Big Joe Turner's Melodic Rise From Choir Benches to Broadway's Spotlight

Sip a classic margarita with me, Harriet West-Moore, as I share the captivating story of blues legend Big Joe Turner in the season finale of our blues series. Imagine stepping into a world where the soulful wails of the Delta blues meet the glittering lights of Broadway, as we trace Turner’s journey from the church choirs and street corners of Kansas City to the grand stages of American music history. Weaving through the narrative of his early life, the tragic loss of his father, and his rise as a powerhouse vocalist, this episode is a must-listen for anyone intrigued by the resilience and showmanship that shaped the blues genre.

During our auditory adventure, you'll be spellbound by Turner's partnership with piano virtuoso Pete Johnson and their climb to fame in the midst of the Jim Crow era's divided venues. The story of how Turner’s booming voice broke through racial barriers and led him to become one of the key figures in the mainstream heartbeat of blues is not just a tale of musical evolution—it's a testament to an era of American history that still echoes today. So, leave your blues behind and join us as we pay homage to the extraordinary life of Big Joe Turner, whose music continues to resonate through the fabric of time.

Intro/outro music by Soundtripe music.

Website: https://moorewineandmusic.com
Email: moorewinemusic@gmail.com

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Sound, strive, sound, strive, sound, strive. Happy Friday, everyone. Happy Friday. This is Harriet Westmore with the More Wine and Music Podcast, the podcast where I talk about history of music over a glass of wine. But tonight I'm not drinking wine. I actually wanted to have a taste for some sangria, but some margaritas, so I'm drinking some good old classic margarita. Okay, so today is my final season finale of episode number 12 for the blues genre and I wanted to kick it off with a different twist and talking about the different style of blues. So before I get into that, I wanted to remind everybody to check out wwwmorewineandmusiccom, where there's T-shirts, there's back I'm not backpacks, but tote bags there's coffee mugs with the More Wine and Music Podcast logo. So definitely check that out and if you have any questions or comments, you can also leave your comments on the wwwmorewineandmusiccom website, all right, so this is the last episode for the blues genre.

Speaker 1: 2:13

This is episode 12 and I decided to talk about a different style of blues. I wanted to go. I've been in the Delta for the last several weeks so I wanted to come up north a little bit, not too far north, but up in the Missouri area. So we're going to be talking about Big Joe Turner. He was another artist that he was a showman because his style of blues was more of the musical in the Broadway. So he was able to infuse the sound of blues into the mainstream of American music. So I thought that would be a nice ending. For the last several weeks I've been talking about early artists that came from the Delta or from somewhere down south. I wanted to change it up a little bit.

Speaker 1: 3:26

Joseph Vren, who was known as Big Joe Turner Jr, was born on May 18th in 1911 in Kansas City Missouri KCMO, not KCMS. I'm sorry, kcks, but KCMO. I actually happened to been to Kansas City Missouri for a brief time and it was interesting. I didn't stay long, but I've been to Kansas City Missouri but anyway he was born there. I couldn't find any information about his mother but his dad, joseph Vren Turner Sr, was unfortunately killed by a train accident when Joe was four years old. He didn't really know his dad. Again, I don't know about his mom but while young and because of his size, everybody called him Big Joe. For parents he's known as Big Joe. Big Joe stayed in the church and on street corners in Kansas City for money. He did that to help support his family. I guess he was a sibling of two. He had a sister and his mom. His mom was a single parent raising her two children. Big Joe was young and had to help support the family.

Speaker 1: 5:08

By the age of 14, he got a job at one of the Kansas City nightlife nightclubs, which is interesting. He was a bartender at the age of 14. How did he pull that off? I don't know, but he was a bartender Afterwards, I guess because he would mix the drinks for the patrons. He would be singing. He was known as the singing bar man. He must have had a voice. They dubbed him as singing bar man At age 14,. He was mixing drinks and serving the patrons in the club.

Speaker 1: 6:03

He worked in venues such as Kingfish Club and the Sunset there was. There. He created a partnership with a guy named Pete Johnson who played the piano. So between the two of them they had their own little gig going. He sung and Pete played the piano and they became regular performers in these type of establishments. The club Sunset that where he worked was a match by a guy named Piney Brown. The club was considered separate but equal. Again, you got to realize this was during the Jim Crow era. So they did have facilities that were. Part of the facilities was for whites and other part was for blacks, so it was a separate but equal establishment. I guess from that experience Big Joe wrote a song called Piney Brown Blues, so that was something later on that he did. So he was asked to not forget of his early beginnings.

