Alan Lawrence Turnbull, (b. November 23, 1943) is a jazz drummer and freelance professional musician

Alan Turnbull was born in Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 in 1943. After taking drum lessons from Grahame Morgan he commenced his professional career at age 14, playing with top local jazz musicians such as Graeme Lyall

Graeme Lyall

Graeme William Lyall , is a Western Australian saxophonist, composer and arranger. He became a Member of the Order of Australia on 26 January 2003: "For service to music as Artistic Director of the Western Australian Youth Jazz Orchestra, and as a musical director, composer and...

, Keith Hownslow, Brian Brown (musician)

Brian Brown (musician)

Brian Brown OAM, is an Australian Jazz musician and educator. He plays the soprano and tenor saxophones, flutes, synthesizers , panpipes and a leather bowhorn designed by the late Garry Greenwood, .-Biography:Brown has performed as a soloist and with his own ensembles since the mid 1950s throughout...

 whilst filling in for drummer Stewie Speer

Stewie Speer

Stewie Speer was an Australian jazz and rock drummer who is best known as a member of the 1960s-70s Australian group Max Merritt & The Meteors....

 at Horst Liepolt

Horst Liepolt

Horst Liepolt is a jazz producer and artist.In Australia, and later in the United States, he organized numerous successful jazz concerts and festivals and also produced a large number of jazz recordings....

's Melbourne jazz venue "Jazz Centre 44"

Moving to Sydney in the late 1960s Turnbull soon became very active in the jazz scene and worked regularly as a freelance professional musician, including a number of years with the Don Burrows

Don Burrows

Donald Vernon Burrows, AO, MBE is an Australian jazz and swing musician, playing the clarinet, saxophone, and flute....

 quartet which worked regularly at Sydney's El Rocco jazz club, the Wentwoth Hotel Supper Club, and at various concerts and venues throughout Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. He also performed at various international festivals with that quartet, including Montreux Jazz Festival

Montreux Jazz Festival

The Montreux Jazz Festival is the best-known music festival in Switzerland and one of the most prestigious in Europe; it is held annually in early July in Montreux on the shores of Lake Geneva...

, Newport Jazz Festival

Newport Jazz Festival

The Newport Jazz Festival is a music festival held every summer in Newport, Rhode Island, USA. It was established in 1954 by socialite Elaine Lorillard, who, together with husband Louis Lorillard, financed the festival for many years. The couple hired jazz impresario George Wein to organize the...

 and also at Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....

In the following years he worked with a large number of high profile jazz musicians and popular entertainers, including Milt Jackson

Milt Jackson

Milton "Bags" Jackson was an American jazz vibraphonist, usually thought of as a bebop player, although he performed in several jazz idioms...

, Joe Henderson

Joe Henderson

Joe Henderson was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. In a career spanning more than forty years Henderson played with many of the leading American players of his day and recorded for several prominent labels, including Blue Note.-Early life:From a very large family with five sisters and nine...

, Gary Burton

Gary Burton

Gary Burton is an American jazz vibraphonist.A true original on the vibraphone, Burton developed a pianistic style of four-mallet technique as an alternative to the usual two-mallets. This approach caused Burton to be heralded as an innovator and his sound and technique are widely imitated...

, Sonny Stitt

Sonny Stitt

Edward "Sonny" Stitt was an American jazz saxophonist of the bebop/hard bop idiom. He was also one of the best-documented saxophonists of his generation, recording over 100 albums in his lifetime...

, Barney Kessell, Richie Cole

Richie Cole

Richard Cole was an Australian rules footballer for the Collingwood and Essendon Football Clubs in the Australian Football League....

, Cleo Laine

Cleo Laine

Dame Cleo Laine, Lady Dankworth, DBE is a jazz singer and an actress, noted for her scat singing and vocal range...

, Billy Eckstine

Billy Eckstine

William Clarence Eckstine was an American singer of ballads and a bandleader of the swing era. Eckstine's smooth baritone and distinctive vibrato broke down barriers throughout the 1940s, first as leader of the original bop big-band, then as the first romantic black male in popular...

, Cab Calloway

Cab Calloway

Cabell "Cab" Calloway III was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was strongly associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City where he was a regular performer....

, Billy Field

Billy Field

Billy Field is an Australian singer and songwriter, best known for his hit singles "True Love" , "Bad Habits" and "You Weren't In Love with Me" . "You Weren't In Love with Me" also peaked at #67 on the UK Singles Chart in June 1982...

, and Neil Sedaka

Neil Sedaka

Neil Sedaka is an American pop/rock singer, pianist, and composer. His career has spanned nearly 55 years, during which time he has sold millions of records as an artist and has written or co-written over 500 songs for himself and other artists, collaborating mostly with lyricists Howard...

 and he has also performed with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra

Sydney Symphony Orchestra

The Sydney Symphony Orchestra , commonly known as the Sydney Symphony, is an Australian symphony orchestra based in Sydney...

 and the Australian Pops Orchestra.

Alan Turnbull has appeared on numerous recordings, including those of Don Burrows, Rolf Stube's Jazz Police, Grahame Norris Band (recorded in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

), The Jazz Co-op, The Two with Paul Macnamara, Neil Sedaka

Neil Sedaka

Neil Sedaka is an American pop/rock singer, pianist, and composer. His career has spanned nearly 55 years, during which time he has sold millions of records as an artist and has written or co-written over 500 songs for himself and other artists, collaborating mostly with lyricists Howard...

 and Billy Field

Billy Field

Billy Field is an Australian singer and songwriter, best known for his hit singles "True Love" , "Bad Habits" and "You Weren't In Love with Me" . "You Weren't In Love with Me" also peaked at #67 on the UK Singles Chart in June 1982...

,