js Throughout much of the 60s and early 70s, saxophonist Stanley Turrentine participated in some of the finest RnB flavored jazz records out there. Fast forward to 1977 and the jazz world is going through some serious growing pains as artists forget about the music and concentrate on the money with watered down fusion and disco ruling the day. Turpentine’s “Flipped-Flipped Out” came out in 77 and carries a lot of the commercial baggage of that time period. The first side is the worse with very simplistic arrangements of Motown classics done up with bland strings and uninspired lead lines from Stanley. All of these old Motown chestnuts were gems in their original formats, but these instrumental readings on “Flipped” drain all the fun and life out of the originals. As I was listening to Turrentine’s tired reading of “My Cherie Amour”, I couldn’t help comparing it to Rahsan Roland Kirk’s vibrant and lively version of the same song.

On the second side things improve a bit as the arrangers mostly leave out the simple string arrangements and go for a more RnBish rhythm section and some backing horns. Gone also are the tired Motown covers, replaced with somewhat generic RnB tunes by arranger Monk Higgins and cohort Dee Ervin. Fans of Turrentine and RnB/jazz in general may want to get this album for the tunes on the second side, they’re ok, but Stanley has done better. The first side is mostly ignorable, there’s no rule that says that pop-jazz has to be this bland.