Earl Turbinton - R.I.P.

[Lois Gilbert]

New Orleans jazz pioneer Turbinton dies

Earl Turbinton, the adventurous saxophonist who helped pioneer the modern jazz scene in New Orleans, died Friday in Baton Rouge after a long struggle with lung cancer. He was 65.

As did his brother, funk keyboardist Wilson "Willie Tee" Turbinton, Mr. Turbinton followed his own idiosyncratic path in music. He specialized in alto and soprano saxophone, drawing inspiration from Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane and the deeply held spiritual beliefs on which he occasionally expounded from the stage.

In 1960, he helped create The Workshop, a Decatur Street club that he hoped would become an incubator for avant-jazz. That ambition did not come to pass, but the "African Cowboy," as Mr. Turbinton referred to himself, led his own disparate groups and contributed to a wide range of albums. They included the early Wild Magnolias albums produced by Willie Tee, as well as B.B. King's 1972 release "Five Long Years." In 1988, he teamed up with his brother to record "Brothers for Life."

Funeral arrangements are pending.

[BFrank]

Saw him at JazzFest about 20 years ago. I still remember that performance.

RIP, Earl.

[Dennis Gonzalez]

So sorry to hear this bit of bad news. He and I played as sidemen for Tim Green's Crescent City Brass Band on a UK tour in 1989. The septet was made up of four New Jazz players (Tim on tenor sax, Earl on alto and soprano, James Lakey on trombone, and me on trumpet) along with three traditional Nawlins players (Tanio Hingle on bass drum, Lionel Batiste on snare and cymbals, and Kerwin James on tuba) along with a Parade Master from the Wild Tchoupitoulas Indians.

In 1991, I saw him with a quartet at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and he’d decided to change his name to Naim (in honor of his daughter Naima). He told me at one point (as did many others) that Joe Zawinul had asked him to be the original saxophonist for Weather Report, but for some reason he turned the gig down. In fact, Earl played on the record titled simply Zawinul, along with Woody Shaw, Jimmy Owens,Wayne Shorter, Hubert Laws, George Davis, Herbie Hancock, Miroslav Vitous, Walter Booker, Jack DeJohnette, David Lee, Billy Hart, and Joe Chambers. Earl’s name would have been on the tip of everybody’s tongue, but for a slight change of circumstances.

And at the 2002 New Orleans Fest, people remember Earl dressed in traditional African attire, preaching the concept of "One World", telling his audience to love and pray for their enemies. Radical, huh?

[Jon Abbey]

those two Wild Magnolias records just got reissued, I've been really enjoying them, particularly the first one. RIP, sir.

[Dennis Gonzalez]

Tim Green (tenor), Dennis Gonzalez (trumpet), James Lakey (trombone), Earl Turbinton (alto), Kerwin James (tuba); Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, 1989

[rocketjk]

Wow, I just dropped into the Speakeasy for the first time in a while and saw this. Earl was a great guy. I knew him pretty well during my days as a jazz producer for WWNO, the New Orleans NPR affiliate, in the 80s. He was on my show often, and I have a tape of a benefit he did at Snug Harbor for our station, co-fronting a band with Tony Dagradi. It was Earl who introduced me to Dizzy Gillespie late one night in Snug Harbor after Gillespie had appeared elsewhere in town on a double bill with the Dirty Dozen. If I remember correctly, Earl was a pretty good pool player, too.

The story I heard vis a vis Weather Report was that Earl turned down the offer because he had also been asked to go out on tour with B.B. King and decided to take that job.