Shirley Scott and Stanley Turrentine - Blue Flames

For today's post we move away from big bands and swing era to 1960s soul jazz and Shirley Scott and Stanley Turrentine.  Jazz history is embarrassingly devoid of significant female musicians, and Scott was visible for a while but today is not as well known.  In gospel, female organists are not as rare so perhaps a female like Scott in soul jazz reinforced the gospel image of soul jazz in the late 1950s-1960s and was not considered so unusual.  Still, Shirley Scott must certainly have been a strong role model as a leading jazz organist recording as a leader for as long as she did (her heyday lasted through the mid-1970s).  I'm guessing she met a lot of opposition being a woman playing jazz and blues on organ.  Rhoda Scott, no relation, was another one but much further under the radar than Shirley Scott, who isn't even that well known amongst jazz musicians.  

Scott's legacy rests on her solo output from the late 1950s through the early 1970s.  But during this time, she seems to have been overshadowed by other organists and even by her former husband and musical partner, Stanley Turrentine.  As the organ grew out of fashion with other keyboards taking prominence in the 1970s, she became less visible and did not record as a solo artist until the 1990s.  

This album, Blue Flames (from 1964), features her husband, tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine.  They recorded together often when they were married and are an example of of a jazz husband and wife team.  John and Alice Coltrane, Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln, and June Christy and Bob Cooper recorded and toured together, but only Scott/Turrentine and Jackie & Roy had equal billing.  When Ella Fitzgerald and Ray Brown were married they worked and toured together, but Ella was the main draw.  The same goes for Julie London and her husband Bobby Troup.  With Scott, she received equal billing with Turrentine (more on that in a second) and so they were kind of marketed as a husband and wife team.  They did not hide this fact either and I'm guessing it was marketing tactic and perhaps a way to present a wholesome image for Scott? Mind you, she is almost always the top bill on her records, with the word "with" preceding Turrentine's name.  In this case, it's "and".

Reading the liner notes by Michael Gold was surprising too because he chose not to talk about Scott at all and except for one paragraph on bassist Bob Cranshaw and drummer Otis Finch, focuses entirely on Stanley Turrentne.  Gold explains that it's because "so much has been written about Shirley Scott", but still it's her album.  I guess the "and" preceding Turrentine's name was adequate reason for the writer's decision.  I will also add that Scott recorded 23 albums between 1958 and 1964 for Prestige and this would have been number 19 or so at the time.  Still, can you imagine what Miles Davis would say if that happened to him after his 19th album?  This subtle, or not-so-subtle, "dissing" of Scott in favor of Turrentine is indicative of the frustrations Scott went through as a female musician.

On the other hand, maybe this is how Prestige wanted to market the record.  Turrentine is obviously the feature soloist, taking first solo on every track (Scott does play an short solo intro on the ballad "Flamingo") and his solo is always longer or as long as Scott's solos.  After all those recording sessions and albums they may have felt the need to change up the soul jazz formula, which in 1963-1964 was probably beginning to see a decline in sales.  

There are five songs on this set and it's a typical mixture of blues and standard jazz song forms.  The repertoire consists of two songs are by Scott ("The Funky Fox" and "Hip Knees'an Legs"), Sonny Rollins' gospel-flavored "Grant Street", an unusual blues by Benny Golson called "Five Spot After Dark" and the standard "Flamingo", the lone ballad on the set.  

Chord progressions in soul jazz are rarely intricate and that is the point as this music was a form of African American pride.  As an outgrowth of hard bop, this is part of a back-to-roots movement in jazz that emphasized more African American musical elements, namely blues, gospel, call-and-response, etc.  On this record, this is the music being heard.  Bebop had gotten too complex and against the popular rhythm and blues, jazz began to lose lot of young fans in the 1940s and 1950s and hard bop and especially soul jazz re-emphasized the basic tenets of African American musical philosophies.  For me, it's about African Americans then displaying pride in their heritage and developing a stronger sense of African American identity.  This was part of the civil rights movement.  This would continue and develop in African American music through James Brown and Aretha Franklin through the birth of hip hop.  

But back to Blue Flames, this music is typically soul jazz with its easy to grasp song structures (for jazz musicians anyway), a steady groove, and blues inflections everywhere.  Call and response is one of the pillars of African American music and you can hear it here in the themes, the solos, and between the musicians.  

The hallmark of jazz musicians from an earlier era (at this point I count the 1960s as an earlier era, not just the 1920s or 1930s), are the vocal approach to improvisation taken by the instrumentalists.  Louis Armstrong was the same musician whether he played trumpet or he sang, one basically informed the other and this was considered the standard.  The musicians on this date solo in this fashion.  For saxophone, it might be a little more natural since they are breathing into the instrument, but Turrentine's vocal inflections are critical to his playing.  His phrases have a definite arc that will often start loudly with a shriek or a shout and then at the end of his phrases, he starts to quiet down creating a natural "landing" for his lines.  Dynamics gets kind of lost sometimes in improvisation, so many things to think about, that it's often refreshing to hear someone play like that.  

Shirley Scott too has the vocal inflections in her playing.  It's not as obvious, but it's easy to hear in her rhythmic phrasing.  Born and raised in Philadelphia,  her visibility in the jazz scene increased noticeably when she joined Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis' group.  Joining him at the end of 1956, a few months after Jimmy Smith (who is also from Philadelphia) broke out, Scott was riding the organ wave and has always been an excellent, underrated organist.  On Blue Flames, she demonstrates strong lines, that blends blues and bebop, but is generally not as as flashy as Jimmy Smith (kind of like comparing, say Hank Mobley to John Coltrane?) On this record she is more bluesy-expressive---again maybe this was intentional to highlight Turrentine instead.  

The other unique aspect of Scott's playing is that she always played with a bass player.  Organ combos typically do not have one as the organist can play bass lines.  But with a bassist, she plays the organ the way a pianist would, so her groups have a unique sound.  Bassist Bob Cranshaw is an excellent accompanist and had a very successful career as a sideman, playing with Sonny Rollins for decades and holding the bass chair for Sesame Street for nearly thirty years.  He doesn't solo often, but he does take a chorus on "Grand Street" and it's excellent, displaying his rhythmic conception.  

Drummer Otis Finch is also superb accompanist and he is 24/7 alert to what the soloists are playing. He doesn't overplay and instead, he focuses on the swing and keeps the energy and excitement going with his cymbal and fills.  I notice that he's good at incorporating the whole kit, adding tom drums in many of his fills.  

I'm familiar with Scott's Queen of the Organ (recorded the same year) and it features the same band, so they are very tight together and are familiar with each other's playing.  This would be Scott's last session for Prestige before moving on to Impulse. She had a bit of a career resurgence in the 1990s and at the end.

Here she is 1976 with saxophonist Harold Vick and drummer Art Taylor.  Rare video footage and a rare example of her playing without a bass player.  No problem for her and she is excellent.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88UI6EcBWPY