In not necessarily any particular order: Percy Mayfield, The Band, Blind Willie Johnson, Sonny Rollins, Gillian Welch, Robert Nighthawk, Jimmy Reed, The Staple Singers, The Rolling Stones, Thelonious Monk, J.S. Bach, Randy Newman, Bob Dylan, Mavis Staples, James Harman, Junior Watson, Janiva Magness, Charlie Patton, Burt Bacharach, Charles Mingus (esp. "Blues And Roots"), Billie Holiday, Rick Holmstrom, Joseph Spence, "Blues Is King" by B.B. King, Joe Scott, Bobby Bland, Charlie Rich, Captain Beefheart, Tom Waits, Miles Davis, Keith Ferguson, Jimmy Vaughan, Pablo Casals, Andres Segovia, Chester A. Burnett, Lester Young, J. Jamerson, D. Dunn and all the great soul bass players, John Prine, O.V. Wright, Bill Frisell and everybody else. Especially everyone I've worked with who have taught me so much: drummers, guitarists, vocalists, engineers, everyone.
Just in terms of sheer quantity -- number of instruments played, miles logged, artists backed up, shows and sessions performed, and songs composed -- Jeff Turmes is remarkable. And then there's the quality of what he does -- the sound, the style, the personality that informs his music. *****
All this is in evidence in his latest, the soon-to-be-released Five Horses, Four Riders. There's a lot of open space on this record, songs that inhabit a world of dream images, dread, weariness and desire. We hear guitars, banjos, low horns wheezing in some distance, cymbal crashes, half a string quartet. Lover's pleas, laments, songs thrown like shadows. *****
Jeff grew up in Southern California. Taught himself to play bass and took off from there. Curiosity and a restless mind compelled him to take up saxophone in his early twenties. Got picked up hitchhiking by a Volkswagen driver blasting A Love Supreme, and he was wrecked. Discovered eventually that jazz wasn't his language. He was writing songs, playing bass and guitar, touring with blues bands -- James Harman, Gary Primich, both of whom ended up covering his songs. *****
Toured with vocalist and partner Janiva Magness, who has recorded a number of his compositions, while maintaining a career as a session musician on electric and acoustic bass, saxophones, guitars, bass clarinet, banjo, and keyboards. *****
Since early 2007 Jeff has toured as bassist and slide guitarist with the incomparable Mavis Staples. In 2008 Mavis released a live CD, Hope At The Hideout,
recorded in a small club in Chicago, backed by Jeff and his longtime associates Rick Holmstrom and Stephen Hodges, and three background vocalists. This record has just been nominated for a 2010 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album. The band is currently working on Mavis' next studio release. *****
Jeff has worked as a sideman with an impressive array of artists: Tom Waits (on the Tonight Show), Kim Wilson and the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Ronny Earl,
Billy Boy Arnold, Robert Gordon, Duke Robillard, James Cotton, Jody Williams, Canned Heat, Pinetop Perkins, Koko Taylor, James Gadson, Mike Finnigan --
some of the aristocracy of blues and roots music. He has had the good fortune to record with artists as significant and diverse as Richard Thompson, R.L. Burnside, Gatemouth Brown and Peter Case, and has worked with renowned producers Tom Rothrock and Rob Schnapf. *****
In 2006 he won First Place in the Blues category in the International Songwriting Competition for the song "Eat The Lunch You Brought". *****
His own solo recordings, Every Day's My Lucky Day and The Distance You Can Travel, as well as his 1996 collaboration with Janiva Magness, It Takes One To Know One, bespeak his versatility as writer, multi-instrumentalist, arranger, producer, and engineer, as well as his steady maturation as a vocalist. These records feature dirt road shuffles, torch songs, and R&B-styled horn parties, soaked in irony and the fatalistic humor of the blues. Five Horses, Four Riders, his latest collection of stories, is less ironic, more contemplative, but no less intense. The music he's made on his own, together with the body of work he's created with others, calls up one adjective to describe the musicianship of Jeff Turmes: inspired.
Jeff I really enjoyed hanging with you too : ) I'm glad we had such good conversation! Anthony and I hope to see you again soon..... thanks for introducing me to Mavis and the gang- oh and I love your cd.....killer lyrics and a real cool vibe. take good care of that good heart : ) xo t
Hi Jeff, Just wanted to drop by to say thanks for adding me. Loved the tunes and always been a fan of your work...especially with James Harman. All the best, Mark.
Just realized you're playing the guitar on one of my favorite tracks from the Elmore James Jr release. It's no wonder you pop up all over the place -- thanks, Chas
