Joe Turner
Jazz Marmalade
This vintage program, 'Jazz Marmalade', shows expatriate American musicians plying their trade in two Parisian jazz clubs in 1962. First, American stride pianist Joe Turner (often confused with blues shouter "Big" Joe Turner) opens this atmospheric broadcast with a swinging piano-bass duet recorded at the Mars Club. Joe Turner (1907-1990) would remain in Paris for the rest of his life. From the American-owned Mars Club just off the Champs-Élysées, a hangout for showbiz people and expatriate Americans in Paris, the program cuts to the Blue Note. There, a Paris-based American quartet that includes drummer Kenny Clarke, organ player Lou Bennett, and tenor saxophonist Don Byas performs 'Salut Les Copines'. Returning to the Mars Club, the American jazz trio of house pianist Art Simmons (1926-2018) performs a jaunty take on 'C-Jam Blues'. Rounding off the program at the Blue Note, the quartet of drummer Kenny Clarke, organist Lou Bennett, and tenor saxophonist Don Byas returns for a swinging 'April in Paris'. These recordings offer an invaluable glimpse into expatriate American jazz-making in Paris in the early 1960s.