Alan Lawrence Turnbull, (23 November 1943 – 28 August 2014) was an Australian jazz drummer and freelance professional musician.''A Dictionary of Australian Music'', Oxford University Press Australia, , p326

Biography

Alan Turnbull was born in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, in 1943. After taking drum lessons from Graham Morgan he commenced his professional career at the age of 14, playing with top local jazz musicians such as

Graeme Lyall Graeme William Lyall ( AM), is an Australian saxophonist, composer and arranger. He became a Member of the Order of Australia on 26 January 2003: "''For service to music as Artistic Director of the Western Australian Youth Jazz Orchestra, and ...

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while filling in for drummer

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's Melbourne jazz venue "Jazz Centre 44". Moving to Sydney in the late 1960s, Turnbull soon became very active in the jazz scene and worked regularly as a freelance professional musician, including a number of years with the Don Burrows quartet which worked regularly at Sydney's El Rocco jazz club, the Wentwoth Hotel Supper Club, and at various concerts and venues throughout

. He also performed at various international festivals with that quartet, including

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, Newport Jazz Festival and also at

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...

. The drumset/double bass partnership of Turnbull and American double bassist Ed Gaston set a new standard for swing jazz rhythm sections in Australia; and would influence Australian rhythm sections for decades. In the following years he worked with a large number of high-profile jazz musicians and popular entertainers, including

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, Richie Cole,

Cleo Laine Dame Cleo Laine, Lady Dankworth (born Clementine Dinah Bullock; 28 October 1927)Billy Eckstine William Clarence Eckstine (July 8, 1914 – March 8, 1993) was an American jazz and pop singer and a bandleader during the swing and bebop eras. He was noted for his rich, almost operatic bass-baritone voice. In 2019, Eckstine was posthumously ...

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, Billy Field, and Neil Sedaka and he has also performed with the

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and the

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. Alan Turnbull appeared on numerous recordings, including those of Don Burrows,

Rolf Stube Rolf Stübe is an Australian jazz bassist. At the ARIA Music Awards of 1998, he was nominated for ARIA Award for Best Jazz Album for ''Rolf Stübe and the Jazz Police''. It was recorded with John Harkins (piano), Warwick Alder (trumpet), Alan T ...

's Jazz Police,

Graeme Norris Graham and Graeme may refer to: People * Graham (given name), an English-language given name * Graham (surname), an English-language surname * Graeme (surname), an English-language surname * Graham (musician) (born 1979), Burmese singer * Clan ...

Band (recorded in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

), The

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, The Two with Paul Macnamara, Neil Sedaka and Billy Field.

References

Bibliography

*Clare, John (1995), ''Bodgie Dada and the Cult of the Cool'', University of NSW Press. . *Bruce Johnson (1987), ''The Oxford Companion To Australian Jazz'', Oxford University Press. {{DEFAULTSORT:Turnbull, Alan 1943 births 2014 deaths Australian jazz drummers Male drummers 20th-century Australian musicians 20th-century drummers 20th-century Australian male musicians Male jazz musicians