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Charles Turner (musician)
Encyclopedia
Charles Turner was an American jazz
trumpet
er. Turner performed with Frank Sinatra
for eight years, Ella Fitzgerald
, Jimmy Dorsey
, Ralph Flanagan
, Harry James
, Charlie Spivak
, Count Basie
and many other great musicians of the 20th century. Charles Turner was one of America’s greatest lead jazz trumpeters. In a career spanning over thirty years, he played lead trumpet for some of the best jazz bands, Las Vegas show bands, and Los Angeles studio Orchestras.
as an only child, Charlie showed exceptional talent at an early age. After picking up the trumpet at 10 years of age he progressed rapidly as he played in junior high and high school bands. During his Bunnell High School years he also began to visit Florida State University, and played in FSU’s Summer Band Camp Program until he graduated from Bunnell High in 1953.
Charles officially enrolled in Florida State University
in 1954. Charlie was an outstanding performer in the FSU College of Music, taking lead roles in the Symphonic Band, Marching Chiefs, Symphonic Orchestra, Circus Band and a variety of other FSU music ensembles such as the Commodores. He attended FSU from 1954-1959. It was toward the end of his years at FSU that Charlie began to pick up jobs playing with outside orchestras, and it wasn’t long before the call of the muse had Charlie leaving FSU and playing with the show bands of Las Vegas.
Charlie was a great lead trumpet player and his powerful and penetrating horn was soon leading such stellar bands as Ralph Flanagan
, Charlie Spivak
, Jimmy Dorsey
, Harry James
, and Count Basie
. He also played with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
.
heard Charlie play and asked him to play lead trumpet for his band. Charlie went on to play for Sinatra from 1975 to 1983. He not only played in Sinatra’s big band but also in his smaller tour band consisting of drums, bass, piano, sax and trumpet. This core group traveled with Sinatra all over the world on European, Middle Eastern, North African and South American tours. During this time in his career, Charlie played for presidential inaugurations, the Queen of the United Kingdom and many performances at Carnegie Hall.
Sinatra respected Charlie’s talent enormously and featured him on solo performances. Not only did Charlie play for royalty, presidents and dignitaries but also played and sometimes recorded for entertainers such as Ava Gardner
, Ingrid Bergman
, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin
, Wayne Newton
, Andy Williams
, Milton Berle
, Ella Fitzgerald
, Debbie Reynolds
, Robert Goulet
, Red Skelton
, Jerry Lewis
, Don Rickles
, John Denver
, Vic Damone
, Steve Lawrence
and Eydie Gorme
just to name a few.
Around 1984 as Frank Sinatra began to retire from touring, Charlie decided he wanted to record his own album featuring songs out of the Sinatra song book that featured his trumpet. He asked Sinatra for permission to record his songs, to which Sinatra replied ‘I’ll do better than that. I’ll direct the orchestra.’ The album was titled What’s New and featured music arranged by Sinatra’s own great arrangers Billy May
, Nelson Riddle
and Don Costa
. Even though the album was not a commercial success it was widely acclaimed by critics and jazz lovers.
Charlie Turner died May 19, 2006, just a week shy, of his 70th birthday. His mother, Norma Turner, generously donated many of his scores and arrangements to the FSU College of Music, as well as memorabilia and one of his instruments. Charlie leaves a great musical legacy, and will be remembered as a respected band/studio musician, and a master in the art of lead trumpet. A collection of his scores and memorabilia is held at the Warren D. Allen Music Library at Florida State University.
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
er. Turner performed with Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
for eight years, Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...
, Jimmy Dorsey
Jimmy Dorsey
James "Jimmy" Dorsey was a prominent American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, trumpeter, composer, and big band leader. He was known as "JD"...
, Ralph Flanagan
Ralph Flanagan
Ralph Flanagan , was a famed big band leader, conductor, pianist, composer, and arranger for the orchestras of Hal McIntyre, Sammy Kaye, Blue Barron, Charlie Barnet, and Alvino Rey.-Biography:He was educated at Lorain High School, where he was a member of the National Honors...
, Harry James
Harry James
Henry Haag “Harry” James was a trumpeter who led a jazz swing band during the Big Band Era of the 1930s and 1940s. He was especially known among musicians for his astonishing technical proficiency as well as his superior tone.-Biography:He was born in Albany, Georgia, the son of a bandleader of a...
, Charlie Spivak
Charlie Spivak
Charlie Spivak was an American trumpeter and bandleader, best known for his big band in the 1940s.-Biography:...
, Count Basie
Count Basie
William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...
and many other great musicians of the 20th century. Charles Turner was one of America’s greatest lead jazz trumpeters. In a career spanning over thirty years, he played lead trumpet for some of the best jazz bands, Las Vegas show bands, and Los Angeles studio Orchestras.
