Sugar – 1987
Stanley Turrentine
A super-charged version with Freddie Hubbard and Jimmy Smith
Click here to Support Jazz on the Tube
Tenor-saxophonist Stanley Turrentine first recorded “Sugar,” his most famous song, in 1970 as the title cut for one of the classic CTI albums.
The original lineup teamed “Mr. T” with trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, Lonnie Liston Smith on electric piano, guitarist George Benson, bassist Ron Carter, and drummer Billy Kaye.
The song became so popular that Turrentine was nicknamed “The Sugar Man.”
There were also recorded live versions by Turrentine in 1971 and a remake in 1977.
This performance, from the Mt. Fuji Festival in 1987, has Turrentine joined again by Freddie Hubbard and Ron Carter but this time with organist Jimmy Smith, guitarist Kenny Burrell, and drummer Joe Chambers.
An animated Hubbard takes a blazing solo with plenty of high notes and there are also stirring statements by Smith and Turrentine that make this a particularly memorable performance.
-Scott Yanow
Ella Fitzgerald