A Session Delayed, A Reward Rediscovered
Turrentine swinging hard alongside Lee Morgan, with Tyner and Jones locking in tight.
Mr. Natural sat in the Blue Note vault for sixteen years before anyone heard it. Recorded in 1964 when Turrentine was in his prime, the session was shelved by founder Alfred Lion, who apparently had reservations about what his musicians had made that day. When it finally surfaced in 1980 as a catalog reissue, it arrived with no fanfare—just another dusty Blue Note release landing in bins most people weren't even looking through. The AllMusic reviewer Ken Dryden flagged it as "an unlikely candidate to be reissued on CD," yet called it "rewarding" and "well worth seeking," which captures the album's strange status: overlooked by design, but solid enough to justify the hunt.
What makes it worth hunting is straightforward: five heavyweight players in a room doing what they do best. Turrentine's tenor cuts clean and direct through arrangements that give everyone space. Lee Morgan on trumpet and McCoy Tyner on piano trade phrases that breathe and push. Elvin Jones and Ray Barretto anchor the rhythm section with the kind of lock that only comes from players who know what they're doing. There's no filler here, no padding—just a tight working band playing blues and standards the way they were meant to sound.
This isn't Turrentine's peak, and it wasn't critically anointed when it arrived. But it's the kind of record that rewards the specific listener: someone who loves straightforward blowing sessions, who knows these musicians' voices well enough to appreciate them in conversation, and who doesn't need the weight of history to justify a listen. It belongs in the category of solid mid-career work—no surprises, no second chances, just good players doing their job.
Who's playing
Bob Cranshawbass
McCoy Tynerpiano
Stanley Turrentinetenor saxophone
Lee Morgantrumpet
Elvin Jonesdrums
Otis Finchdrums
Ray Barrettocongas
Where next?
More by Stanley Turrentine
All 64 albums →
The musicians on this record
The Real McCoy 1967
McCoy Tyner
plays piano here
plays piano here
Cornbread 1965
Lee Morgan
plays trumpet here
plays trumpet here
Dear John C. 1965
Elvin Jones
plays drums (drum set) here
plays drums (drum set) here
