Turner, Joe (actually, Joseph H.)
Turner, Joe (actually, Joseph H.)
Turner, Joe (actually, Joseph H.), stride pianist; b. Baltimore, Nov. 3, 1907; d. Montreuil-sous-Bois hospital, Paris, July 21,1990. He went to N.Y.C. around 1925 and played with Hilton Jefferson, Benny Carter (1929), Louis Armstrong (1930) and others; he accompanied Adelaide Hall in the 1930s and toured to Europe with her; he stayed on to play solo dates in Czechoslovakia (1936), Hungary, France, etc, in August 1939 was on his way to Turkey (via Switzerland), immediately returned from Turkey to France on outbreak of World War II and returned to the U.S.A. in October 1939. Worked as a single before service in U.S. Army, in 1944-45 worked in all-star service band directed by Sy Oliver. Returned to Europe in 1948, worked in Hungary, Switzerland (1949), then was based in Paris for the rest of his life, though touring all over Europe. Temporarily returned to United States in 1976 for a series of successful engagements. He died of a heart attack in 1990.
Discography
Stride by Stride (1960); Another Epoch: Stride Piano (1976); Effervescent (1976); Swing Time Shooters, Vol. 1 (1995). LOUIS ARMSTRONG: Louis Armstrong and the Big Bands (1928-30) (1930); Louis Armstrong Collection, Vol. 6: St. Louis Blues (1930); Louis Armstrong (1928-31) (1931); Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra: 1930-31 (1931); Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1934). ADELAIDE HALL: As Time Goes By (1996).
—John Chilton/Lewis Porter