Turrentine was born in Pittsburgh's Hill District into a musical family. His father, Thomas Turrentine, Sr., was a saxophonist with Al Cooper's Savoy Sultans, his mother played stride piano, and his older brother Tommy Turrentine became a professional trumpet player.
He began his prolific career with blues and rhythm and blues bands, and was at first greatly influenced by Illinois Jacquet. In the 1950s, he went on to play with the groups of Lowell Fulson, Earl Bostic, and at the turn of the decade, Max Roach.
Turrentine received his only formal musical training during his military stint in the mid-'50s. In 1959, he jumped from the frying pan into the fire when he left the military and went straight into the band of the great drummer Max Roach.
He married the organist Shirley Scott in 1960 and the two frequently played and recorded together. In the 1960s, he started working with organist Jimmy Smith, and made many soul jazz recordings both with Smith and as a leader.
In the 1970s, after his professional split and divorce from Scott, Turrentine turned to jazz fusion and signed for Creed Taylor's CTI label. His first album for CTI, Sugar proved one of his biggest successes and a seminal recording for the label. He worked with Freddie Hubbard, Milt Jackson, George Benson, Bob James, Richard Tee, Idris Muhammad, Ron Carter, Grant Green and Eric Gale, to name a few. He returned to soul jazz in the 1980s and into the 1990s.
Turrentine lived in Fort Washington, Maryland from the early 90s until his death.
He died of a stroke in New York City on September 12, 2000 and is buried in Pittsburgh's Allegheny Cemetery
Yesterdays
Stanley Turrentine Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
when we would dream and scheme and while the time away,
I have a dream, so did you.
Life was warms, love was true,
Two kids who followed all the rules, yester-fools,
and now, now it seems those yester-dreams were just a cruel
and foolish game we used to play,
yester-me, yester-you, yester-day.
Where did it go, that yester-glow
When we could feel the wheel of life turn our way.
Yester-me, yester-you, yester-day.
When I recall what we had,
I feel lost, I feel sad.
With nothing but the mem'ry of yester-love
and now now it seems those yester-dreams were just a cruel
and foolish game we used to play,
yester-me, yester-you, yester-day.
The lyrics for Stanley Turrentine's song Yesterdays is one that encompasses themes of reminiscing and longing for the past. The first verse talks about a world that once existed where people dreamt, schemed, and took their time with things. It was a world where two young lovers followed all the rules and believed that life was warm and love was true. However, as the chorus indicates, they were merely yester-fools who played a cruel and foolish game with their yester-dreams which were nothing more than fading memories of what they used to have. The second verse talks about how the yester-glow that they once had has vanished and how they can only recall the memories of what they used to have as they feel lost, and sad.
The lyrics of the song evoke a sense of yearning and nostalgia for a past that is long gone. The song speaks to the universal human experience of looking back on fond memories and life's ups and downs, questioning where things went wrong, and longing for the way things used to be. The lines 'yester-me, yester-you, yester-day' is a powerful reminder that the past cannot be changed no matter how much one longs for it.
Line by Line Meaning
What happened to the world we knew,
What caused the changes in the world we once knew so well?
when we would dream and scheme and while the time away,
When we were carefree and spent our time daydreaming and making plans.
I have a dream, so did you.
We both had hopes and aspirations for our future.
Life was warms, love was true,
Life was full of warmth and love, and it felt genuine.
Two kids who followed all the rules, yester-fools,
We were naive and foolish, believing that following the rules would lead us to happiness.
and now, now it seems those yester-dreams were just a cruel
Looking back on our past ambitions, they now seem harsh and unkind.
and foolish game we used to play,
The games we played with our dreams were childish and foolish.
yester-me, yester-you, yester-day.
All of this was done in the past, between you and me, back in the day.
Where did it go, that yester-glow
Where did the former brilliance of our youth go?
When we could feel the wheel of life turn our way.
Back when we thought we were in control of our lives and could direct it however we pleased.
When I recall what we had,
When I look back on what we used to possess.
I feel lost, I feel sad.
I'm filled with grief and melancholy.
With nothing but the mem'ry of yester-love
All we have left is the memory of the love we once shared.
and now now it seems those yester-dreams were just a cruel
It appears that our dreams of the past were unfair and wretched.
and foolish game we used to play,
We indulged in childish and meaningless activities with our past dreams.
yester-me, yester-you, yester-day.
This was all in the past, between you and me, and yesterday.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Bryan Wells, Ronald N. Miller
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Brooker Wood
Stanley's 60's material has to be some of the most tasteful soul jazz ever recorded. I can't get enough!
Jazz Apartment
I agree. Especially the sound with Shirley Scott.
Paul Sorensen
No matter what Mr. T plays - it is a black soulful language he uses throughout his playing! You can't dice it up. S.T. was a master of soulful sax playing, and if you think it is cool too - that's ok man!
Brooker Wood
This is definitely not cool jazz. That was a west coast style played by guys like Bud Shank and Bill Perkins. Stanley T's early work was classic soul jazz in its purest form same as Bobby Timmons and Shirley Scott. And yes it is a jazz standard.
DJDJANGO1
Soul Jazz is a splicing of both styles of R&B....arrangements like The IN Croud etc. This is just a straight-ahead Jazz standard played Cool by Mister T. He has done the Soul Jazz style...but later by the mid to late 60's. There was no genre of Soul pre 1963. Soul as a term then meant comng from the Black Church.
TheGurner1
The real deal - grease - otherwise known as toe-jam, the funksters funk
DJDJANGO1
This is Cool Jazz....soulful yes. But not Soul Jazz. Thats anotha animal al2getha. This is an old Jazz standard.
DJDJANGO1
Rookie mistake! The 'Cool' skool originally came from Black artists like Miles.U reading too many Eurocentric Muso Guides to Jazz who see the Cool Jazz period almost exclusively about the White pop wannabees like Shank and Baker.