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Joe Turner began singing on street corners and then in speakeasys in his home town of Kansas City, MO in the 1920s. There he met his longtime musical partner, boogie woogie piano player Pete Jonson. Turner and Johnson developed jump blues sound which was picked up by performers like Wynonie Harris and Louis Jordan. Turner and Johnson moved to New York in 1936 and appeared with Benny Goodman and were invited to take part in one of John Hammond’s “From Spirituals to Swing” concerts at Carnegie Hall. In 1941 Joe Turner became a part of Duke Ellington’s Jump for Joy review in Hollywood, CA. He also toured with Count Basie’s orchestra.

This song, which Big Joe Turner recorded in 1954 was covered, in a cleaned up version by Bill Haley & His Comets and became a rock and roll standard. Turner’s version would technically be considered jump blues, but because of the association with Bill Haley, it is considered rock and roll. The difference is really only in the number of wind instruments in the band or the prominence of the guitar.

Turner continued to perform, mostly at European jazz festivals, into the 1980s. He was inducted, posthumously, into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.

The first rock and roll movie was probably “The Jazz Singer” starring Al Jolson. The minute that sound was added to pictures, the musicians moved in and started making thinly plotted, highly entertaining music pictures. This clip is of the title tune to a 1947 flic “Reet, Petite and Gone” featuring Louis Jordan and his Timpany Five, here called his Tympany Band, I guess because there are six of them. Jordan developed the “jump” blues style which made him very popular in the 40s and 50s. His performances always included a lot of humor and a driving rhythm. Many of his songs are still heard, such as “Five Guys Named Moe,” “Choo Choo Ch’Boogie,” “Caldonia,” and the precursor to rap, “Beware Brother Beware.” Listen to the boogie woogie piano opening this song and how it derives from the stride piano we heard from Fats Waller.