Big Joe Turner (Joseph Vernon Turner Jr.) was an American blues singer. He was born in Kansas City, Missouri on May 18, 1911 and died November 24, 1985 in Inglewood, California. His pioneering rock and rolling recordings, especially “Shake, Rattle and Roll”, made him famous in the 1950s. However, Turner’s performance career spanned from the 1920s to the 1980s. He is also known as The Boss of the Blues and Big Joe Turner, due to his height of 6’2″, 300 lbs and his involvement in the church. Turner was born in Kansas City. Turner was four years old when his father died in a train crash. At fourteen, Turner began singing street corners to make money. He left school to work in Kansas City’s clubs, first as a chef and then as a singer bartender. He was eventually known as The Singing Barman and began working at The Kingfish Club and The Sunset. There, he and Pete Johnson, a pianist, became regular performers. Piney Brown managed The Sunset. It offered separate but equal facilities for white patrons. Turner composed “Piney Brown Blues” and sang it throughout the course of his career. Kansas City was then a large-open city run by Tom Pendergast. The clubs were still subject to police raids. Turner recalls that “Boss” Tom Pendergast would have his bondsmen at the station before they arrived. We would walk in, sign our names, and then walk out. We would then cabaret till the morning. He was successful in his partnership with Pete Johnson, a boogie-woogie musician. They traveled together to New York in 1936. There, they performed on a bill alongside Benny Goodman. Turner recalls that they auditioned at many places but New York wasn’t ready yet so they returned to K.C. They were eventually spotted by John H. Hammond, a talent scout. He invited them back to New York to perform in his “From Spirituals to Swing” concerts at Carnegie Hall. This concert was crucial in introducing jazz to a larger American audience. Their Carnegie Hall appearance was a key factor in Turner and Johnson’s hit song “Roll ‘Em Peter”. It featured one of the first recorded examples of a back beat. This song was recorded by Turner many times with different combinations of musicians over the years. They began a residency at Cafe Society in New York City in 1939 with Meade Lux Lewis and Albert Ammons, boogie musicians. There they performed on the same bill as Frank Newton and Billie Holiday. Out of “Roll ’em Pete”, Turner’s most well-known recordings are “Cherry Red”, I Want a Little Girl”, and “Wee Baby Blues”. He traveled to Los Angeles in 1941 and performed in Duke Ellington’s revue Jump for Joy In Hollywood. In a sketch called “He’s on the Beat,” he was a singing cop. Los Angeles was his home for a while, and in 1944 he was a Soundies musician. He sang on the soundtrack recordings but was not there to film them. His vocals were uttered by Dudley Dickerson, comedian for the camera. The Blue Moon Club, which was opened by Pete Johnson and Turner in Los Angeles in 1945, was their first bar. Turner recorded many records with Johnson, as well as with pianists Sammy Price (Art Tatum) and Sammy Price (and with various small jazz ensembles). Turner recorded with several labels, including National Records. He also performed with the Count Basie Orchestra. Turner led the transition from big bands into jump blues to rhythm andblues and then to rock and roll throughout his career. Turner was an expert in traditional blues verses, and at Kansas City’s legendary jam sessions, he could swap choruses for hours with instrumental soloists. He was performing at Harlem’s Apollo Theater with the Count Basie Orchestra as Jimmy Rushing’s replacement, and Ahmet and NesuhiErtegun spotted him, who signed him to Atlantic Records. Turner recorded many hits for them, including “Chains Of Love”, and “Sweet Sixteen”. His vocals often include shouts to the members of the band, such as “Boogie Woogie Country Girl”. (“That’s a great rockin’ band!” “, “Go ahead, man! Ow! It’s exactly what I need! ), and Honey Hush (he sings repeatedly “Hi-yo Silver!” The phrase was probably a reference to The Treniers’ parody “Ride, Red, Ride”. Turner’s rhythm-and-blues chart success was a result of his records. Although they were not played on radio stations, some stations didn’t like them. However, Turner’s songs got heavy play on records and jukeboxes. Turner’s 1954 hit “Shake, Rattle and Roll” was a major success. It not only made Turner a popular teenager favorite, but also transformed popular music. It’s quite raw. Turner shouts at his lady to get out of bed and wash her hands. He also comments that she is “wearin’ those dresses. The sun shines through!” The 1955 theatrical feature Rhythm and Blues Revue featured Turner singing the song on film. While the Bill Haley cover version, which had the unrefined lyrics, was more popular, many people sought Turner’s version. They were then introduced to the world of rhythm and Blues. Elvis Presley proved that he didn’t need such an introduction. Although his version of “Shake, Rattle and Roll”, which combined Turner’s lyrics and Haley’s arrangement, was not a hit as a single. He also recorded the Boss of the Blues classic album. Turner recorded a lot of hits in this style, but he decided to leave popular music and return to his roots as a small jazz group singer, recording many albums in this style between the 1960s and 1970s. Bill Haley, who helped Turner’s career revive, loaned him the Comets in 1966 for a series popular Mexican recordings. However, it seems that no one ever thought of recording a duet of Shake, Rattle and Roll, as there is no record of such a recording. He recorded “The Things That I Used to Do”, Guitar Slim’s song in 1977. He was an active participant in jazz and blues during the 1960s and 70s. He recorded a version of Guitar Slim’s song “The Things I Used To Do” for Norman Granz’s Pablo label. Once with Jimmy Witherspoon, he also appeared at festivals. Axel Zwingenberger, a German boogie-woogie musician, was also a collaborator. His dominance as an artist is evident in his winning the Esquire magazine award in 1945 for best male vocalist, the Melody Maker award in 1956 for best ‘new vocalist, and the British Jazz Journal award in 1965 for top male singer. His career spanned from the bars of Kansas City in 1920s when he was twelve years old, when he was wearing a pencil moustache and his father’s hat to the European jazz music festivals that took place in the 1980s. Turner was inducted into The Blues Hall of Fame in 1983, just two years after his death. Inglewood, California, November 1985: Turner died from a heart attack at the age of seventy-four. He had suffered earlier complications of diabetes, arthritis, stroke, and stroke. Big Joe Turner was inducted posthumously into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in 1987. Tribute Robert Palmer, a former New York Times music critic, stated: “…his voice pushed like Count Basie, rich and grainy, as a section saxophones. Its sound dominated the room. The most famous recording “Roll ’em Pete” – 1938. (Recorded in many different versions throughout the years. This was used for the first scene of Spike Lee’s movie, Malcolm X. “Chains Of Love”, 1951 + (this was Turner’s first million-selling song). The song was written by Nugetre (words), Ahmet Ertegun (music), and reached the million mark in 1954. “Honey Hush”, 1953 + “Shake, Rattle and Roll”, 1954 “Flip Flop And Fly”, 1955 + (has been sold one million times over the years). Although the song is credited to Turner’s wife Lou Willie Turner, it was composed by Charles Calhoun as well as Turner. “Cherry Red”, 1956 “Corrine Corrina”, 1956 + (the fourth most-sold album…with adaptations by J. Mayo Williams and Mitchell Parish, as well as Bo Chatmon in 1932). This disc reached #41, and stayed on the Billboard charts for 10 weeks. “Wee Baby Blues”, 1956 (a song Turner sang since his Kingfish Club days). “Love Roller Coaster”, 1956. “Midnight Special”, 1957. Tracks marked with + were millions-selling discs. Select discography Big Joe Rides Again (1956), The Boss of the Blues (56), Bosses of the Blues Vol. 1 (1969). Texas Style (1971). Flip, Flop
