JOHN TURK TRIO, reviewed by Lee Hildebrand

At Jimmie's V.I.P. Jazz Room,
Tuesday, November 24.

John Turk took up the Hammond B-3 organ out of necessity. A pianist and trumpeter by training, the Oakland-born, Vallejo-bred musician was hired as a horn player by legendary organist Johnny Heartsman in the early '60s., but Heartsman also played guitar and would have Turk take over at the console when he strapped on his axe – or when he was tardy (which was often) for engagements at such bygone joints as the Chi-Chi Club on E. 14^th and Popeye's in Alviso. The on-the-job organ training came in handy when childhood friend Sly Stone asked Turk to join the Stoners, the immediate precursor to the Family Stone.

Turk, like many other organists at the time, traded his trusty B-3 for a trendy synthesizer in the late '70s. The smaller instrument has served him well, particularly at cocktail lounge gigs where he works as a one-man band, doubling on trumpet, with hipper-than-usual drum-machine programs keeping the pulse. But when Jimmie's V.I.P. Jazz Room bought a bulky old B-3 recently, Turk jumped at the chance to play it and put together a killer jaz trio that's been holding down Tuesday nights there since the beginning of November.

The masterful keyboardist kicked off last week's performance with a swinging medium-tempo blues that burned from the downbeat onward, with onetime Jimmy Smith sideman Carl Lockett's blistering George Benson-like guitar lines setting the stage for Turk's rapid-fire barrage of sixteenth notes. "The Days of Wine and Roses" followed, beginning with drummer Ron E. Beck keeping a steady 1-2-3-4 on both ride and hi-hat cymbals, much as Joe Dukes used to in Jack McDuff's mid-'60s; Beck then broke into an intensely churning Elvin Jones-type shuffle that at one point seemed to suspend time behind Lockett's bopping firestorm, creating a sensation akin to that of riding a rollercoaster as it plummets form its summit, then maintaining equilibrium till the next drop.

After a warm-toned trumpet reading of "Besame Much," the leader resumed his combustive B-3 attack, using his right foot on the volume pedal to create burst after burst of precisely accented dynamic excitement while his left danced on the bass pedals. Turk may be an R&B player by reputation, but at Jimmie's he proved himself a first-rate jazz organist of the Jimmy Smith persuasion. There are few finer in the Bay Area.

John Turk | P.O. Box 5255 | Oakland, California  94605
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