Tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine plays blues in many shades, each as authentic and alluring as one might hope to hear.
So the show that Turrentine offered Wednesday night at the Jazz Showcase, where he is in residence through Sunday, proved musically satisfying from first note to last. Other saxophonists may play more notes and at a faster clip, Turrentine seemed to be saying, but it’s musical and emotional content that matters most.
In that regard, Turrentine was working at the top of his considerable form. He played ballads, be-bop anthems and original tunes in a manner that evoked an earlier generation of jazz stars. In other words, like Ben Webster, Gene Ammons and other tenor giants Turrentine grew up hearing, he used his technique and tone to evoke a carefully drawn mood or sentiment, not simply to display instrumental wizardry for its own sake.
Consider Turrentine’s outsize musical gestures in his best ballad performance of the night, Duke Ellington’s “In a Sentimental Mood.” Turrentine opened the piece with a more intense vibrato and a more throaty tone than most soloists attain at the climax of the piece. But while less ambitious performers would have had nowhere to go after this roaring intro, Turrentine managed to intensify matters at will.
The sheer size of his sound, the intricacy of his melodic embellishments and the ferocity of his attacks made this an audacious reworking of the tune. Here was an intimate jazz nocturne dispatched on a heroic scale, and convincingly so.
Not everything that Turrentine played, however, was quite so extravagantly conceived. His version of the standard “My Shining Hour,” which opened the evening’s first set, was coy and sweetly understated. It wasn’t until the coda, in fact, that Turrentine unleashed a more exclamatory and characteristic sound.
And in an original ballad, Turrentine played so softly and evocatively as to remind listeners of the most introspective side of his art. The poetic understatement here proved a striking contrast to the rest of the set.
Backed by a fine rhythm section headed by pianist Kei Agaki, Turrentine reaffirmed his position as one of the most adept colorists playing tenor saxophone today. Because he tends to perform in large concert halls, this engagement in the comparatively intimate Showcase gives listeners a chance to hear just how much control and imagination Turrentine still brings to his instrument.
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The Stanley Turrentine Quartet plays through
Sunday at the Jazz Showcase, 59 W. Grand Ave.
Phone 312-670-BIRD.