Biography
Charles Henry Turner was born to Charles Rodgers Turner and Norma (Durrance) Turner in 1936. Growing up in rural Bunnell, FloridaBunnell, Florida
Bunnell is the county seat of Flagler County Florida with a population of 2,122 at the 2000 census. According to the U.S Census estimates of 2008, the city's population had grown to 3,190. The city is part of the Palm Coast Metropolitan Statistical Area and is named after early resident, Alvah A...
as an only child, Charlie showed exceptional talent at an early age. After picking up the trumpet at 10 years of age he progressed rapidly as he played in junior high and high school bands. During his Bunnell High School years he also began to visit Florida State University, and played in FSU’s Summer Band Camp Program until he graduated from Bunnell High in 1953.
Charles officially enrolled in Florida State University
Florida State University
The Florida State University is a space-grant and sea-grant public university located in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a comprehensive doctoral research university with medical programs and significant research activity as determined by the Carnegie Foundation...
in 1954. Charlie was an outstanding performer in the FSU College of Music, taking lead roles in the Symphonic Band, Marching Chiefs, Symphonic Orchestra, Circus Band and a variety of other FSU music ensembles such as the Commodores. He attended FSU from 1954-1959. It was toward the end of his years at FSU that Charlie began to pick up jobs playing with outside orchestras, and it wasn’t long before the call of the muse had Charlie leaving FSU and playing with the show bands of Las Vegas.
Charlie was a great lead trumpet player and his powerful and penetrating horn was soon leading such stellar bands as Ralph Flanagan
Ralph Flanagan
Ralph Flanagan , was a famed big band leader, conductor, pianist, composer, and arranger for the orchestras of Hal McIntyre, Sammy Kaye, Blue Barron, Charlie Barnet, and Alvino Rey.-Biography:He was educated at Lorain High School, where he was a member of the National Honors...
, Charlie Spivak
Charlie Spivak
Charlie Spivak was an American trumpeter and bandleader, best known for his big band in the 1940s.-Biography:...
, Jimmy Dorsey
Jimmy Dorsey
James "Jimmy" Dorsey was a prominent American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, trumpeter, composer, and big band leader. He was known as "JD"...
, Harry James
Harry James
Henry Haag “Harry” James was a trumpeter who led a jazz swing band during the Big Band Era of the 1930s and 1940s. He was especially known among musicians for his astonishing technical proficiency as well as his superior tone.-Biography:He was born in Albany, Georgia, the son of a bandleader of a...
, and Count Basie
Count Basie
William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...
. He also played with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Chicago, Illinois. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1891, the Symphony makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival...
.
Years with Frank Sinatra
In 1975 Frank SinatraFrank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
heard Charlie play and asked him to play lead trumpet for his band. Charlie went on to play for Sinatra from 1975 to 1983. He not only played in Sinatra’s big band but also in his smaller tour band consisting of drums, bass, piano, sax and trumpet. This core group traveled with Sinatra all over the world on European, Middle Eastern, North African and South American tours. During this time in his career, Charlie played for presidential inaugurations, the Queen of the United Kingdom and many performances at Carnegie Hall.
Sinatra respected Charlie’s talent enormously and featured him on solo performances. Not only did Charlie play for royalty, presidents and dignitaries but also played and sometimes recorded for entertainers such as Ava Gardner
Ava Gardner
Ava Lavinia Gardner was an American actress.She was signed to a contract by MGM Studios in 1941 and appeared mainly in small roles until she drew attention with her performance in The Killers . She became one of Hollywood's leading actresses, considered one of the most beautiful women of her day...
, Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films. She won three Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, and the Tony Award for Best Actress. She is ranked as the fourth greatest female star of American cinema of all time by the American Film Institute...
, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin
Dean Martin
Dean Martin was an American singer, film actor, television star and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?"...
, Wayne Newton
Wayne Newton
Wayne Newton is an American singer and entertainer based in Las Vegas, Nevada. He performed over 30,000 solo shows in Las Vegas over a period of over 40 years, earning him the nicknames The Midnight Idol, Mr. Las Vegas and Mr. Entertainment...
, Andy Williams
Andy Williams
Howard Andrew "Andy" Williams is an American singer who has recorded 18 Gold- and three Platinum-certified albums. He hosted The Andy Williams Show, a TV variety show, from 1962 to 1971, as well as numerous television specials, and owns his own theater, the Moon River Theatre in Branson, Missouri,...
, Milton Berle
Milton Berle
Milton Berlinger , better known as Milton Berle, was an American comedian and actor. As the manic host of NBC's Texaco Star Theater , in 1948 he was the first major star of U.S. television and as such became known as Uncle Miltie and Mr...
, Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...
