Steve Turre has amassed hundreds of credits as a sideman and bandleader. He's played with musicians including
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Woody Shaw,
Hilton Ruiz,
Chico Hamilton, and
Lester Bowie, to name a few, has been a member of the
Saturday Night Live Band since 1985, and broke through to the jazz mainstream with 1993's
Sanctified Shells. Since,
Turre's steady stream of leader recordings have inhabited a space of their own, hovering between blues, hard and post-bop, Eastern and Afro-Latin sounds, and modal grooves.
Sanyas is his first live album and was recorded as a sextet with pianist
Isaiah J. Thompson, bassist
Buster Williams, and drummer
Lenny White, with
Ron Blake and
Nicholas Payton on tenor sax and trumpet, respectively. The set includes a pair of
Turre originals in the title track and "Wishful Thinking," a cover of
Lee Morgan's "Mr. Kenyatta," and two standards.
Turre has recorded the title cut twice before: in 1975 on
Shaw's
The Moontrane and in 1991 on his own
Right There. The title refers to the fourth stage of the Hindu spiritual path, but
Turre was inspired by the Sanyasis, orange-robed Hindu monks who practice renunciation. It commences with an introductory horn cacophony that is nearly anthemic before unfolding in a nearly 14-minute conversation, with
Williams' solo entering over a circular piano vamp and atop an Eastern-tinged horn lyric.
Turre's modal, bluesy solo is answered in empathy by
Blake's. The trombonist closes down the tune after delivering a gorgeous coda on conch shells. The standard "All the Things You Are," begins with a bright, propulsive mini-big band intro before muscling into tight, swinging, carnivalesque hard bop.
Williams is the glue, anchoring a joyous conversation among his bandmates, with fine solos from
Blake and
Payton.
Morgan's "Mr. Kenyatta," from 1966's
Search For the New Land, is rendered a bit more languidly, but it's also warmer without forsaking its hard bop m.o.
White effortlessly walks the tightrope between blues, Afro-Latin rhythms, and intrinsic swing.
Payton blows his heart out in his solo as
Williams walks sturdily behind him, and
Thompson delivers fat, bluesy, chords and accents.
Turre's solo is loping, crisscrossing jazz traditions with his own signature phrasing, and effortlessly weaving them together with bluesy grit. His "Wishful Thinking" is a jazz ballad with lush horn harmonies underscored by tender chords from the pianist. Following a trombone crescendo,
Thompson,
Payton (with a mute), and
Williams all solo before the horns bring the close with elegance and grace. Closer "These Foolish Things" is bright and
Horace Silver funky.
Turre's solo -- with a stone mute -- reflects
Jack Teagarden's blues,
Melba Liston's swing, and
Curtis Fuller's hard bop, followed by a piano solo and a funky walk from
Williams. Though only 49 minutes long, the chosen material presents long tunes and stellar playing guided by
Turre's creative, democratic leadership, making for a memorable, joyous listening session. ~ Thom Jurek
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