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Interview with Lise Avery
Lise Avery: I am hanging out with Joe Turley and his album "When the
Jitterbug Bites". We are going to begin this jump boogie set with "Boogietime",
which we have done so many times before but we haven't had Joe in the studio
before. "Boogietime" one of my favorite cuts from Joe's album "When the
Jitterbug Bites".
Lise Avery: Now you have been on tour with Dolly Parton? What is that like?
Joe: I sure have. She is really who she is... the lady you see on TV
interviews and in the movies even. She's just the sweetest thing in the world
and very kind, great musician songwriter. It was one of the wonderful times of
my life to get to work with her band.
Lise Avery: Leon Russell and Edgar Winter ... let's list some of your
credentials.
Joe: They were wonderful. They were on tour together probably ten years
ago.
Lise Avery: And Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson. You must be some heck of a
musician . You toggle from one style to another.
Joe: I got to make a living.
Lise Avery: A listener just told me you're fantastic !
Joe: Thank you. I appreciate it. I love what I do, that's for sure.
Lise Avery: You have been doing it for how long?
Joe: You know I've been doing it forever, just about, since I was old enough
to dance. My grandfather was a big band swing leader. Daddy Red was his name. My
mom also plays. So when I was three or four years old I can remember him coming
to the house playing stride piano. Then my mom would sit down and she would play
some. So I just kept listening and took a detour and played rock and roll for a
long time. When I moved to Nashville, basically the country scene was where I
could find the most work. I enjoyed playing that for a while but always kept
listening to Charlie Parker, Jimi Hendrix, on the side and Bob Dylan. Actually
those country music bands a lot of them put on jazz music when they are driving
down the highway.
Lise Avery: That's the thing people have to realize about musicians. That
musicians just like good music. Like Duke Ellington said "There's good music and
then there is the other kind". You moved from Nashville from where?
Joe: Lexington, Kentucky. Right up the road.
Lise Avery: What's it like out there? A lot of musicians moving to Nashville
now a days.
Joe: Well, Nashville is growing so fast. We have our own football team now and
they have done a lot of revamping of the downtown river area, sort of like a
little Bourbon Street area like New Orleans. It is really happening down there.
Lise Avery: I have a question from a viewer who wants to know if there is a
difference between a metal mute and a rubber mute?
Joe: There are many many kinds of mutes but unfortunately when I was living
in apartments they don't have saxophone mutes. The closest you can come is a
sock and it messes up your tone really badly. You know people start banging on
the walls. But they do make a bag for a saxophone that you can put your whole
horn in and stick your hands in and it supposedly mutes it. The metal mute he is
probably thinking of is called a Harmon Mute for a trumpet that's what Miles
Davis sound was famous using that mute . The rubber mute was basically a plunger
and that 's where you get the Wah Wah effect with trumpet and trombone players
but of course they have to get different size plungers. ( Not really) And
you can paint them and all kinds of stuff . There was a guy named Clyde McCoy
back in the twenties that had a song with a Wah Wah trumpet and he really
brought that to the forefront. A little trivia for you called sugar blues.
Lise Avery: Where did you get "Don't Dawg This Cat"?
Joe: That is from marital experience.
Lise Avery: Slide guitar solo... Moose Harrell. You said Moose is a favorite
fellow of yours.
Joe: He is one of my most favorite guys in the world.
Lise Avery: How did he play.
Joe: On this, I think he used a Stratocaster playing his slide on this.. he
also plays the lap steel guitar which is the precursor to the pedal steel
guitar, no pedals just very funky. They also call them Hawaiian guitars. You'll
hear that all over this CD.
Lise Avery: Now Joe you are somebody's daddy aren't you? And that is
something you are real proud of. So we want to talk about that.
Joe: I got a little boogie woogie boy.
Lise Avery: Ladies I am sorry he put on my notes sheet here happily married
with two exclamation points. So just forget it. I am looking at him and he is
cute. Go to his website at joeturley.com and then you can have your own heart
broken.
Lise Avery: What does jitterbug mean, Joe Turley?
Joe: Well , I have my own theory about this. It comes from a collage of
memories and lies probably. Some of them might be true. Back in the 13th
century, they had an epidemic of Saint Vitis Dance over in Europe. I think they
finally found out that those people were bitten by the jitterbug.
Lise Avery: There you go when the jitterbug bites. I asked you moments ago
when we were off mike about your favorite artists and it was almost as if he was
hanging out on my shoulders . Who did you say?
Joe: I said " 'The Three Louies' "....Louie Prima, Louie Jordan, Louie
Armstrong".
Lise Avery: We are hanging out with Joe Turley. We have "Like - I -Doo"
coming up from your album "When the Jitterbug Bites". Unfortunately you are not
playing any gigs up here at the moment. But you like to if somebody is out
there.
Joe: I'd love to come up and play.
Lise Avery: You have how many members in your band?
Joe: Ten piece ... I take all the way down to one, sometimes. We might be
able to work something out.
Lise Avery: Absolutely. I have keyed up a Louis Jordan tune.. What were you
going to tell me about that when I stopped you?
Joe: Just about a week and a half ago, I was coming back from California, and
we missed our flight and there must have been a reason. You know I think God has
plans for all of these things and so we got a later flight and I was walking
along and they had a baby grand piano. There was a saxophone player and a bass
player there and there piano player was late. It turned out to be a guy who
worked with Louis Jordan for years and years and so we played some boogie woogie
and had a great time and caught the next flight.
Lise Avery: I can not blame you. We are going to play another song from this
album. It is called "Sittin on Santa's Knee".
Joe: I actually wrote it coming back from a camping trip. It is just about
how beautiful life is.
Lise Avery: You know the thing that you guys cannot really get because you
are not with the man is that this is a really nice guy, not just a fabulous
musician but he is a nice guy.
Joe: Thank you
Lise Avery: Joe, just tell me, very quickly, how you met the woman named
Ginny who gave me a call to introduce me to your work.
Joe: Well, I was playing a gig in Nashville with another band. There was this
fascinating couple that was just watching us with bated breath and bated eyes
and all the rest. On the break, I went down to meet them. We got to talking
about family and everything and I showed them some pictures of my little boy and
my wife and everything. We talked some more. We got on and became friends. Ginny
went to my website. She is a computer teacher and many other subjects such as
calculus. Ginny is in Secaucus High School.
Lise Avery: Joe I want to thank you for coming in and hanging out with us
Joe. Best of luck on this new album, "When the Jitterbug Bites".
Lise Avery, Anything Goes |
