Willie Tee

Willie Tee in 2006 - Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

By JON PARELES
Published: September 13, 2007 New York Times

Wilson Turbinton, the New Orleans keyboardist, singer, songwriter and producer known as Willie Tee, died on Tuesday in New Orleans. He was 63 and had lived in Baton Rouge after being displaced by Hurricane Katrina.The cause was complications of colon cancer, said his friend and producer, Leo Sacks.

Willie Tee was a catalyst and innovator in New Orleans music. He was the songwriter and arranger behind a pivotal album: “The Wild Magnolias,” released in 1973, which was the first to meld the parade chants of a Mardi Gras Indian tribe, the Wild Magnolias, with fierce New Orleans funk.

His long career also included rhythm-and-blues hits in the 1960s and a stint as a jazz artist in residence at Princeton University after Katrina. His songs have been sampled by rappers including Puff Daddy, Lil Wayne and the Geto Boys. “He was a boundary-buster,” Mr. Sacks said.

Mr. Turbinton was born in New Orleans in 1944 and raised in the Calliope projects. He turned to music to stay out of trouble, as did his brother Earl, a saxophonist, who became another leading New Orleans musician.

Willie Tee recorded his first singles as a teenager. In 1965 he had a national rhythm-and-blues hit with “Teasin’ You” for Atlantic Records, and he toured with all-star soul revues. His late-1960s band, the Gaturs, was among the pioneers of New Orleans funk.

The saxophonist Cannonball Adderley and his brother Nat signed Mr. Tee to a contract with their production company and released his first full-length album, “I’m Only a Man,” through Capitol Records in 1968. Mr. Tee’s funk was also a decisive influence on Mr. Adderley’s keyboardist, Joe Zawinul, whose band Weather Report would later record a song by Mr. Tee, “Can It Be Done.” (Mr. Zawinul died on Tuesday.)

Mr. Turbinton is survived by his wife, Marilyn, whom he married in 1968; his daughter, Racquel; and two grandchildren.

After “The Wild Magnolias” he produced the tribe’s follow-up album, “They Call Us Wild,” in 1974, and he made another album of his own, “Anticipation,” in 1976. He collaborated with Earl Turbinton on the 1988 album “Brothers for Life” (Rounder).

As with many New Orleans musicians, much of Willie Tee’s career was local. He played clubs, wrote ad jingles, ran a recording studio and was a musical director for a television cooking show. He appeared on albums by New Orleans musicians including Dr. John and the gospel singer Raymond Myles, and he produced a 1995 album, “Mixed Emotions,” by his daughter, Racquel Turbinton, a songwriter.

Until 2005, Mr. Tee also wrote music in a studio at his home in the Lakeview neighborhood, adjoining Lake Ponchartrain. When the levees failed during Hurricane Katrina, eight feet of water washed through the house, destroying many of his recordings. After the hurricane, Mr. Turbinton told the Princeton Alumni Weekly, “I went home for the first time expecting the worst and found worse than the worst.”

A few weeks later, he joined other leading New Orleans musicians in Austin as the New Orleans Social Club, recording the album “Sing Me Back Home,” which included a rewritten version of Mr. Tee’s song “First Taste of Hurt.”

Princeton appointed him an artist in residence, and he taught at the school’s jazz program in 2005 and 2006. He resettled in Baton Rouge and returned regularly to New Orleans to perform. He appeared in New York City in July as part of the Ponderosa Stomp.

When he made music, his daughter recalled yesterday, “There were no formulas,” she said. “It was very improvisational, but whatever he played was always the right thing.”

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