Transcript Big Joe Turner - University of Minnesota

“The Shouter” and his place in Rock and Roll music history
Group 4: Katie Duhr, Angela Kenney, Austin Stack, Yu
Vang
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Joe Turner’s music had a lot of elements
found in rock and roll music long before the
genre was officially recognized
According to Doc Pomus, “Rock and Roll
would never have happened without him.”
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Born Joseph Vernon Turner Jr.
◦ May 18, 1981-November 24, 1985
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American Blues Shouter from Kansas City,
Missouri
Greatest fame cam from 1950’s
◦ Career as a performer from 1920’s-1980’s
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Named “Big Joe Turner” because he was a
huge man with a husky, booming voice
◦ He was also known as “The Boss of the Blues”
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Began his career as a bartender and singer
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One of the first to combine R&B with boogiewoogie to create jump blues
Often sang risqué songs
◦ Employed coy slang words and metaphors for sex
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Recorded with various labels
Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
in 1987; two years after his death (Big Joe
Turner biography, 2010)
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Turner was one of the first artists “to mix R&B with
boogie-woogie, resulting in jumping blues- a style
that presaged the birth of rock and roll.”
He helped to innovate “jump blues” in the “late
Thirties and early Forties,” (Big Joe Turner,” 2010)
◦ He would later return to this style of blues after rock and
roll became mainstream in the Sixties
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Turner was the original performer of the famous
song “Shake, Rattle and Roll”
◦ This would later be covered by Bill Haley and the Comets in
1954 (Stuessy, & Lipscomb, 2009 27)
◦ 1954 was the first year that rock and roll began to emerge
onto the music scene (Stuessy, & Lipscomb, 2009 26)
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Had a very unique, recognizable voice and
performed without a microphone
◦ Was one of the R&B singers who helped to
develop a “shouting style several decades before
rock and roll,” Stuessy, & Lopscomb, 2009 19)
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Came to be known as the Shouter
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Joe’s style of music wasn’t something that he
changed to fit in the time, it just so happened
that he was unique and had a versatile voice
and musical style that fit into my multiple
music genres of the time
His music often had a swing feel to it, which
made Turner’s music easy to dance to and
“added to his popularity” as a musician
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Because of the different elements of his music,
jazz, 12-bar blues, swing/dance feel, it was a
predecessor to what would become early Rock
and Roll music
◦ This was 25 years before rock and roll would be
recognized as a genre of music, therefore his music
and style had a great impact on what would become
rock and roll
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Along with “Shake, Rattle and Roll” he recorded
many “early rock and roll classics,” (“Big Joe
Turner,” 2010) on various record labels
◦ “Chains of Love,” “Sweet Sixteen,” and “Honey Hush”
were a few
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Big Joe Turner sing at his Church for choir at Kansas City,
Missouri
In Kansas City, their Jazz sounded more Blues than Jazz which it
had 12-bar Blues elements
When Joe Turner was a teenage he work as a bartender at a Café
called Sunset Café and met Pete Johnson who played the piano at
that time which Turner sing while Johnson played the piano
Everyone loves Turner’s singing at Sunset Café and as times goes
by Johnson invited Turner to join him and play uptempo while
Turner sang uptempo Blues
In 1936, John Hammond stopped by Sunset Café and was
impressed by Turner’s singing
Hammond was interesting in Turner’s singing and has asked him
to go to New York with a group band called Basie Band but
Turner rejected it and asked if Johnson could come along with
him to New York and play together. During the time at New York
Turner and Johnson get to perform at The Famous Door.
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In 1940, Turner and Johnson were sign to Decca which Turner’s
voice had spread to most audience and become popular
In 1941, Turner was in Hollywood and was a part of Duke
Ellington’s “Jump for the Joy” Revue and played at the West
Coast.
In 1942, Turner was part of Willie Bryant Show and mostly play at
the theaters and appear on NBC radio and was broadcast across
the country.
In 1949, Turner played with Lowell Fulson and Pee Wee Crayton.
Both up and down Blues guitarist
In 1951, Atlantic Records took Turner to the younger side which
is the new audience of Rhythm and Blues (R&B).
Turner’s first recording called “Chain Of Love” was the first single
that Atlantic released out
April 1951, Turner stay on the R&B charts for 25 weeks after two
months Turner was a part of Atlantic’s “Cavalcade of Blues”
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December 1953 Turner’s “Shake, Rattle, and Roll” song had
became one of the most popular songs and hits number one on
R&B charts
Again Turner and Johnson get to perform together again and
played “The Boss Of The Blues,” “Low Down Dog,” and “I Want A
Little Girl.” Both of them also played Jazz songs together at the
Newport Jazz Festival
In 1970, Turner show up with Johnny Otis on PBS broadcast In
1983, he had an album with Roomful of Blues which it was
produces by an old friend of his, Doc Pomus and dazzling guitar
from Ronnie Earl
Joe Turner, Big mama Thornton, Wynonie Harris, and Elmore
James half sang, half yelled their song. Which they have the
shouting styles of rock and roll in the early day by Little Richard
& Janis Joplin, & James Brown a host of hard work and heavy
mental bands of the 1970s and 1980s.
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The screaming style
of singing that
Turner helped to
develop would later
influence well known
singers like Janice
Joplin and eventually
would move into the
subgenre of rock and
roll, heavy metal
(Stuessy, &
Lipscomb, 2009 19)
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Elvis Presley
Bill Haley
Ray Charles
Otis Redding
Chuck Berry
Eric Burdon & The
Animals
Jerry Lee Lewis
Little Richard
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Fats Domino
Bo Diddley
Isaac Hayes
Percy Sledge
Carl Perking
Ritchie Valens
James Brown
Janis Joplin
Solomon Burke
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Shouting
◦ Unique vocal style
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Early Rock Piano
◦ Later Jerry Lee Lewis would use this piano style
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One of the early black R&B artist to start
getting radio play on white stations
◦ Broke through the race barrier of the time
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Numbers of his songs were covered by artists
throughout the years
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“Shake Rattle & Roll” – Sam Cooke, The
Beatles, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee
Lewis, Bill Haley, Carl Perkins, Huey Lewis and
The News
“Boogie Woogie Country Girl” – Bob Dylan
“Flip Flop Fly” – Bill Haley, Blues Brothers
“Honey Hush” – Paul McCartney, Fats Waller
“I Want A Little Girl” – Nat King Cole
“Still In Love” – Solomon Burke
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He had a unique and versatile style
Very influential in the development of rock
and roll music
◦ Combined R&B with boogie-woogie to create “jump
rock”
◦ According to Doc Pomus, “Rock and Roll would
never have happened without him.”
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Currier, Terry. (2002). Big joe turner. Cascade Blues Association.
Retrieved from http://www.cascadeblues.org/History/BigJoeTurner
Big joe turner biography. (2010). Retrieved from
http://rockhall.com/inductees/big-joe-turner/bio/ (A.K.)
Big joe turner biography. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.metrolyrics.com/big-joe-turner-biography.html (A.S)
Big joe turner cover songs. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.coversproject.com/artist/big%20joe%20turner/ (A.S
Big joe turner. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.soulbot.com/Big-JoeTurner.htm (A.S.)
Currier, T. (2002). Big joe turner. Retrieved from
http://www.cascadeblues.org/History/BigJoeTurner.htm (A.K.)
Stuessy, S, & Lipscomb, S. (2009). Rock and roll: its history and stylistic
development. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. (A.K.)
1950, the beginning of rock and roll. (n.d.). Saatchi Gallery
Contemporary Art in London, Retrieved from
http://www.esto.es/rock/english/history.htm (A.S.)