Search - Titus Turner :: 1949-1954

Titus Turner & NYC r&b

Bomojaz | South Central PA, USA | 05/16/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Titus Turner was an East Coast R&B singer based in NYC. He had a couple of medium-level chart hits, but they came after these recordings were made. This CD collects all his recordings from 1949, when he cut his first sides billed as Mr. T., up to 1954.



There's an old saying in the jazz world that those who can't play well usually just play loud. That's pretty much the way Turner sings. To compensate for a lack of natural ability he tends to not only over sing everything, but to employ affectation (moans, fake crying, overdubbing, exaggerated glissandi) in his vocals. Right from the beginning his singing is unnatural: on the first two sides he sounds like a Billy Eckstine wannabe, but a way over the top Eckstine, as if he were doing a parody. Occasionally he drops the pose and then does a pretty decent job (LIVIN' IN MISERY is a good example). Fortunately he's got good accompaniment on most of these sessions, though most of the sidemen are unknown. On one date Buck Clayton is on trumpet, but for some reason the wraps stay on and Buck doesn't solo (though he plays great obbligato on SAME OLD FEELING). Joe Thomas is the tenor man on this session, and he gets all the solo spots - which is fine: he's very good. CHRISTMAS MORNING is a good slow blues (no Merry Christmas here!) with wonderful down-home tenor work. There are a couple of tracks, one involving some weird echo experiment, that are about as bad as you'll ever hear. But these are few in number, while the flavor of the music is typical NYC r&b of the period. The appeal of this CD, however, rests on the accompanists and not the main attraction.

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