Results for Ike Turner
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Artist:

Ike Turner

Born:
Nov 05, 1931 in Clarksdale, Mississippi

Representative Songs:

"Matchbox," "Prancin'," "Ho Ho"

Representative Albums:

I Like Ike! The Best of Ike Turner, Trailblazer, 1958-1959

Similar Artists:

Sonny Boy Williamson [II], B.B. King, Howlin' Wolf, Jackie Brenston, Tina Turner, Robert Nighthawk, Bobby "Blue" Bland

A Member of the Group:

Ike & Tina Turner

Performed Songs By:

Jules Taub, Sylvester "Sly Stone" Stewart, Sylvia Robinson, Don Robey, Don Goodman, Jeff Barry, Paul McCartney, Curtis Mayfield, John Lennon, John Fogerty, Sam Cooke, Jerry Butler

Worked With:

Willie Steel, Otis Rush, Odie Payne, Bob Krasnow, William Johnson, Elmore James, Fred Below, Jody Williams, Willie Dixon

Followers:

Jitterbug Webb, Bill Johnson, Billy "The Kid" Emerson, Patrick Moten, Julius Hemphill, Tina Turner, Rufus Thomas, Eddie Shaw
  • Alternative Name: Eki Renrut
  • Genre: Rhythm & Blues
  • Active: '50s - 2000s
  • Instruments: Vocals, Guitar (Electric), Piano, Guitar

Biography

Ike Turner is certainly one of the most dehumanized figures in rock history. Mention his name and the first association that comes to most anyone's mind is "abusive husband," not "soul star" or "rock & roll pioneer." According to legend, Turner was a tyrannical ogre who used physical violence and psychological intimidation to control his infinitely more talented wife Tina, while indulging his own appetites for cocaine and women at every turn. That's not entirely accurate, although by most accounts Turner did quite a bit to earn that reputation; he spent time in prison due to his drug problems, and his own refutations of Tina's allegations of abuse have been inconsistent at best over the years. Still, this view of Turner as villain does a disservice to his very real musical legacy as an instrumentalist and bandleader. As a pianist in the early '50s, Turner helped lay the groundwork for rock & roll; he was also a distinctive guitarist with a biting, nasty tone, and was one of the first to make the whammy bar an integral part of his sound. It's true that he was nowhere near the singer Tina was, and it's probably also true that she was his ticket to stardom; moreover, his songwriting, while sometimes inspired, often possessed a generic quality that made consistent chart appearances difficult. But as a bandleader, his disciplinarian approach -- when it wasn't manifesting itself in darker fashion, that is -- resulted in undeniably tight, well-drilled ensembles and some of the most exhilarating live shows the R&B world ever saw -- centered around Tina, yes, but spectacles nonetheless. If Turner isn't exactly the most defensible character around, in the end his musical strengths and weaknesses deserve the same objective appraisal as anyone.

Izear Luster Turner, Jr. was born November 5, 1931, in Clarksdale, MS, the heart of the segregated South. His father was beaten to death by a mob of angry whites, and growing up in a hostile environment unquestionably hardened Turner. He found his calling in music from an early age; he learned boogie-woogie piano firsthand from his inspiration, Pinetop Perkins, and as a teenager talked himself into a DJ slot on the local radio station, where he played everything from the jump blues of Louis Jordan to country & western. He formed his first band while still in high school, and by the late '40s had assembled an outfit dubbed the Kings of Rhythm. In 1951, the Kings of Rhythm traveled to Memphis to record at Sam Phillips' Sun studio. Their original tune "Rocket 88" (actual authorship is still disputed) was recorded with a lead vocal by sax player Jackie Brenston, and as a result was released under the name Jackie Brenston & His Delta Cats, not Ike Turner & His Kings of Rhythm. "Rocket 88" zoomed to the top of the R&B charts and is today regarded by many critics as being quite possibly the first true rock & roll record. Brenston subsequently departed for an unsuccessful solo career, while Turner and his band became session regulars around Memphis; they went on to back legendary bluesmen like Howlin' Wolf ("How Many More Years"), Elmore James, Otis Rush ("Double Trouble," "All Your Love"), Robert Nighthawk, Buddy Guy, and Sonny Boy Williamson II, plus an assortment of Sun artists. During the early '50s, Turner switched from piano to guitar, and also doubled as a talent scout for the Bihari Brothers' Los Angeles-based Modern Records, where he helped get early breaks for artists like Howlin' Wolf and B.B. King.

