Joe Turner born 3 November 1903

Joseph H. Turner (November 3, 1907 – July 21, 1990) was an American jazz pianist.

Though endlessly confused with the singer Big Joe Turner, pianist Joe Turner came from a completely different direction, following the James P. Johnson/Fats Waller stride tradition, armed with a
superb technique and a fine sense of swing.

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, he started to learn the piano from his mother at age five and began to make a name for himself in Harlem as a teenager shortly after his move to New York in 1925. Turner got his first big musical break in 1928 with his hiring by the Benny Carter Orchestra and Louis Armstrong in 1929-30

He was an accompanist to Adelaide Hall in a duo, first with Alex Hill and then Francis Carter, the latter with whom he and Hill toured Europe in 1931, after which he stayed as a solo act. 

He resided first in Czechoslovakia, then Hungary, and France where he remained until 1939.He was chosen for Goudie’s second recording under his own name on the jazz-friendly Swing label, May 28, 1939.  Four days earlier he’d been in a session for alto saxist Andre Ekyan that included Goudie, Django and drummer Tommy Benford. When war broke out he returned to the U.S. to work as a singer. 

He was drafted in World War II, and played piano in Sy Oliver's army band in 1944-1945 and Rex Stewart in 1946, Turner returned to the continent, residing in Hungary in 1948 and then Switzerland from 1949 to 1962. 

Here's "Smashing Thirds" recorded in Basel, April 18. 1958. 

                            Taken from above album.

                           

He settled in Paris in 1962 in a residency at La Calvados, continued to play engagements elsewhere in Europe.

In 1976 he returned to the United States and played at the Cookery in New York City, where his stride piano style was acclaimed anew. He eventually survived to become the last major active stride pianist of his era.  He contined to play at  La Calavados, a nightclub situated near the Champs Elysees until his death from a heart attack in 1990 in Montreuil, near Paris, at the age of 82.

(Compiled and edited from Wikipedia, AllMusic, jazzhotbigstep & LA Times)