Turner, Big Joe

byname of Joseph Vernon Turner

(born May 18, 1911, Kansas City, Mo., U.S.—died Nov. 24, 1985, Inglewood, Calif.) black American blues singer, or “shouter,” whose records were imitated by white musicians in the early days of rock and roll.

Singing in his youth in church choirs and informally for tips, Turner drew attention as a singing bartender, accompanied by pianist Pete Johnson, in Kansas City saloons. Discovered by jazz critic John Hammond, Turner, with his powerful baritone voice, was taken to New York City for the 1938 Carnegie Hall “Spirituals to Swing” concert and stayed on to become a popular attraction, with boogie-woogie piano accompaniment, at New York nightclubs. He began recording with top jazz musicians and touring the United States and Canada, sometimes with blues players or Count Basie's orchestra. In 1951 he made a top-selling rhythm-and-blues record, “Chains of Love,” and followed it with “Sweet 16,” “Honey, Hush,” “Shake, Rattle and Roll,” and “Flip, Flop and Fly,” which were rerecorded by young white musicians, notably Bill Haley, using expurgated lyrics. Turner appeared in several movies (including the documentary Last of the Blue Devils, 1979), at major jazz and folk festivals in the United States and Europe, on television, and in jazz clubs, recording continually into the 1980s.