Mark Turner Quartet

In a career spanning two decades and encompassing a wide range of musical endeavors, saxophonist Mark Turner has emerged as a towering figure on the jazz scene. With his distinctive, personal tone, unique improvisational skills and innovative, sophisticated compositional approach, he has earned a far-reaching reputation as one of jazz's most original and influential musical forces.

Born in Ohio in 1965 and raised in Southern California, Turner grew up surrounded by music. "There was always a lot of R&B, jazz, soul and gospel playing in our house," he recalls. "This was in the early '70s, when the whole integration and civil rights movement was starting to become mainstream, and my mother and stepfather were part of the first wave of young black professionals and intellectuals moving into upper-middle-class white neighborhoods. They and their friends were always going out to hear live jazz. I was fascinated by that, and I was also fascinated by the whole history of jazz music and African-American culture and the music itself. Turner, who is now firmly part of this jazz tradition/culture, has not only released more than a dozen albums as a leader, but is also very productive as a sideman.

He has recorded and toured with musicians as diverse as Jakob Bro, Tom Harrell, Billy Hart, Ed Simon, Enrico Rava, Kurt Rosenwinkel, David Virelles, Ethan Iverson, Baptiste Trotignon and The SFJazz Collective. In 2022, Turner released his critically acclaimed album Return from the Stars (named after Stanislav Lem's science fiction novel).

The current program offers his quartet plenty of room to unfold and is as exhilarating as it is thought-provoking. The solos flow organically from the arrangements and, alongside the often astonishing interplay between Turner's tenor and Jason Palmer's trumpet, the rhythm section of Joe Martin (bass) and Jonathan Pinson (drums) can move freely as well as in coordinated interplay. At the end of 2023, Turner released this music in a captivating live recording from the Village Vanguard, which was awarded 5 stars by Downbeat magazine - he brings this program to the stage of the Stadtgarten with his quartet.