During the mid-'50s, Turner moved the Kings of Rhythm to East St. Louis, where they rose to the top of the local R&B circuit; Brenston rejoined in 1955, and the group also continued its session activity. Turner sometimes issued records under his own name on labels like Flair, RPM, and Federal, also using the aliases Icky Renrut and Lover Boy. Adopting a revue format for their live performances, the Kings of Rhythm worked with a revolving group of vocalists during this period. One was a teenaged singer originally from Tennessee named Anna Mae Bullock, who met Turner in 1956. She joined the revue, and moved into Turner's house after becoming pregnant by the band's sax player; soon, she and Turner began their own relationship and had a child of their own, marrying in 1958.

Renamed Tina, Turner's new (and latest) wife got her first chance to sing lead on a recording in late 1959, cutting "A Fool in Love" for the Sue label. Released the following year, the song was a runaway smash on the R&B charts, peaking at number two. Turner realized he'd discovered a potential breakout star, and reshaped the band into the Ike & Tina Turner Revue, with Tina now the centerpiece of the act. It took a little time for all involved to get their bearings, but in the meantime, the hits kept coming; "I Idolize You," "It's Gonna Work Out Fine," "Poor Fool," and "Tra La La La La" all hit the R&B Top Ten, a string that ran through 1962. (All except "It's Gonna Work Out Fine" were written by Turner.) 1962 also saw the release of Dance With Ike & Tina Turner & Their Kings of Rhythm Band, an all-instrumental album that showcased Turner's unpredictable guitar work at its best. As Ike & Tina became one of the hardest-working, most popular acts on the so-called chitlin circuit, they recorded for a number of independent labels over the next few years; however, since Turner's original material was increasingly standard-issue, their chart fortunes declined somewhat.

At the same time, the temptations of fame were proving too much for Turner; he developed a severe addiction to cocaine that, when mixed with his dominant personality and quick temper, made for a volatile combination. According to Tina's autobiography, Turner grew increasingly violent, beating her frequently and even burning her with cigarettes and coffee if she got out of line. Turner himself disputes the severity of Tina's claims, but it's worth noting that he had a widespread reputation for being difficult. When producer Phil Spector attempted a commercial comeback around Tina in 1966, he struck a deal with Turner: in exchange for being allowed to record Tina, Ike would receive full credit and billing on the records, but Ike would also not be allowed to set foot in the studio or to meddle with the finished recordings. Spector's collaboration with Tina produced the epic "River Deep - Mountain High," still regarded by many as one of rock's greatest singles, and Ike's involvement was nil -- which, naturally, didn't sit well with him.

In 1969, Ike & Tina were invited to open for the Rolling Stones, and Turner realized that changing times had made the Revue's rough, nasty brand of soul music more palatable to white rock audiences. Accordingly, Turner incorporated contemporary rock & roll covers into the Revue's repertoire, giving them a whole new lease on life. Versions of "Come Together," "I Want to Take You Higher," and "Proud Mary" revived Ike & Tina's chart fortunes -- especially "Proud Mary," which became their first Top Five pop single in 1971 and also won a Grammy. However, Turner's off-stage problems were taking their toll on the act; 1973's "Nutbush City Limits," a song written by Tina, would be their last major hit, and Tina walked out on him in the middle of a 1975 tour.

