Birth name Stephen Johnson Turre Name Steve Turre Years active 1970–present | Genres JazzStudio | |
Occupation(s) Musician, arranger, educator, Trombonist Role Trombonist · steveturre.com Movies Jam Miami: A Celebration of Latin Jazz, Man on the Moon Spouse Akua Dixon (m. 1978–2012), Susan J. Beard (m. 1970–1972) Albums Spiritman, Dedication, Rhythm Within, Nostalgia in Times Square, The Bones Of Art | ||
Instruments Tromboneconch shells | ||
Steve turre in the spur of moment full album
Stephen Johnson "Steve" Turre (born 12 September 1948 Omaha, Nebraska) is an American jazz trombonist and a pioneer of using seashells as instruments, a composer, arranger, and educator at the collegiate-conservatory level. For fifty-four years, has been active in jazz, rock, and Latin jazz – in live venues, recording studios, television, and cinema production.
Contents
- Steve turre in the spur of moment full album
- Michael grey clark terry frank wess steve turre tribute to al grey
- Family and early life
- Career highlights
- Education
- Awards and honors
- References
He has recorded over 20 albums as a bandleader, and appeared on many more as a contributor or sideman. As a studio musician, Turre is among the most prolific living jazz trombonists in the world. He has been a member of the Saturday Night Live Band since 1984.
Michael grey clark terry frank wess steve turre tribute to al grey
Family and early life
Turre is one of four children born to James Boles Turre (1921–1997) and Carmen Marie (née Johnson). His father was of Sicilian ancestry and his mother was of Mexican ancestry. His three siblings are Michael James Turre (b. 1946), Michele Anita Turre (born 1953), and Peter Joseph Turre (born 1957). Michael and Peter are musicians – saxophone-woodwinds and drums, respectively.
Turre was raised in Lafayette, California (San Francisco Bay area). He began playing trombone at age ten, during his fourth grade in school. In his early teens, he played in a band with his elder brother, Michael. Although he entered California State University, Sacramento, on a football scholarship, he studied music theory there for two years before transferring to the University of North Texas College of Music, where he studied from 1968 to 1969 and played in a band led by trumpeter Hannibal Peterson.
Turre has been a resident of Montclair, New Jersey.
Turre has been married twice. His first wife was Susan J. Beard, whom he married in 1970 in Dallas, Texas, and divorced in 1972 in San Francisco. His second wife was cellist Akua Dixon (born 1948) from 1978 to 2012, with whom he had two children.
Career highlights
In 1968, Turre played with Rahsaan Roland Kirk. In 1970 he recorded with Carlos Santana, and in 1972 he toured with Ray Charles. He has been trombonist for the Saturday Night Live band since 1985 and has taught jazz trombone at the Manhattan School of Music since 1988.
For forty-seven years (since 1970), Turre has been an exponent of seashells – conch in particular – as serious musical instruments. According to Turre, encouragement came from Kirk who was known for using a vast array of saxophones, flutes and other instruments. Turre has a collection of shells of various sizes, most of them picked up during his travels in the Caribbean and elsewhere. The shells have their mouthpieces carefully cut and are tuned to specific pitches. When playing them as a soloist, he frequently switches between shells, as each is limited in its register (the smallest shells, for example, have a practical register of only a fifth). His largest shell, from the Great Barrier Reef of Australia, has a range between the D and E below middle C, and was painted by a Cuban artist. He also leads "Sanctified Shells," which is a "shell choir" made up of brass players who double on seashell (using shells from Turre's collection, which he loans out for rehearsals and performances). The group released its first, eponymous album in 1993. Turre has had a long experience with Latin jazz and is a skilled player of the cowbell and Venezuelan maracas.
Turre has been a member of the Juilliard School faculty for eleven years – since 2008, and previously from 2001 to 2003.
Education
Turre earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst through the University Without Walls in 1980 with a focus in Afro-American Music and Jazz.