js Tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine spent most of his career mixing jazz with RnB on records that ranged from highly regarded soul jazz to outright pop and disco fluff. His 1971 release, “Sugar”, fortunately falls more in the former style than the latter and features some nice grooves for fans of the classic soul jazz sound. In a typical mix of styles from that period you get hard bop swing on the title track “Sugar”, jazzy proto funk on “Sunshine” and hard bop driven by groovy double time congas on “Impressions”. If you get the CD re-issue you also get a bonus live version of “Sugar” that rocks harder than the original and also breaks down into solo spots for superb performances by Freddie Hubbard and George Benson. All of the playing throughout this CD is excellent, and each track features lengthy solos that allow Turrentine and the others to really stretch out. The make or break for this album is its "CTI sound" which is a little more smooth in its extra reverb and compression than your more usual gritty sounding soul jazz outing. Whether this sound is cool 70s kitsch or just plain phony depends on your perspective.

dreadpirateroberts On ‘Sugar’ Turrentine plays it smoother.

Too smooth? For me, it almost is. The album has a nice laid back feel, but it’s almost languid at times. The standard formula for many jazz albums, where solos are traded off between key players, is held to here, with the signature riff of the title track ‘Sugar’ revisited like bookends in the track. Turrentine’s first solo in the song is his most inspired, in what is probably the strongest cut on the record. Again, with much of CTI output from the early 1970s, the focus can be on ensemble playing and the impressive synergy between players and ‘Sugar’ is no different there, in that you have Hubbard, Benson and Carter as sidemen to name a few.

Soul Jazz is a nice genre for this album, as the focus is on that feel or sound, and Turrentine’s playing here is even sensual at times, perhaps no surprise considering the cover. ‘Sunshine Alley’ is a fair song, with a nice organ solo and some quintessential soloing from Hubbard toward the end, but doesn’t grab me. Perhaps the reasonably sedate, but by no means poor, drumming from Kaye adds to this feel.

‘Impressions’ is where things are kicked up a notch. You get more of a bop feel to Turrentine’s cover of the Coltrane song, and his soloing is more frenetic, the rest of the band feeding off this. Especially nice in this track is Carter’s bass, always solid but at times making his presence known by throwing in some interesting runs and flourishes.

Overall, it’s fine playing that offers a smooth, soul-inspired set of songs, with the standout ‘Sugar’ being the highpoint of an album that has no real flaws for me, save for being a little too smooth. While it doesn’t have strings of excessive overdubbing, the mood and playing doesn’t shift a lot between tracks and only the title track really stays with me. Three stars, a good album, with great playing, but not a favourite for me.

The reissue also includes a live cut of the title track, altering the line-up by adding Cobham on the kit and Hank Crawford on Alto, among others, and providing a harder, better version of the song.