Speaker 1: 7:23

It was also known during that time well, he worked in those establishments that those bars would be rated by the police. I don't know. I would say well, right off the bat, I would think because they serve people or let allow underage kids work there. So I mean that might be one reason. But anyway, kansas City police would be rating a lot of those establishments. But it was so common to where the bosses where Joe worked I mean he attested this to say that the boss will have the bondsmen already waiting downtown by the time the employees who've been arrested at the bar, by the time they get there the bondsmen were already there waiting to bail them out. So usually what the employees would do after the place were raided the place, they'll take them all downtown and all the employees would have to do is just sign their name and go right back the next day it'll be business as usual. So I guess if you had that type of arrangement I guess it worked.

Speaker 1: 8:44

But after a while, big Joe and his partner Pete Johnson, they wanted to go out of their comfort zone, leave Kansas City. So they decided to try to make their mark in New York City. So they left Kansas City in 1936, and there they were billed to perform with the famous Benny Goodman. You would think, performing on the same stage as Benny Goodman, that that will open up the doors for them to perform in other venues. But New York City is a big difference between Kansas City. It's not Kansas City. New York is a different animal. So they had to really audition to perform in different venues and they weren't as successful in getting a lot of gigs. So after a while they became disillusioned and returned back to Kansas City, came back to where they came from. So they went back home to Kansas City and started playing in venues around in Kansas City.

Speaker 1: 10:10

But as everybody knows, kansas City, st Louis, those areas, they were the start. They weren't. It wasn't too shabby, it's not playing in the juke joints or anything like that. Kansas City, st Louis, those areas were the popular stomping grounds for a lot of famous artists. That's where a lot of them got their start, especially in the jazz which I'll be. My next season I'll be talking about the jazz. So they weren't in a bad spot. They were in a bad place to really grow in their music and performance.

Speaker 1: 10:56

It was there, while they were back home in Kansas City, that they were discovered by a scout named John Hammond. John Hammond saw them and like with what he heard how they performed, so he invited them to come back to New York and to perform. In 1938, that's what they did they came back to perform and they performed in his concerts. That was called. He had a musical called From Spirituals to Sweden, which they performed at Carnegie Hall. So again they were able to perform in places that a lot of early blues artists were able to have that opportunity. This was the introduction of playing at Carnegie Hall. Obviously that was the introduction to cross over, so to speak, into a wider spread audience. Because if you can perform at Carnegie Hall and places like that, then you considered you have arrived and you are, you're pretty much in the upper echelon of performing other than playing on the streets or playing in Jew joints as the earlier artists have. So in 1939, big Joe and Johnson teamed up with another pianist named Albert Ammons and Mead Luke Lewis. They all began to. They got together and they played at the Cafe Society, which is another nightclub in New York City. They were also performed on the same bill as on Billy Holiday and Frankie Newton's band.

Speaker 1: 13:12

In 1941, big Joe left New York and went to Los Angeles to play with Duke Ellington. Review was called Jump for Joy in Hollywood, he also did a comedy skit and portrayed himself as a policeman in, and it was called he's on the Beat. While there in LA, he decided to stay there for a while and make his home, so in 1944, he began to. This is when he began to get more recognized in LA. This is when he started performing in these type of musicals that I was trying to describe last week. If anybody was listening last week, if you watch these old musical movies that's on set, that came out in the 30s, 40s and 50s, this is the time that he was performing. That's when he really became famous. At that point, in 1945, he and his partner, pete Johnson, opened up a nightclub in LA and it was called Blue Moon Club.

Speaker 1: 14:40

It was during this time that he decided to sign with national records to record some songs, and it was under the supervision of Herb Ambranson. His first single was a cover of Saunders King called SK Blues. He also performed in a duet with other classy acts such as Wynoni Harris and T-Bone Walker, among others. He played with national records for or recorded for national records for about two years and during those two years he became he had really, you know, thrived and had big sellers, because during those two years he's also had an opportunity to play with Count Basie, honey Drippers, the Peter Sisters, among others Peter Sisters, okay, among others.

