(Stride) Joe Turner - Smashing Thirds (1969) - 2017, MP3, 320 kbps

Though endlessly confused with the singer Big Joe Turner, pianist Joe Turner came from a completely different direction, following the James P. Johnson/Fats Waller stride tradition, armed with a superb technique and a fine sense of swing. Born in Baltimore, he started to learn the piano from his mother at age five and began to make a name for himself in Harlem as a teenager shortly after his move to New York in 1925. He was an accompanist to Adelaide Hall in a duo, first with Alex Hill and then Francis Carter, the latter with whom he and Hall toured Europe in 1931. He remained in Europe through 1939 when war broke out, upon which he returned to the U.S. to work as a singer.
After playing with Sy Oliver's army band in 1944-1945 and Rex Stewart in 1946, Turner returned to the continent, residing in Hungary in 1948 and then Switzerland from 1949 to 1962. He settled in Paris in 1962 in a residency at La Calvados, continued to play engagements elsewhere in Europe and occasionally the U.S., and eventually survived to became the last major active stride pianist of his era. Among his few available albums is a 1984 project with Knocky Parker and his Houserockers on Southland.

Big Joe Turner was a blues shouter from Kansas City, Mo., who stood at 6-foot 2, weighed 300 pounds and was fundamental to the development of rock 'n' roll. He was the first to record Shake, Rattle and Roll in 1954. The "Big" was added to distinguish him from the already famous Joe Turner, a stride pianist who was born in 1907 in Baltimore. Taught to play piano by his mother, Joe Turner took six months of lessons with an undesirable and discouraging teacher who tended to watch the clock. So Turner turned to his Aunt Katie, who, he said, played "like a man," with a powerful left hand. She taught him to develop his left hand and explained why it was so important.
Encouraged in the late 1920s to travel to New York, Turner made the three-hour train trip from Baltimore and arrived with just $1.25 in his pocket. Making his way to Harlem's Comedy Club, he was told that anyone could sit down at the club's piano and play. So he did, running through Harlem Strut and The Carolina Shout. Audience approval was immediate and so loud that the great James P. Johnson, who happened to be sitting at a table, got up, went to the piano and played both songs with a bit more verve and flash. In other words, Turner's renditions were so threatening that Johnson felt the need to re-assume his dominant status. That's the way stride was in Harlem back then. You had to fight to get to the top and fight even hard to stave off all comers.
The good news for Turner is that his performance yielded a steady job playing at the nearby Baron Wilkins Club. There, Turner eventually was discovered by Benny Carter, who hired him for his band. Turner's first recording was in 1930 with Louis Armstrong and by the late '30s he was close friends with Art Tatum. During World War II, Turner played in Sy Oliver's Army orchestra. But by the late 1950s, Turner's stride style was old hat in an era of modernists, so he moved to Paris, where he performed all over Europe.
While touring there in the late 1960s, Turner was asked to record by Germany's MPS Records. In November 1969, Turner recorded for the label in Berlin backed by bassist Hans Rettenbacher and drummer Stu Martin. MPS has just remastered and reissued the album, Smashing Thirds, and it's a joy to hear.
All 13 tracks are laced with a stride-piano sound that conjures up images of the 1920s and '30s. What makes Turner's stride special is his ability to leave space for the listener to enter songs. Many stride masters from the era tended to flood the ear with seamless cascades of notes. Rosetta, Willow Weep for Me and Effervescent from Smashing Thirds are particularly lovely and show off Turner's beautiful, floral technique.
Joe Turner died of a heart attack in 1990. He was 82.