STANLEY TURRENTINE — Sugar (review)

STANLEY TURRENTINE — Sugar album cover Album · 1971 · Soul Jazz Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
js
Tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine spent most of his career mixing jazz with RnB on records that ranged from highly regarded soul jazz to outright pop and disco fluff. His 1971 release, “Sugar”, fortunately falls more in the former style than the latter and features some nice grooves for fans of the classic soul jazz sound. In a typical mix of styles from that period you get hard bop swing on the title track “Sugar”, jazzy proto funk on “Sunshine” and hard bop driven by groovy double time congas on “Impressions”. If you get the CD re-issue you also get a bonus live version of “Sugar” that rocks harder than the original and also breaks down into solo spots for superb performances by Freddie Hubbard and George Benson. All of the playing throughout this CD is excellent, and each track features lengthy solos that allow Turrentine and the others to really stretch out. The make or break for this album is its "CTI sound" which is a little more smooth in its extra reverb and compression than your more usual gritty sounding soul jazz outing. Whether this sound is cool 70s kitsch or just plain phony depends on your perspective.
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