The Turners' divorce was finalized the following year, and Ike never quite recovered from the loss. For a while, he quit touring to settle in and run the recording studio, Bolic, he'd opened in Los Angeles in 1970. He was too accustomed to life on the road, though, and formed a new outfit that, naturally, didn't measure up to his past success; he also released a couple of solo records on Red Lightnin'. Turner's cocaine addiction drained most of his finances, and his recording studio burned to the ground in 1982. He ran afoul of the law as well, and was arrested numerous times on mostly drug-related offenses. When he and Tina were jointly inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991, he was unable to attend the ceremony because he was serving prison time. When Tina's autobiography was adapted into the 1993 film What's Love Got to Do With It, Turner signed away all of his rights, allowing the filmmakers to take narrative liberties for dramatic effect if they chose. Turner attempted a comeback after being released from prison; he also remarried and finally overcame his addictions to live a clean, sober life. At first he tried to keep up with the times musically, but after touring with Joe Louis Walker as a pianist and guitarist, he realized there was more demand for his original style, and formed a new version of the Kings of Rhythm. His autobiography, Takin' Back My Name, was published by a U.K. company in 1999, and in 2001 he released a new album, Here and Now, which was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Traditional Blues Album category; it was also nominated for several W.C. Handy Awards (the blues equivalent of the Grammys) and took honors for Comeback Album of the Year. Risin' with the Blues, released five years later, was nominated for a Grammy in the same category. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide
 
 
Actor:

Ike Turner

  • Born: 1931 in Clarksdale, Mississippi
  • Occupation: Actor
  • Active: '60s-2000s
  • Major Genres: Music, Comedy
  • Career Highlights: Bull Durham, Hairspray, Taking Off
  • First Major Screen Credit: Taking Off (1971)

Biography

Best known as the singer/musician who launched the career of his former wife Tina Turner, Ike Turner is not an actor, but he has cameoed in a few films, usually accompanied by his more famous ex. An excellent chronicle of their tempestuous marriage can be found in the biography What's Love Got to Do with It? ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

 
Wikipedia: Ike Turner
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Ike Turner
Ike Turner at the Long Beach Blues Festival, 1997
Ike Turner at the Long Beach Blues Festival, 1997
Background information
Birth name Ike Wister Turner
Born November 5 1931(1931--)
Clarksdale, Mississippi, USA
Died December 12 2007 (aged 76)
San Marcos, California, USA
Genre(s) R&B
Funk
Soul-blues
Memphis blues
Rock and roll
Occupation(s) musician
Instrument(s) Guitar
Piano
Years active 1951-2007
Associated
acts		 Tina Turner
Website IkeTurner.com

Ike Wister Turner (November 5 1931 – December 12 2007) was an American musician, bandleader, talent scout, and record producer, best known for his work with his then wife Tina Turner as one half of the Ike & Tina Turner duo. Spanning a career that lasted half a century, Ike's repertoire included blues, soul, rock, and funk. Alongside his former wife, he was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991 and in 2001 was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame.

Biography

Early life and career

Turner was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi on November 5, 1931, to Beatrice Cushenberry and Izear Luster Turner. (He said he had believed his name was Izear Luster Turner Jr. until he discovered on applying for a passport that it was Ike Wister Turner.[1]) Ike got his first taste of pleasing an audience at the age of eight working at the local Clarksdale radio station, WROX, located in the Alcazar Hotel in downtown Clarksdale. A man in charge of the station put Turner to work as he watched the record turntables. Said Turner:


“ I got a job driving the elevator in the Alcazar and the radio station was on the second floor. It was very exciting to me, a radio station. I'd run up to the second floor and look through the window at the guy spinning records. He saw me and told me to come in and showed me how to 'hold a record.' I'd sit there and hold it until the one playing stopped, then I'd turn a knob and the one I was holding would play. Next thing I know, he was going across the street for coffee and leaving me in there alone. I was only eight. That was the beginning of my thing with music. ”

Turner was soon carrying amplifiers for blues singer Robert Nighthawk, who often played live on WROX. Ike was mesmerized by Nighthawk's playing, but nothing could equal the experience of hearing Pinetop Perkins on piano for the first time. Growing up, his idol Pinetop Perkins helped teach the young Ike to play boogie-woogie on the piano. Ike soon was enamored of other blues artists such as Howlin' Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller), Elmore James, Muddy Waters and Little Walter[2].

