Sounds of sax to soothe sore ears

Saxophonist Mark Turner made his Warner Brothers dΘbut in 1998

Saxophonist Mark Turner made his Warner Brothers dΘbut in 1998. It was a sound for sore ears, given the determination of so many other younger players to cram as many ill-considered notes as possible into every solo - their showy but pointless pyrotechnics making them the jazz sax equivalent of the heavy metal guitarist. Turner, however, was a more restrained and unaffected presence, with emphasis always on focus and mood. That's not to say he wasn't spectacular - he is a disciple of John Coltrane, after all.

"I think I was emotionally drawn to Coltrane," he says. "Even though I didn't understand what was going on. I'm not saying that I understand it now either - maybe no one does - but I understand it more than I did when I was 14. I noticed an incredible focus in his playing, and I related to that in my own personality. It was single-pointed and defined.

"Mind you, I think it depends on what record you hear first. At that time, I had some of his Atlantic records, but then, when someone gave me Transition, it took me a long time before I realised it was something powerful and great. It took me two years. So while I was drawn to Coltrane, I wasn't ready for everything."

Born in Fairborn, Ohio in 1965, Turner's introduction to jazz came via his parents' record collection, which included Sonny Stitt, Dizzy Gillespie, Eddie Harris, Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane. As he explored the music further, he began to listen to the saxophone players whom he surmised Coltrane had also been listening to - Dexter Gordon, Wardell Gray and Lester Young. The commanding but often forgotten presence of saxophonist Warne Marsh was another major influence as Turner took first to alto and then to tenor sax. Perhaps surprisingly, however, he suddenly took a left turn in his late teens and went to Long Beach College to study visual arts.

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"Probably anyone that's deeply into any art form is predisposed to other art forms. And because I was involved in visual arts I can see the connections with music - and it doesn't have to be jazz. For example, there's composition, line, form or colour, which can be melody and harmony. Those can relate very specifically, I think."

But, eventually, it was the music which came to dominate once more and in 1987 Turner transferred to Berklee College of Music - alma mater of so many of the future stars of contemporary jazz. Soon he was playing with Jorge Rossy, Seamus Blake, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Joshua Redman, Antonio Hart and more. It was heady stuff and it presented extraordinary challenges. For many of the students, it was the first time in their lives that they had met people as good as, or better, than they were themselves. The standard of musicianship was frighteningly high.

"It was definitely on the daunting side," Turner says. "And I was pretty overwhelmed when I went. But it was an excellent time. And yes, probably what I took away from it the most was the calibre of the other musicians in my peer group. That's not to say anything negative about the school, but that's what I enjoyed most about Berklee. I probably learnt more from them than from the school itself." In 1990, attracted by the musical urgency he felt on the East Coast, Turner headed for New York to seek out some like-minded musicians. Yes, he was keen to hear, at first hand, senior figures like Joe Henderson, John Scofield and Joe Lovano, but the real draw was the chance to play with his enthusiastic peers.

He has always known that New York was the place to be, but with more top-drawer jazz musicians in New York than anywhere else in the world, it must surely have been a difficult place to penetrate?

"Well, some people 'penetrate' in the sense that they come to New York and, bam, they're playing a lot. But I didn't. I was just inching away, playing with my peers. We'd get a gig somewhere, playing just for the hat and then move on from there, knowing more people and playing more places. Most musicians end up travelling rather than playing in New York anyway, so it's more just getting to the scene - the place where the people you want to play with actually play - and then just playing where they play."

Turner quickly made a name for himself working with Myron Walden and Chris Creek. He also gigged with Jimmy Smith, Delfeayo Marsalis, Steve Davis and Brad Mehldau and, in 1994, although he "didn't have an arsenal or a plan and wasn't really ready for it", he made his first recording as a leader in his own right. "I jump-started myself," he says.

Since then he has appeared on almost 40 albums, including half a dozen of his own - the latest, Dharma Days, featuring Kurt Rosenwinkel on guitar, Nasheet Waits on drums and Reid Anderson on bass. In forming this remarkable quartet of his own, Turner insists that he simply called people who played the way he liked them to. Telling people what to do is not his style - an approach which is also a feature of his sideline as a teacher.

"Probably the most that you can teach somebody is something that isn't personal," he says. "From my point of view, it's about information, skills and craft, which can mean harmony, melody and ear-training - which is a big thing, I think. You can also give your personal experience in discovering music and encourage others to find their own way. I don't feel it's a good idea just to show how I learned something and then be dogmatic about it because everyone has their own way of learning. So I help them find whatever that is and give them the information I have to give them."

Turner is one of the most original of the younger brigade. The influences of Coltrane and Marsh are there, but he certainly brings his own confident feel to everything he does - at times very accessible, at times very unusual indeed. At just 36, that's quite an achievement, and smart money is on Turner's name enduring long after the more theatrical performers have blown themselves out.

For his first Irish visit he is joined by three of the best - Rosenwinkel, Waits and Anderson - and Irish audiences will be left in little doubt that jazz is in a healthy state. Yes, the greats are passing on and the young turks are becoming the main draw perhaps a little too soon for comfort - but Turner is well able to step up. And despite some gloomy predictions for jazz in the next decade, he is more than optimistic. Times are good.

"I think it's extremely healthy - at least for people I know," he says. "And not just my generation but for the older musicians as well. It's a really exciting time because there's new music happening and more new music to come. Yes, there is a big challenge, but it is being met and it continues to be met. I'm totally optimistic and I'm glad that I was born to play this music now."

Mark Turner, with Kurt Rosenwinkel, Reid Anderson and Nasheet Waits, plays Ballymun Arts and Community Resource Centre, Dublin on Monday, October 15th; Triskel Arts Centre, Cork on Tuesday, October 16th; and Glentworth Hotel, Limerick on Wednesday, October 17th.