, Debbie Reynolds
Debbie Reynolds
Debbie Reynolds is an American actress, singer, and dancer.She was initially signed at age 16 by Warner Bros., but her career got off to a slow start. When her contract was not renewed, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer gave her a small, but significant part in the film Three Little Words , then signed her to...
, Robert Goulet
Robert Goulet
Robert Gerard Goulet was a Canadian American entertainer as a singer and actor. He played the role of Lancelot in the Broadway musical Camelot of 1960.-Early life:...
, Red Skelton
Red Skelton
Richard Bernard "Red" Skelton was an American comedian who is best known as a top radio and television star from 1937 to 1971. Skelton's show business career began in his teens as a circus clown and went on to vaudeville, Broadway, films, radio, TV, night clubs and casinos, all while pursuing...
, Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis is an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis...
, Don Rickles
Don Rickles
Donald Jay "Don" Rickles is an American stand-up comedian and actor. A frequent guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Rickles has acted in comedic and dramatic roles, but is best known as an insult comic....
, John Denver
John Denver
Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr. , known professionally as John Denver, was an American singer/songwriter, activist, and humanitarian. After growing up in numerous locations with his military family, Denver began his music career in folk music groups in the late 1960s. His greatest commercial success...
, Vic Damone
Vic Damone
Vic Damone is an American singer and entertainer.- Early life :Damone was born Vito Rocco Farinola in Brooklyn, New York to French-Italian immigrants based in Bari, Italy—Rocco and Mamie Farinola. His father was an electrician; and his mother taught piano. His cousin was the actress and singer...
, Steve Lawrence
Steve Lawrence
Steve Lawrence is an American singer and actor, perhaps best known as a member of a duo with his wife Eydie Gormé, billed as "Steve and Eydie"...
and Eydie Gorme
Eydie Gormé
Eydie Gormé is an American singer, specializing, with her husband, Steve Lawrence, in traditional pop music, in the form of ballads and breezy swing. She has earned numerous awards, including the Grammy and the Emmy...
just to name a few.
Around 1984 as Frank Sinatra began to retire from touring, Charlie decided he wanted to record his own album featuring songs out of the Sinatra song book that featured his trumpet. He asked Sinatra for permission to record his songs, to which Sinatra replied ‘I’ll do better than that. I’ll direct the orchestra.’ The album was titled What’s New and featured music arranged by Sinatra’s own great arrangers Billy May
Billy May
William E. "Billy" May was an American composer, arranger and trumpeter. He composed film and television music, for The Green Hornet , Batman , and Naked City and collaborated on films, such as Pennies from Heaven , and orchestrated Cocoon, and Cocoon: The Return among...
, Nelson Riddle
Nelson Riddle
Nelson Smock Riddle, Jr. was an American arranger, composer, bandleader and orchestrator whose career stretched from the late 1940s to the mid 1980s...
and Don Costa
Don Costa
Don Costa was an American pop music arranger and record producer, best known for his work with Frank Sinatra.-Career:...
. Even though the album was not a commercial success it was widely acclaimed by critics and jazz lovers.
Turner's interests
Charlie Turner had a wide range of interests and hobbies besides music. These included flying (he owned a Piper Cub and often flew with John Denver), photography, tennis, raising great schnauzer show dogs (he named one of his dogs Ava Gardner after his friend), and cooking (he competed with his neighbor Wayne Newton as to who could cook the best bread). Additionally he was a prolific reader, a great pool player, and an expert marksman (but refused to hunt animals).End of life
Toward the end of his life Charlie moved back to Bunnell, Florida and suffered from diabetes and depression. In the 1990s he began working on a book of his memoirs and recollections of his years in music but never quite finished that project.Charlie Turner died May 19, 2006, just a week shy, of his 70th birthday. His mother, Norma Turner, generously donated many of his scores and arrangements to the FSU College of Music, as well as memorabilia and one of his instruments. Charlie leaves a great musical legacy, and will be remembered as a respected band/studio musician, and a master in the art of lead trumpet. A collection of his scores and memorabilia is held at the Warren D. Allen Music Library at Florida State University.
Discography
- What's New: Charles Turner, trumpet: conducted by Frank Sinatra: arranged by Billy May, Nelson Riddle, and Don Costa. Las Vegas, Nevada: Chas Records, 1983.
- Dream Dancing: Ella Fitzgeral & Cole Porter: Pablo Records,1978.
- Sinatra: Vegas: 1978 re-issued Reprise 2006.
External links
- http://music.fsu.edu/Quicklinks/Music-Library Warren D. Allen Music Library at Florida State University.
- http://music.fsu.edu/Quicklinks/Music-Library/Research-Resources/Special-Collections/Personal-Collections/Charles-H.-Turner-Collection Description of the Charles H. Turner Collection at Florida State University.