Many sources state Turner's real name to be "Izear Luster Turner, Jr." however, in his autobiography Takin' Back My Name, it is stated as "Ike Wister Turner." In the book, Turner explains about this confusion. His father, Izear Luster Turner, was a minister for the local church. Turner had thought he was named Izear Luster Turner, Jr. after his father, until he found out that his name was registered as Ike Wister Turner while applying for his first passport. He never got to discover the origin of his name, as by the time he discovered it, his parents were both dead.

Music career

Ike Turner's actual music career began in earnest in the late-1940s where he formed a group whom he christened The Kings of Rhythm. In 1951, the band recorded what historians have debated as "the first rock and roll record"[3] with "Rocket 88", listed on the charts as Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats. Brenston was both the band's saxophonist and the leading vocalist of the song and Turner was the original writer though credits initially stated that Brenston had written it also. The song was one of the first examples of guitar distortion, which happened by accident when one of the amplifiers dropped before the recording. Ike and the Kings of Rhythm settled into local fame in St. Louis where the band locally recorded for a St. Louis label and even appeared on local television shows. Throughout this early period, Turner became a recording scout and A&R man for independent record companies including Sun Records - where "Rocket 88" was recorded, helping the likes of Howlin' Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, Elmore James and Otis Rush get signed. He also became a sideman playing guitar for these blues acts and more. Musically, Turner was known for his hard-hitting guitar style. He was known to put the whammy bar of his Fender Stratocaster to frequent use.

Turner's music career changed drastically after meeting a teenage singer from Nutbush, Tennessee, named Anna Mae Bullock, who demandingly grabbed a microphone during a singing session at one of St. Louis' nightspots and sang a BB King song in her now-trademark throated raspy vocals. Bullock's performance impressed Ike so much he allowed Anna to join his band as a background singer. However within a year, Ike's plans for Bullock changed after Anna recorded what he originally stated was a demo for a song that was to be sung by a male vocalist. After hearing her vocals, he let it be released under an independent label and in the process changed the name of the singer from Anna Mae Bullock to Tina Turner - naming her after Sheena - and the name of the band to the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. That song, "A Fool in Love", became a national hit in early 1960, reaching the top three in the R&B charts and becoming a top thirty pop hit in the process. From then until 1976, Ike and Tina Turner became one of the most explosive duos in rock & soul music. The creation of the revue also led to the soul revues of the 1960s. Inspired by Ray Charles, Turner created a trio of sexy background singers and dancers who were named The Ikettes who often had their moves choreographed by Tina and Ike. The Turners eventually scored several hit singles including "It's Gonna Work Out Fine", "River Deep - Mountain High", "I Want To Take You Higher", "Proud Mary", and "Nutbush City Limits" over thirteen years.

The success the duo contributed eventually led to the creation of the Los Angeles-based Bolic Sounds studio, founded by Ike. However, after Tina abruptly left Ike after a violent altercation in 1976, Ike lost ground in the national music market. As a solo artist, he struggled to find success after Tina and after releasing two failed solo albums, had found himself facing drug and weapons charges, in which he was convicted of in 1989. Shortly after Ike's release from prison in 1993, the musician went back on the road and back into recording music, which continued until his death. In 2001, Ike released the Grammy-nominated Here & Now album. Three years later, he was awarded with an "Heroes Award" from the Memphis charter of NARAS. In 2005, he appeared on the Gorillaz' album, Demon Days, playing piano on the track, "Every Planet We Reach Is Dead". He played live with the band on the band's world tour to that particular song. In 2007, Ike won his first solo Grammy in the Best Traditional Blues Album category for the album, Risin' With the Blues. Before his death, a collaboration between Turner and the rock band, The Black Keys, by Gorillaz' producer Danger Mouse was expected for release next year.

