JIM TURNER
took over the piano duties of the Jim
Cullum Jazz band on March 8, 2003.
JIM TURNER
took over the piano duties of the Jim
Cullum Jazz band on March 8, 2003.
Jim Turner was born and raised in Los Angeles where, as a youth, he studied with his father, noted classical pianist and teacher Robert E. Turner. He later studied jazz piano with Johnny Guarnieri and Dick Cary. He is a graduate of the University of California at Santa Barbara where he received a degree in music composition and arranging.
Turner has performed for audiences in concerts and jazz festivals throughout the West from San Diego to the San Juan Islands in Washington, and in New York City. For 16 years, he was a soloist at the Sacramento Traditional Jazz Festival. For 27 consecutive years including the year 2001, he was featured at the always sold-out Old Town Music Hall Ragtime Festivals in El Segundo, California.
Turner has appeared as a soloist at jazz and ragtime festivals in Los Angeles, Pismo Beach, San Diego, Reno, Boulder, Indianapolis, Kansas City and Friday Harbor, Washington. In 1997, he was a featured artist at the Scott Joplin International Ragtime Festival in Sedalia, Missouri, for the third time. He has performed as a featured pianist on the riverboat Delta Queen on the Mississippi River.
Jim Turner recorded his first solo album in 1981. Entitled Old Fashioned Love--A Tribute To James P. Johnson (Euphonic Sounds ESR-1222), the recording received unanimous critical acclaim. Jazz Report magazine stated, "Only words like finesse, surety and brilliance will do." The Rag Times wrote "Some of the best stride playing on record."
Turner's second solo recording, Poet And Peasant (Sacramento Jazz SJS-32), also won favorable reviews. Turner's newest CD is The Dazzler (Klavier KD-77017) and it includes a duet with pianist Dick Hyman. Rapport Magazine exclaimed "This album is, as the name indicates, a dazzler!"
Some of Turner's other recording credits include duets with the late jazz and ragtime great John "Knocky" Parker on the Euphonic label, and an appearance as a member of The Great Pacific Jazz Band (Sacramento Jazz SJS-31).In 1983, Turner joined Bob Ringwald's Great Pacific Jazz Band as pianist and arranger. This group featured trombonist Bob Havens and trumpeter Zeke Zarchy and was, during Turner's eight-year tenure, widely regarded as the West Coast's premiere classic jazz band.
Before joining the Jim Cullum Jazz Band, he enjoyed a career as a
producer of piano recordings. His producing credits include Teddy Wilson, George
Shearing, Chick Corea, Oscar Peterson, Liberace, Dick Hyman, Johnny Guarnieri,
Roger Williams, Peter Nero, Floyd Cramer and Steve Allen. In the year 2000,
Turner produced a 10-CD boxed set of the Canadian pianist Robert Silverman
playing the Complete Thirty-Two Beethoven Sonatas on the Orpheum Masters label.
This set received a Juno Award
nomination.
Turner is the proud father of a son, Eddie (pictured at left).
