A native of Atlanta, GA,
Titus Turner was only 16 years old when he made his first recording, billed as
Mr. T & His Band. For his precocious debut on Aladdin Records,
Turner emulated
Billy Eckstine's suavity and even injected a bit of his own stylized whistling into
Duke Ellington's "I'm Just a Lucky So and So." His Regal recordings from March 1951 are much more substantial and therefore begin to impart a glimpse of where this remarkable man was headed. His first session for OKeh Records took place on October 16, 1951, with the
Howard Biggs orchestra, including real
jazz musicians like trumpeter
Buck Clayton, tenor saxophonist
Joe Thomas, and baritone saxophonist
Pinky Williams. Two sides cut with
Danny Kessler's orchestra on April 23, 1952, are stunningly powerful. After a teeth-grinding guitar intro, the singer describes how he's "Got So Much Trouble" in no uncertain terms: "My father's dead and gone, my mother's makin' time, my brother's in Korea and I'm almost out my mind." The flip side, "Please Baby," which obviously caused an irreversible chemical reaction inside of
James Brown, develops almost painfully as
Turner contorts his voice to suit the mood. Things grow strange as "My Plea" has weird reverb imposed with the setting so far off center that his voice sings back over itself like a
John Giorno poetry reading. The effect becomes somewhat psychotropic when even the saxophone gets caught up in the sound loops. On "Big Mary,"
the Leroy Kirkland Orchestra shifted into a Delta rhumba rhythm, a mode that
Turner obviously preferred. This fascinating slice of the
Titus Turner chronology closes with a series of tunes recorded in January 1954, gradually mutating from a sensitive treatment of "Over the Rainbow" through a smooth crooning exercise called "Hello Stranger" through "My Lonely Room," a neurotic study in heartache containing the threat "I'm goin' to the doctor, without a doubt, I'm gonna have my heart cut out" and culminating in a rocking tribute to a satisfyingly "Devilish Woman." These passionately rendered recordings form a valuable basis for
Titus Turner's better-known career as a composer of songs made famous by
Elvis Presley,
Dinah Washington,
Aretha Franklin,
Ray Charles,
Little Milton,
Little Willie John,
Louis Jordan,
Jackie Wilson,
the Everly Brothers, and
the Beatles. ~ arwulf arwulf, All Music Guide
