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MIKE TURK
- Cambridge, MA
- United States
Music
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MIKE TURK and Rick Stone are now friends
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MIKE TURK and Rick Britto are now friends
Profile Information
- First Name
- Mike
- I am here for:
- Gigs, Job Inquiries, Networking
- Employment Status
- Self-Employed
- About Me:
- Jazz Chromatic Harmonica musician based in Boston, MA area.
- Musical Background & Experience:
- Biography
Bronx-born Turk began his passion for the harmonica in his early teen years, learning licks off albums by leading Chicago blues harp exponents Paul Butterfield, Little Walter, and James Cotton. After deciding to take up the life of a professional jazz-and-blues musician, he traveled to Boston in the mid-1970s and became a fixture at many local clubs.
Turk's first solo CD project, Harmonica Salad, was a brilliant travelogue of blues, jazz, standards, and several points in between, with scenery provided by a constantly changing cast of accompanists. Turk's Works is a more singleminded excursion in which Turk has set himself in the middle of a killer quintet and let the tape run. What we get is an inspired, exhilarating, and very live set of sterling jazz. No formulaic drill, no 'theme' concept passed down from the folks in Marketing, no sprint to the finish line."
Education being a lifelong process, Turk has continued to learn. He can now look back on nearly two decades of refining his jazz voice to a point where it is pure and natural. The blues roots are there... " What we get, though, is music where the ideas and the swing are unforced, where everything flows with such assurance that one forgets that Turk plays one of the jazz world's miscellaneous instruments and simply hears his harmonica as a lead voice, comfortable and in-place as the more familiar trumpet or sax."...Bob Blumenthal, Boston Phoenix
Instrumentation
MIKE TURK - jazz harmonica
Alessandro Di Puccio -vibraphone, percussion, Paolo Birro - piano , Paolo Ghetti— bass, Alessandro Fabbri— drums
Discography
Mike's Recordings
· The Nature Of Things (2008) Tin Sandwich Records
· The Mouth That Roared (2007) Tin Sandwich Records
· A Little Taste of Cannonball (1999) Organic Music
· Turk's Works (1996) Tin Sandwich Records
· Harmonica Salad (1992) Tin Sandwich Records
Streaming examples at: www.tinsandwichmusic.com
- and- MySpace URL:
http://www.myspace.com/miketurkharmonicajazz
Links
http://www.miketurk.com
- Website:
- http://www.miketurk.com
- Website:
- http://www.tinsandwichmusic.com
MIKE TURK's Photos
MIKE TURK's Videos
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I'm Old Fashioned
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Blog Posts
The State of Jazz Today
Posted by Walt B on June 2, 2009 at 1:24pm — 5 Comments
Sonny Stitt Transcription
Posted by Jeff Rzepiela on July 22, 2010 at 9:55am
Jazz CD Reviews
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I was not too Knowledgable on chromatic Jazz Harmonica the only names that came to mind were Toots Thielemans and Tollak Ollestad now I have a third Mike Turk. Neptune comp A Fibbri is the stand out track for me, just beautiful! by the number of plays it's everybody else's favourite too!
All the best
Peter