2024 Limited Edition – 1000 copies worldwide.

If ever there were a record that both fit perfectly and stood outside the CTI Records’ stable sound, it is Sugar by Stanley Turrentine. Recorded in 1970 Sugar has just 3 tracks.

Turrentine, a veteran of the soul-jazz scene since the ’50s, was accompanied by a who’s who of groove players, including guitarist George Benson, Lonnie Liston Smith on electric piano, Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, bassist Ron Carter, organist Butch Cornell, and drummer Billy Kaye, among others. (The live version adds Airto, flutist Hubert Laws, drummer Billy Cobham, and organist Johnny Hammond.)

The title track is a deep soul blues workout with a swinging backbeat and the rhythm section fluidly streaming through fours and eights as Benson, Hubbard, and Turrentine begin slowly and crank up the heat, making the pace and stride of the cut simmer then pop — especially in Hubbard’s solo. This is truly midnight blue, an