Stanley Turrentine - Easy Walker - 180g Vinyl LP

This Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition is stereo, all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.

Full of hard-grooving numbers and sultry ballads, the tenor saxophonists’ engaging set includes a version of Burt Bacharach’s “What The World Needs Now Is Love.”

“We weren’t trying to prove anything here,” Turrentine said of the Easy Walker session in the original liner notes. “We just wanted to get down to basics, and enjoy ourselves.” The quartet composed of Turrentine, McCoy Tyner on piano, Bob Cranshaw on bass, and Mickey Roker on drums, exudes an easygoing camaraderie, a natural side effect of the group’s cohesion. “These are very easy guys for me to work with,” Turrentine said. “We understand each other.”

Easy Walker opens with Hank Johnson’s “Meat Wave” before transitioning into Buddy Johnson’s “They All Say I’m The Biggest Fool.” A somewhat unusual inclusion in a jazz program is Franz Lehar’s “Yours Is My Heart Alone.” The saxophonist and his wife, organist Shirley Scott, played the song often. “It’s not only a pretty tune, but its construction is very interesting,” Turrentine said.

Side B of Easy Walker opens with “Easy Walker,” a composition by Billy Taylor. “What The World Needs Now Is Love” is the Bacharach and Hal David ballad. The album concludes with “Alone Together.” “We had a lot of fun with that,” Turrentine said of playing the standard. “It all just fell into place. I felt really good doing that one. In fact, that’s the way I’d describe the whole [thing]—feeling good.”