{"id":190487,"date":"2025-05-18T08:00:57","date_gmt":"2025-05-18T12:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=190487"},"modified":"2025-05-17T06:47:59","modified_gmt":"2025-05-17T10:47:59","slug":"big-joe-turner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=190487","title":{"rendered":"Happy birthday, Big Joe Turner, “Boss of the Blues”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

\nBefore the advent of microphones, if you were a singer, you needed to be heard. “Blues shouters” were powerful figures known for shouting above the music. Big Joe Turner was a blues shouter from Kansas City, and also one of the many – many – building blocks in what eventually would be called “rock ‘n roll”. His career spanned from jazz clubs in the 1920s to touring the world up until his death in 1985. He stood on stages with and collaborated with them all: Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, boogie-woogie maestro Albert Ammons, pianist Pete Johnson. Turner hailed from Kansas City, and did some early gigs in New York, but came back home, feeling New York wasn’t ready for the rowdiness of his sound yet. Eventually New York came calling in 1938, in the form of a talent scout – John Hammond – putting together the From Spirituals to Swing<\/em> concerts at Carnegie Hall. (These two concerts are now legendary and did what they set out to do: connected the dots in Black culture, from gospel to jazz to swing.) In 1938, same time, Turner and pianist Pete Johnson went into the studio and recorded “Roll ‘Em Pete”. <\/p>\n