Stanley Turrentine

Easy Walker finds the tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine fronting a quartet, in a session recorded on 8 July 1966 and issued by Blue Note in early 1968 as BST 84268. It sits right in his sweet spot, with hard-grooving numbers, sultry ballads and his reading of a pop hit of the day. The small band leaves a lot of space around the tenor.

Turrentine is joined by McCoy Tyner on piano, Bob Cranshaw on bass and Mickey Roker on drums. Alfred Lion produced the date, Rudy Van Gelder recorded it, and the original liner notes were written by Nat Hentoff.

The album opens with Meat Wave, a hard-grooving tune, followed by They All Say That I'm the Biggest Fool, a ballad by Buddy Johnson that suits Turrentine's warm, bluesy tone. Yours Is My Heart Alone, an operetta song by Franz Lehár, closes the first side. The second opens with the laid-back, easy-swinging title track, written by the pianist Billy Taylor. It also holds Turrentine's version of What the World Needs Now Is Love by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, and Alone Together ends the set.

Reviewing it for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine noted that the record offers little challenging material but lets the musicians work a good groove, with room for some fine improvising. He called it a good, relaxing soul jazz session. Later CD editions added a track from an unissued session arranged by Duke Pearson and four pieces from 1969 first released on Ain't No Way, none of which appear on this LP.

This Blue Note Classic Vinyl edition is stereo and all-analogue, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal. The jacket reproduces the original design by Reid Miles, with Hentoff's liner notes.