It was in January 2014 when I got an email that would change the trajectory of my musical life. I had just left an electric blues band I had been in for nearly a decade; just gotten over a serious case of pneumonia that had me flat on my back and on 3rd line antibiotics for 3 weeks; and hadn’t read music in over a decade because the bands I played with didn’t use charts.
Al Turner & my role in The Moonliters’ sax section
The email came out of the blue, and was from a member of a local big band called The Moonliters. They needed an alto sax/clarinet player for the next night, and wondered if I could sub for them.
Before I could think about it, I said yes. After hanging up the phone the reality of what I said “yes” to sunk in. I prepped the best I could with some long tones on alto, and must have done an OK job, since I kept being invited back week after week. The man who ultimately invited me back week after week was the band’s manger: Al Turner.
Besides being the band’s manager, Al also looked after the talent, and made decisions regarding who sat in which chairs. Within a few months Al allowed the Tenor 2 player and I to swap chairs. I was suddenly in a chair that was more to my comfort level.
After a few months I asked Al: The person I’m subbing for, are they coming back? He said: No. The chair is yours now.
Since I played all the saxes, I also became the section’s sub, since it was easier to backfill an alto or tenor chair than the bari/alto one. Over time I got to play almost all the books—with the exception of the Alto 1. I always found an alternate sub for that. 😉
When the bari chair became vacant, I had already been backfilling it for nearly a year. Al was the one who let me know I was now The Moonliters’ bari sax player.
Sounds a bit fishy
I’m not exactly sure how Al and I became friends. I think it had something to do with his fish pond.
One year he asked if I would be available to help him clean it out. I said sure. Nothing bonds people like bailing dirty fish water while standing in [leaky] gum boots; carefully catching gold fish of a wide variety of sizes; and scrubbing rocks with brushes, before putting everything back; refilling; and releasing the fish into their clean habitat.
I believe it was during the first year’s pond cleaning, that Al told me that he remembered me from Abbotsford Concert Band. He even has a band photo with me in it. Huh?
He showed me this horrible photo of Abbotsford Concert Band taken at the Abbotsford Band Festival, where the photographer let his strap get in front of the lens. Ah yes, the days before digital…
But there are Al and I in the same middle row… Huh…
Al on the far left of the middle row, and me in my much, much younger days, but already with my Mark VI tenor that I still own to this day. I even see a few faces of people I am still in contact with, and who are still playing regularly. Not to mention, I see a few Moonliter alum such as Cy and Audley.
Driving Mr. Turner
Al asked me to drive to out-of-town band meetings, or to and from out-of-town shows with his vehicle loaded full of band gear. Because of my weirdly keen night vision, I was the designated driver for his wife’s 4X4—even in snow storms.
I remember an especially ugly night coming home from Richmond on New Year’s, during a snow storm with near zero visibility. It was during this drive that he and I had some of our most interesting conversations. Oh yes, if we weren’t friends before, we certainly were after that night. We told each others things reserved for friends, and those conversations are ones I will always remember.
Al could laugh, and he had a great sense of humour. I share that trait and laugh a lot. That’s what we did: We made each other laugh. Besides our mutual love of animals, our ability to make each other laugh is one of the things that allowed us to connect as we did—beyond our mutual love of big band music.
As a former paramedic, I am still very much in touch with my dark humour side. Al seemed to like that. He would sometimes let loose these one-liners that would just cause me to glance at him with a: What did I just hear? look. He would have a glint in his eyes that said: Yup, you heard right. It made the entire thing even funnier.
Al’s multiple roles in The Moonliters organization: shoes unlikely to be filled by 1 person again
Since Al joined The Moonliters in the early 1980s, he held a great many roles. These include: trombone player, auxiliary Latin percussion player; arranger; transcriber; board member; band manager; talent recruiter, roadie; carpenter; painter; as well as landlord. In short, it would not be hyperbole to state that Al was the reinforcement to the band’s well-laid foundation left by the band’s late founder, Larry Homer.
This is what was written about Al on The Moonliters website shortly after he passed away:
Al loved the music of the big bands
Al had a love for all kinds of big band music. Regardless what decade it came from, Al could appreciate the nuances of the arrangements. When we rehearsed, he would be listening to all the sections, and if one player was off, he would let us know. Because he was too polite to point a finger at who it was specifically, he would mention a section—sax, trombone, trumpet, or rhythm—didn’t quite sound right, but not which part in the section it was.
This was especially true of his own arrangements. Al arranged approximately 20 charts for The Moonliters. These were all done without the aid of a music notation program. His penmanship was fantastic, and when you read the music, you would never know that these charts weren’t created on a commercial printing press.
I once asked Al if he had any formal training in arranging, and he said “no”. I then asked him: How did you know when you were putting the charts together that this and this would sound good together, or how to write for a section?
Al explained that he just looked over the charts The Moonliters had to see how they were arranged. OK, I said, “but how did you know what you were putting down on paper would work?” Apparently, he could just hear it.
Quite a remarkable skill really. Some of Al’s arrangements are medleys and are among the most difficult charts we have—as well as the most beautiful.
Death of Larry Homer
Larry Homer founded The Moonliters in 1971. For the 34 years that Larry looked after the band, The Moonliters were based out of a studio on his property. When Larry passed away in 2005, Al stepped up and took us in—complete with all our gear. (And that’s a lot.)
Every Tuesday evening from 8-10 PM the sounds of big band music would emanate from an outbuilding at Al’s house. On warm evenings the doors would be open, and his neighbours would often sit outside and enjoy weekly big band concert as our sound travelled through the countryside.
Life after Al
The Moonliters owe a huge debt of gratitude to Al Turner. Like Larry Homer before him, Al provided us a home, carefully managed the talent, the band as a whole, and most importantly, gave greatly of himself in countless ways that we will be forever indebted for.
Whenever we use our custom Big Band stands, or pack and unpack our very clearly labelled gear boxes, we will be reminded of Al. Al designed, made, and painted all of them.
As Ian “Doc” Graham—who just retired as our Alto 1 player after 50 years, just reminded me—Al looked after all our gear, and made sure it continued to look and function like new. With Al gone, it is now our job to pick up the torch and do the same. And we will do just that, because that is the best way we can honor the man we hold in the highest esteem.
The family’s obituary
Al’s wife, Selma, along with family, put together an obituary for the newspaper. It does a wonderful job of providing a small glimpse into the life of the man we all knew and loved.
Al Turner’s celebration of life
Selma and the rest of the family chose June 12, 2022, as the day to celebrate Al’s life. Since The Moonliters were such a large part of his life, we were asked to play for the event.
Aside from family, Al’s extended Moonliters family was invited. An invitation went out to all past members to not only attend the event, but to actually participate in the performance. We performed two sets of music, during which we played through all of Al’s original transcriptions/arrangements of big band music. Additionally, we also performed the charts that Al enjoyed the most—including of course those from his favorite big band leader: Les Brown.
I believe we did Al proud. Based on the comments we received from those in attendance, The Moonliters put on a performance that was both fitting, and to the highest degree of professionalism that we are known for.
The family had a professional capture the event in both video and still forms, and in the next while select elements of that will be uploaded to the band’s website, as well as Facebook and Instagram accounts. However, I did take a few images myself in the days leading up to the celebration of life, and on the day itself, that I would like to share here now as my own tribute to the man who became such an important person in my musical life.