Personal life

Turner is said to have been married 14 times but he has only been known to have married four times publicly. Turner's first marriage was to Lorraine Taylor, who had two sons with Ike. The facts surrounding his second marriage, to Anna Mae Bullock (otherwise known as Tina Turner), have been hotly debated. It is believed that Ike married Tina in 1962 due to worries over being sued for child support and alimony payments by Taylor. The ceremony is claimed to have taken place in Tijuana, Mexico, and Tina had a son with Ike. However, their marriage was overshadowed by Ike's constant abuse towards her. Tina filed for divorce and it was finalized in 1978, with Ike keeping every asset attained during the marriage. Ike is said to have openly cheated on Tina with other women, one of which was former Ikette Ann Thomas, whom he had a baby by and whom he later married in 1981. In 1995, he married yet another Ikette, Jeanette Bazzell. Ike has four known children: sons, Ike Jr., Michael and Ronald and daughter, Mia.[4]

In the mid-1980s, Turner suffered a brush with the law when he was convicted of drug-related charges and sentenced to several years in a California state prison. Turner was still in prison pleading parole when he and Tina were inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1991, which Tina accepted on his behalf.

In 2001, Turner's long-awaited autobiography, Takin' Back My Name (ISBN 1-85227-850-1), was published. In Tina Turner's 1986 autobiography I, Tina, later filmed as What's Love Got to Do with It?, Tina accused Ike of violent spousal abuse, which Ike repeatedly denied for many years. However, in his 2001 autobiography Ike admitted, "Sure, I've slapped Tina... There have been times when I punched her to the ground without thinking. But I never beat her."

Turner has attributed many problems off the stage to his drug and alcohol addiction and intense use of cocaine, resulting in his abusive behavior and relationship with his wife and children. Since being released from prison in 1993, Turner had maintained sobriety and continued playing music.

On October 17, 2007, in a telephone interview conducted by satellite radio personality, Howard Stern, Ike claimed that he and Tina Turner were never actually married, though he did not explain why they shared the same last name.[citation needed]

Death

Turner died on December 12, 2007 at 76 years old at his home in San Marcos, California, near San Diego. [5] The cause of death was not immediately released but Jeanette Bazzell Turner reported that he had emphysema.[6]

Discography

Ike & Tina Turner

Main article: Ike & Tina Turner discography

Other

  • 1969: Ike Turner & The Kings of Rhythm: A Black Man's Soul
  • 2004: Here & Now
  • 2007: Rising with the Blues

Notes

  1. ^ http://music.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2226690,00.html
  2. ^ http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A80925
  3. ^ Kinsman, Michael. "Rock 'n' roll pioneer Ike Turner dies at 76", San Diego Union Tribune, The Copley Press, December 12, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-12-13. 
  4. ^ http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CEFDB153EF936A3575AC0A967958260 New York Times
  5. ^ Ike Turner dies at 76. Retrieved 2007-12-12
  6. ^ Pareles, Jon. "Ike Turner, Musician and Songwriter in Duo With Tina Turner, Dies at 76", The New York Times, 2007-12-13. Retrieved on 2007-12-13. 

External links


Persondata
NAME Turner, Ike Wister
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION American musician
DATE OF BIRTH November 5, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Clarksdale, Mississippi, United States
DATE OF DEATH December 12, 2007
PLACE OF DEATH San Marcos, California, United States

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

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Copyrights:

Artist. Copyright © 2008 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ® , a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Actor. Copyright © 2006 All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Ike Turner".  Read more

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