1992 · Album
More Than a Mood
Recorded 1992 · MusicMasters Records · Chart Peak: No. 8, US Billboard Top Jazz Albums
Turrentine's Balanced Act in the Nineties
The album never lags—it is both hot and cool, smooth and spirited, all the way through.
More Than a Mood opens with a warm, unhurried groove that immediately establishes Turrentine's comfort zone: the tenor saxophone floating over solid rhythm work, nothing rushed, nothing wasted. There's a professional ease here, the sound of a player who knows exactly what he wants and doesn't need to prove anything. The saxophonist moves between ballad territory and mid-tempo swingers with the kind of fluidity that comes from decades of knowing your instrument and your audience. He's relaxed but never lazy, capable of snapping into focus when the moment demands it.
By 1992, Turrentine had long since established himself as a reliable craftsman of soul-jazz and R&B-inflected tenor work. This album represents him working at his peak in that idiom without veering into pastiche or easy nostalgia. Sun-Sentinel critic Matt Schudel captured the record's central strength: the consistent balance between heat and restraint, between the smooth sophistication Turrentine had built his reputation on and the underlying spirited engagement that keeps the music from settling into mere background comfort.
The album charted at No. 8 on the Billboard Top Jazz Albums list, confirming that his audience was still there and still listening. For those seeking Turrentine at a moment when he'd mastered his sound completely, this delivers exactly that—a saxophonist secure in his approach, working with players who understand his language, delivering music that works both as close listening and as something that breathes easily in a room.
Who's playing
Ron Carterdouble bass
Cedar Waltonpiano
Stanley Turrentinetenor saxophone
Freddie Hubbardtrumpet
Billy Higginsdrums
Where next?
More by Stanley Turrentine
All 64 albums →
The musicians on this record
Red Clay 1970
Freddie Hubbard
plays trumpet here
plays trumpet here
Where? 1961
Ron Carter
plays double bass here
plays double bass here
♫
As Long as There's Music 1990
Cedar Walton
plays piano here
plays piano here
First Song 1992
Billy Higgins
plays drums (drum set) here
plays drums (drum set) here