Speaker 1: 15:42

Around 1948, big Joe was beginning to gain some momentum in his career by collaborating with other artists. Besides his long-time partner, pete Johnson. He was playing with the famous, one of the famous jazz artists, art Tatum, in Sunny Price. So, as you can see, he's kind of transforming the blue style into the jazz, because if you're playing with like people like Duke Ellington and Count Basie and Art Tatum, now you're going into, you know, the jazz, the jazz style. So he's, you know you, as you can see, he's transforming himself into that type of genre.

Speaker 1: 16:31

In 1951, he recorded many successful songs, that said, such as Chains of Love, shake, rattle and Roll and some of his songs were considered risque to the point that some of the stations, radio stations, wouldn't play his songs because they were considered risque, which I'm not sure how risque they were, especially compared to today. I mean, today I'm sure you can't even compare the two because I'm sure if he what they would deem risque, you know, back then they'll be probably spinning around in their graves right now if they're hearing a lot of the music that's out today. So but anyway, I mean they still didn't stop people from listening because the people had jukeboxes. So you're in a club or whatever, you still can put that nickel in the jukebox and still listen to the music. So it's still people still gain, he's still gained popularity from just that. Okay.

Speaker 1: 17:52

So by 1956, big Joe decided to kind of, you know, ease his way out into in the spotlight. He recorded his last song, I'm Going to Jump for Joy, which reached the USRMB charts, but it took like two years. So in 1958, it hit the charts, even though he recorded in 56. And after that he kind of decided to kind of just like chill out from performing in big venues. He decided to just play in small jazz clubs, supper clubs and things like that. I mean he didn't want to, you know, perform in major venues like he was before, and by the 60s and 70s he would, you know, he did tour in Europe and he would rejoin with Count Basie.

Speaker 1: 19:03

At that time Big Joe was called Big Joe for a reason I think. He was like maybe like 300 pounds, so being a big guy caused him health issues. After a while he probably wouldn't take care of himself like he should. Performing and touring all these years it takes a toll on him, so I mean not taking care of himself. Eventually, caught up with him, he had arthritis to diabetes and in 1985, he lived up until 1985, at the age of 74. That's when he passed away and he died of a stroke at Englewood, california, and he is buried at the Roosevelt Memorial Park in Gardena, california. It was in 1987 that he was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. So that is the story of Joseph Vernon Turner Jr, also called Big Joe, who was another blues artist that brought some class and style to the blues genre and he brought those genre over to the mainstream and with that he incorporated blues and jazz. So I would suggest people to just kind of look him up and listen to him on YouTube and you would know what I'm talking about is the type of musicals that he performed. So that is Big Joe Turner.

Speaker 1: 20:48

I want to thank everybody for walking down memory lane and listening to the biographies of some of the early blues artists for Season 1. It's been a learning experience for myself. We know research and a lot of these artists. It really gave me insight of their talent and how they made their break and again, a lot of them, they died, broke. They didn't get the just-dos that they deserve at the time that they were living. Usually it's always the after the fact, after they're dead and gone, that they actually get their respect. So I wanted to pay homage to them. So I appreciate the 12 weeks, the 12 episodes. I'm going to be taking a couple of weeks off and then I'll go into Season 2 and then I'm going to start on the jazz genre. So, again, if you have a suggestion of who you would like me to do a biography on, if you have a favorite artist that you would like to hear about as far as their biography, hit me up at wwwmourwineandmusiccom and leave a comment or leave a message and I will definitely do that make that person an episode.

Speaker 1: 22:26

Like I said last week, I'm going to try to look for little known artists. Everybody knows certain artists. When you think of early art, on jazz artists, I've already mentioned them, with Big Joe, like Count Basie, you know, louis Satchmo, armstrong, billy Holiday. We all know about them. We give respect. But I wanted to kind of talk about the lesser known early artists of jazz and how jazz was formed in the early turn of the 20th century. So all right, so thank you for listening. I hope you guys enjoy the rest of your weekend and stay focused, stay safe and stay tuned for the next phase into more wine and music. All right, have a good night. Bye, sound Strip.