The Turner Bros. were a major force in the Indianapolis soul scene of the late 1960’s into the mid 1970’s.  The Turner family was originally from South Carolina, relocating to Indiana in 1963.  The family had a gospel group known as the Turner Singers;  brothers Allison and Calvin Turner grew up as part of the group, eventually launching a soul band that released several singles on various labels, including Atlantic, Lamp and Lulu, and a highly sought LP, Act 1, in 1974 on their own imprint, MB Records.   That LP was reissued by Ubiquity Records in 1999.  It is reported that the group toured with the Chi-Lites, Rufus Thomas, Tavares, Ohio Players and others.

Most of the singles were released as Allison and Calvin Turner.  The LP featured other family members. Several Turner Brothers songs had writing or arrangement involvement by Jerry Herman, who operated Note Records (with brother Mel Herman) and Lulu Records.

After James Bell left the Highlighters, he joined with the Turners to record “Funky Buzzard”, which appeared on the Stones Throw Records compilation The Funky 16 Corners, released in 2001, which was primarily but not exclusively Indiana soul.  That LP release provided global focus to the Indianapolis soul scene which had largely been forgotten in Indianapolis and mostly unknown elsewhere.

There is another Turner Brothers soul group that released a 45 on Carnival Records; this may be why Allison and Calvin’s band was usually spelled as Turner Bros., to avoid confusion.