Cult Jazz

Stanley Turrentine was born in Pittsburgh in 1934 and grew up in the Hill district in a musical family. His father played tenor sax with Al Cooper’s Savoy Sultans. His mother played stride piano and his brother Tommy was a trumpeter. Ahmad Jamal, a neighbor, practiced on the Turrentine’s family upright piano. Encourage by his family Stanley took up the saxophone at the age of eleven. While in high school Stanley got his first gig playing with his brother Tommy at the Perry Bar. In 1950 he went of the road for two years with the Lowell Fulson’s blues band which included pianist Ray Charles. After leaving Fulson’s band, he gigged with Tadd Dameron in Cleveland. He then replaced John Coltrane in Earl Bostic's early R&B/jazz band in 1953. After serving the in military from 1956 to 1959 Stanley returned to Pittsburgh. Max Roach hired Stanley and Tommy for his band, when his band quit during an engagement in Pittsburgh in 1959.  Playing with Max Roach, Stanley quickly came to the att