Jazz Breaking News: Farewell Richard Turner, trumpeter and bandleader

But like the song says, it’s not those birth and death dates that matter, but the dash in between, how you fill every unforgiving minute with life that matters. And Turner the trumpet man knew how to do that.

When we met just a few weeks ago, he’d talked with understandable excitement about his band Round Trip’s eponymous new album, about the “proper jazz story!” (his words) of Gary Husband plucking him from obscurity to play and record in his starry Drive, and the joy of playing in the Mike Gibbs band alongside former mentors from his student days at the Royal Academy. And of course, there was the Con Cellar bar weekly gig that he hosted and festivals that he’d kicked off and continued with such commitment over the years. Another river that ran through our conversation was the swimming that had so nearly been his life before he took the jazz path and would sadly come to be a final companion.

And yet with all that behind him, and with so much that should have come, it was others that filled his conversation: he’d rather talk of the musicians in his band, his mentors at Leeds and the Academy, fellow promoters, Loop, F-IRE, inspirations like Hubbard and Ornette, anyone but himself. He was a hard man to interview because he wanted to promote the stories of others. But that made him a good man to have on your side. Richard Turner will be much missed not only as one of the real talents of his generation, but for all he did to support jazz and bring it to a newer, younger generation.

Andy Robson