Joseph Vernon "Big Joe" Turner Jr. (May 18, 1911 – November 24, 1985) was an American singer from Kansas City, Missouri. According to songwriter Doc Pomus, "Rock and roll would have never happened without him." His greatest fame was due to his rock-and-roll recordings in the 1950s, particularly "Shake, Rattle and Roll", but his career as a performer endured from the 1920s into the 1980s.

Turner was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, with the Hall lauding him as "the brawny voiced 'Boss of the Blues'".

Turner was born May 18, 1911, in Kansas City, Missouri, United States. His father was killed in a train accident when Turner was four years old. He sang in his church, and on street corners for money. He left school at age fourteen to work in Kansas City's nightclubs, first as a cook and later as a singing bartender. He became known as "The Singing Barman", and worked in such venues as the Kingfish Club and the Sunset, where he and his partner, the boogie-woogie pianist Pete Johnson, became resident performers. The Sunset was managed by Piney Brown. It featured "separate but equal" facilities for white patrons. Turner wrote "Piney Brown Blues" in his honor and sang it throughout his career.

At that time Kansas City nightclubs were subject to frequent raids by the police; Turner said, "The Boss man would have his bondsmen down at the police station before we got there. We'd walk in, sign our names and walk right out. Then we would cabaret until morning."

His partnership with Johnson proved fruitful. Together they went to New York City in 1936, where they appeared on a playbill with Benny Goodman, but as Turner recounted, "After our show with Goodman, we auditioned at several places, but New York wasn't ready for us yet, so we headed back to K.C." Eventually they were seen by the talent scout John Hammond in 1938, who invited them back to New York to appear in one of his From Spirituals to Swing concerts at Carnegie Hall, which were instrumental in introducing jazz and blues to a wider American audience.

In part because of their appearance at Carnegie Hall, Turner and Johnson had a major success with the song "Roll 'Em Pete". The track was basically a collection of traditional blues lyrics. It was a song that Turner recorded many times, with various musicians, over the ensuing years.

In 1939, along with the boogie-woogie pianists Albert Ammons and Meade Lux Lewis, Turner and Johnson began a residency at Café Society, a nightclub in New York City, where they appeared on the same playbill as Billie Holiday and Frankie Newton's band. Besides "Roll 'Em, Pete", Turner's best-known recordings from this period are probably "Cherry Red", "I Want a Little Girl" and "Wee Baby Blues". "Cherry Red" was recorded in 1939 for the Vocalion label, with Hot Lips Page on trumpet and a full band in attendance. During the next year Turner contracted with Decca and recorded "Piney Brown Blues" with Johnson on piano. ...

Source: Article "Big Joe Turner" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Joseph Vernon Turner dit Big Joe Turner (Big pour sa taille de 1,88 m et ses 110 kg) est un chanteur de blues, de jazz et de rhythm and blues américain né à Kansas City, Missouri, le 18 mai 1911 mort à Los Angeles, Californie, le 24 novembre 1985. Il est l'un des précurseurs du rock 'n' roll.

Big Joe Turner commence à chanter le blues dès les années 1920 avant de devenir un des pionniers du rock 'n' roll dans les années 1950. Sa carrière continue jusqu'en 1980.

Turner commence à chanter à l'église. Son père meurt quand il a 4 ans et il commence à chanter dans les rues pour gagner de l'argent. Il quitte l'école à l'âge de 14 ans pour travailler dans les boîtes de Kansas City. Il finit par devenir chanteur, accompagné par le pianiste de boogie-woogie Pete Johnson. En 1936 ils s'établissent à New York, mais, malgré une performance avec Benny Goodman, y connaissent peu de succès et retournent à Kansas City. En 1938, ils participent au fameux concert «From Spirituals to Swing » au Carnegie Hall à New York et, peu après, enregistrent un succès: Roll 'Em Pete. En 1939, ils commencent à travailler au Café Society, une fameuse boîte new-yorkaise, avec Albert Ammons et Meade Lux Lewis, célèbres interprètes du boogie. Ils y travaillent aussi avec Billie Holiday et l'orchestre de Frank Newton. D'autres disques importants de cette période sont Cherry Red, I Want a Little Girl, Piney Brown Blues et Wee Baby Blues.

Puis leurs goûts commencent à diverger, et Joe enregistre ses premiers disques en solo (Joe Turner's Blues). Il enregistre aussi Wee Baby Blues avec l'orchestre d'Art Tatum. En 1941 Turner s'installe à Los Angeles, où il participe à la revue «Jump for Joy» de Duke Ellington. En 1945, lui et Pete Johnson ouvrent un bar à Los Angeles, The Blue Moon Club. Turner enregistre un grand nombre de disques, non seulement avec Pete Johnson mais aussi avec Freddie Slack, Sammy Price, Wynonie Harris, et d'autres ensembles de jazz.

En 1951 Ahmet et Nesuhi Ertegün le voient dans un concert de Count Basie, et il signe un contrat avec leur compagnie de disque, Atlantic Records. Il enregistre chez Atlantic plusieurs succès, dont Chains of Love, Sweet Sixteen, et peut-être son plus célèbre disque Shake, Rattle and Roll, écrit pour lui par Jesse Stone. Ces titres squattent régulièrement les premières places des charts rhythm & blues. Une reprise de cette chanson par Bill Haley and His Comets vend plus d'exemplaires dans le marché «teenage», pour lequel on change les paroles racées de la version de Turner. Ce dernier acquiert de la popularité parmi les musiciens, et il exerce bien de l'influence sur la musique populaire de ce temps-là.

Pendant les années 1970 il retourne au jazz. Jusqu'à sa mort, il continue à chanter non seulement dans les boîtes, mais aussi aux festivals de jazz et de blues. En 1978, il publie un album avec le jeune pianiste de boogie-woogie Axel Zwingenberger, album pour lequel ils reçoivent le Deutscher Schallplattenpreis. Il est fait membre du Blues Hall of Fame en 1983 et du Rock and Roll Hall of Fame en 1987. Il est mort à 74 ans des suites d'une défaillance rénale.

Source: Article "Big Joe Turner" de Wikipédia en français, soumis à la licence CC-BY-SA 3.0.