Steve Turre: Omaha-Born Trombonist Who Turned Seashells Into Jazz
Stephen Johnson “Steve” Turre was born in Omaha, Neb., but his musical soul carries echoes of mariachi, blues, jazz, and ancestral whisperings through conch shells. Today, the 77-year-old stands among the jazz world’s most inventive voices: trombonist, arranger, educator, and pioneer of the seashell as an instrument.
Turre’s father, of Northern Italian descent, and his mother, of Mexican ancestry, shaped a home where musical threads interwove. Though he would grow up in California, that blend of cultures remained central to his voice. He began playing trombone at around age ten. As a youth, he played in bands with his older brother Michael, absorbing the rhythms, the improvisation, the swing of music as living conversation.
In college, Turre’s path widened. At Sacramento State, he joined the Escovedo Brothers salsa band, planting the seeds of his life-long engagement with Latin music. In 1972, he got a break: Ray Charles hired him on tour, handing him a first platform on the national stage. Soon after, under mentor Woody Shaw, he joined Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, and then his name became a part of the pantheon: working with legends from Dizzy Gillespie to Tito Puente, McCoy Tyner to Herbie Hancock.
But what sets Turre apart is his seashell voice. Influenced by Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s adventurous spirit, he began collecting conch shells, cutting mouthpieces, and tuning them to pitch. He leads Sanctified Shells, essentially a “shell choir” blending brass and shell, and has recorded works that mix trombone and shell with strings, rhythm, and poetry.
For decades, Turre has been part of the Saturday Night Live Band, joining in 1985 and remaining a steady presence. Alongside that, he has taught jazz trombone at institutions including the Manhattan School of Music and Juilliard.
In 2024, Turre released Sanyas, his first live album as leader, recorded at Smoke Jazz Club with an ensemble that spans generations, a fitting milestone in a career that always bridges past and future.
Steve Turre is a cultural alchemist: one foot in tradition, one foot in innovation, always listening for a new voice in wind and shell. Omaha’s musical son carries forward not only notes, but the possibility of sonic lineage.
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