Bruce Turner

Born on 5 July 1922 in Saltburn, Yorkshire, England, and passing away on 28 November 1993 in Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire, England, Turner began as a self-taught clarinettist before switching to alto saxophone while serving in the armed forces during World War II. In the years immediately following the conflict he revealed an unusually broad musical range, performing bebop and dixieland with comparable fluency and conviction while maintaining artistic honesty in both idioms. Early in the 1950s he followed the prevailing pattern among British players by working on transatlantic liners, which allowed him to reach New York, where he took lessons from Lee Konitz at the very moment Konitz was studying under Lennie Tristano. On returning to Britain he rejoined Freddy Randall, a colleague from the late 1940s, and soon embarked on an extended collaboration with Humphrey Lyttelton.

That period with Lyttelton opened amid one of the sharpest displays of divided allegiance within British jazz audiences of the time: a placard reading “Go home, dirty bopper” appeared at a concert, and the slogan quickly passed into common usage, though later instances often lacked any hostile edge. In 1957 Turner launched his own “jump” band, a format that proved ideally matched to his distinctive, propulsive approach—an approach that echoed earlier figures such as Pete Brown yet remained unmistakably his own. With this ensemble he travelled widely, frequently backing visiting American artists including Ben Webster, Ray Nance, Bill Coleman and Don Byas; several of those engagements produced friction that eventually prompted him to disband the group.

By the mid-1960s he had moved back into a more conventional setting alongside Acker Bilk. Early in the following decade he renewed his partnership with Lyttelton while simultaneously directing his own small groups and appearing in an unusually wide array of ensembles, ranging from Keith Smith’s traditional line-ups to the contemporary work of Dave Green, notably in the band Fingers. Toward the end of his career he also adopted soprano saxophone and handled the instrument with notable assurance. Regarded as one of the finest British musicians of his era, Turner’s wide-ranging tastes may have curtailed wider recognition. Nevertheless, this gifted and popular artist merited far greater exposure on recordings and on the international festival and club circuits.