Earl Turbinton

Jazz musician Earl Turbinton often goes by the enigmatic moniker "the African Cowboy," and certainly he roams freely through a varied landscape of musical genres, from bebop to blues to avant-garde jazz. The saxophone player from New Orleans has played with an amazing array of music giants, from Cannonball Adderley to B.B. King, Herbie Hancock to the Neville Brothers, Snooks Eaglin to the Wild Magnolias.

Turbinton is a master of both the soprano and alto sax, which can be heard mainly on the recordings of other notable musicians, since his own personal discography is limited. Among the places to listen for the eclectic Turbinton's smoking sound on CDs include: Blue Note Series recordings from September 1970, featuring Reuben Wilson and Earl Turbinton; The Wild Magnolias (1974) and They Call Us Wild (1975); B.B. King's Five Long Years (1972); The Gaturs Wasted (1998); A Portrait of Champion Jack Dupree (2000); Zawinul (1970); From Bad to Badder, with Richard Payne and Ed Blackwell (1987); Johnny Vidacovich's Mystery Steet (1995); and a 1999 reissue of Buster Williams' Pinnacle.

Turbinton did record an outstanding CD with his brother, Willie Lee Turbinton, appropriately entitled Brothers for Life, in 1988. A later disc called Dominion and Sustenance shows his reverence for the musical genius of John Coltrane. Many of Turbinton's best tunes reflect that Coltranesque style.

Turbinton has always been a force in his community, showing up in unexpected places. One might see him dressed in a white suit, playing his saxophone at midnight in front of St. Louis Cathedral in the French Quarter, or at a public school benefit. He may be jamming at popular clubs, Snug Harbor, or Cafe Brasil, or delivering a series of lectures and concerts at Loyola University. Leroy Jones recalls how Turbinton used to stop by and encourage the young musicians at the late, great Danny Barker's brass band school at the Fairview Baptist Church. Vocalist Cassandra Wilson acknowledges the great saxophonist as her personal mentor when she lived in New Orleans.

At his gig at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in 2002, Turbinton was clad in traditional African attire, and delivered a scorching set of jazz, while preaching the one-world gospel, exhorting his audience to love and pray for their enemies. This moment perhaps captures best the heart and soul of a musician who knows no territorial or musical boundaries. Sadly, only five years later Turbinton passed away after a long battle with lung cancer.