Steve Turre | |
|---|---|
 Steve Turre performing in 2010 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Stephen Johnson Turre |
| Born | (1948-09-12)September 12, 1948 (age 76) Omaha, Nebraska, U.S. |
| Genres | Jazz |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, arranger, educator |
| Instrument(s) | Trombone,conch shells |
| Years active | 1970–present |
| Labels | Verve,Telarc,HighNote,Smoke Sessions |
| Website | steveturre |
Stephen Johnson Turre (born September 12, 1948, inOmaha, Nebraska) is an American jazz trombonist and a pioneer of usingseashells as instruments, a composer, arranger, and educator at the collegiate-conservatory level. For sixty-one years, Turre has been active injazz, rock, andLatin jazz – in live venues, recording studios, television, andcinema production.[1][2]
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.[3] He has been a member of theSaturday Night Live Band since 1985.[4][5][6]
Turre is one of five children born to James Boles Turre (1921–1997) and Carmen Marie(née Johnson). His father was of Northern Italian ancestry and his mother was of Mexican ancestry. His grandfather Ernest Turre was a founder of theSan Francisco 49ers withTony Morabito. His four siblings are Michael James Turre (b. 1946), Suzanne Turre (born 1952), Michele Anita Turre (born 1953), and Peter Joseph Turre (born 1957). Michael and Peter were musicians – saxophone-woodwinds and drums, respectively.
Turre was raised inLafayette, California (San Francisco Bay area). He began playing trombone at age ten, during his fourth grade in school.[7] In his early teens, he played in a band with his elder brother, Michael. Although he enteredCalifornia State University, Sacramento,[8] on a football scholarship, he studied music theory there for two years before transferring to theUniversity of North Texas College of Music, where he studied from 1968 to 1969 and played in a band led by trumpeterHannibal Peterson.
Turre has been a resident ofMontclair, New Jersey.[9][10]
Turre has been married three times. His first wife was Susan J. Beard, whom he married in 1970 inDallas, Texas, and divorced in 1972 in San Francisco. His second wife was cellist Akua Dixon[11][12] (born 1948) from 1978 to 2012, with whom he had two children, Andromeda Turre, a jazz vocalist and composer and Orion Turre a jazz drummer.His present wife is Pamela Turre whom he married on September 24, 2017.
In 1968, Turre played withRahsaan Roland Kirk. In 1970 he recorded withCarlos Santana, and in 1972 he toured withRay Charles. He has been trombonist for theSaturday Night Live band since 1985 and has taught jazz trombone at theManhattan School of Music since 1988.
For fifty-four years (since 1970), Turre has been an exponent of seashells –conch in particular – as serious musical instruments.[13] According to Turre, encouragement came fromKirk 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 theCaribbean 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 itsregister (the smallest shells, for example, have a practical register of only afifth). His largest shell, from theGreat Barrier Reef of Australia, has a range between the D and E belowmiddle 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.[14][15][16][17] Turre has had a long experience withLatin jazz and is a skilled player of thecowbell and Venezuelanmaracas.
Turre has been a member of theJuilliard School faculty for eighteen years – since 2008, and previously from 2001 to 2003.
Turre earned his bachelor's degree from theUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst through theUniversity Without Walls in 1980 with a focus in Afro-American Music and Jazz.[18]
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