”

Eskovitz, who also heads the jazz program at the Crossroads School in Santa Monica, covers the gamut of modern moods in his performances. “We do some Latin-flavored things, some fusion things and also dip into mainstream, though we try to do that with a 1989 approach.”

The leader’s eponymously-titled debut LP is due out in January on the Los Angeles-based ITI label. “It’s kind of a jazz/fusion record, but there are horns on some tracks, a string section on a ballad, kind of a mixture of some happy moods with some that are little darker and deeper. I feel good about it.”