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Curtis Fuller
Curtis Fuller was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1934. He came to music late, playing the baritone horn in high school and switching to the trombone at age 16. Detroit, at the time, was the breeding ground for an astonishing pool of fresh, highly individual talent.
Milt Jackson and Hank Jones had already gone to New York and made their names. But coming of age in Detroit in the early fifties were Fuller, Donald Byrd, Elvin and Thad Jones, Paul Chambers, Louis Hayes, Kenny Burrell, Barry Harris, Pepper Adams, Yusef Lateef, Sonny Red, Hugh Lawson, Doug Watkins, Tommy Flanagan and many others who would make the mid- decade migration to New York and eventually international recognition.
In 1953, Curtis left the local scene to serve his two-year stint in the army, where he met and played with Cannonball Adderley and Junior Mance among others. When he returned home, he began working with Yusef Lateef's quintet. The Lateef quintet came to New York in April 1957 to record two albums for Savoy and a third produced by Dizzy Gillespie for Verve.
Word of Curtis's talent spread rapidly around New York. Although he initially came under the spell of J.J. Johnson and listed Jimmy Cleveland, Bob Brookmeyer and Urbie Green among his favorites, Fuller came to New York at the age of 22 with a unique style and sound.
In May, after being in town for about a month, he recorded with Paul Quinchette and made his first albums as a leader: two quintet albums for Prestige with Sonny Red featured on alto. Like the Blue Note debuts by Kenny Burrell and Thad Jones the prior year, he used mostly transplanted Detroit players.
Blue Note's Alfred Lion had also heard about Fuller and went to see him at the Cafe bohemia with Miles Davis's sextet. Curtis joined the Blue Note family, appearing on a Clifford Jordan date on June 2 and making his own, The Opener, with Hank Mobley, on June 16. That summer Curtis was everywhere. "Alfred brought me into dates with Jimmy Smith and Bud Powell. And then we did Blue Train with John Coltrane. And I became the only trombone soloist to record with those three artists." So after eight months in New York, Curtis Fuller had made six albums as a leader and appeared on 15 others. Even in those prolific times, that's pretty impressive for a newly-arrived trombonist.
At the end of '58, Benny Golson asked Curtis to share the front line for a Riverside blowing date entitled "The Other Side Of Benny Golson," which put the emphasis on Benny's tenor playing rather than his composing and arranging. The chemistry between these two hornmen clicked, and they would record an album under Curtis's name for Savoy [Blues-ette] and three under Benny's name for Prestige in 1959 with various rhythm sections. They also made two Fuller albums for Savoy with trumpet added to the front line, which laid the groundwork for the creation of the Jazztet.
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Joe Henderson: The Complete Joe Henderson Blue Note Studio Sessions
by Scott Gudell
If an artist stamps his jazz passport with any one of these labels--Blue Note, Verve, Milestone--it's pretty much a guarantee that you've arrived in style. Tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson has traveled with all three and more. The 2021 reissue from the prestigious Mosaic Records focuses on Henderson's 1960s tenure with Blue Note offers a new opportunity to experience an abundance of rich and creative jazz from the decade. Big band and bop were duking it out in the ...
read moreSonny's Crib
by C. Michael Bailey
From the outset, pianist Sonny Clark's sophomore effort as a leader is crisp, white-hot hard bop. Leading a standard bop trumpet-tenor saxophone quintet (Donald Byrd, John Coltrane), supplemented with trombone (Curtis Fuller), Clark and his most reliable rhythm section of bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Art Taylor carve five dictionary examples (with alternate takes on the CD) of the music evolving from bebop, principally on the East Coast (if we consider that cool jazz took root on the West Coast ...
read moreDial "S" for Sonny
by C. Michael Bailey
Pianist Sonny Clark was culturally marginalized in much the same way as his contemporary Elmo Hope—both heroin-addicted jazz musicians in the 1950s: at the time, and romantically, a cliche. Both pianists have been sorely lumped into the “Bud Powell school of bop piano" which superficially may seem accurate until one considers the evolutionary continuum of jazz piano that places both Clark and Hope conceptually and stylistically beyond Powell. Clark was born in Georgia and raised outside of jny: ...
read moreHank Mobley: The Complete Hank Mobley Blue Note Sessions 1963-70
by C. Andrew Hovan
The music world has changed considerably since Michael Cuscuna and Charlie Lourie founded their boutique reissue label Mosaic Records back in 1983. From its inception, vinyl was still the preferred format, shortly to be overtaken by the popularity of the compact disc. At the cusp of vinyl's recent resurgence, Mosaic briefly got back into that format only to find themselves on the brink of closing up shop. Fortunately, the powers that be have forged on and recent CD boxed sets ...
read moreCurtis Fuller: The Opener – Blue Note 1567
by Marc Davis
From the very first notes, it's obvious that Curtis Fuller's The Opener is something completely different. Yes, it's bop. Yes, it features the usual lineup of two horns, piano, bass and drums. And yes, one of those horns is saxman Hank Mobley, who, by law, was required to appear on every single Blue Note album in the 1950s and '60s. (Or maybe it only seems that way.) But wait--what's going on with those four opening notes? ...
read moreSonny Clark: Dial "S" For Sonny
by Greg Simmons
Original copies of Blue Note 1570--Dial “S" For Sonny--are among the rarer Blue Note records, often changing hands for thousands of dollars for even a mediocre copy. That's an awful lot of scratch for a fifty-six year old piece of pressed vinyl and a cardboard sleeve. Fortunately, there are better ways to hear pianist Sonny Clark's debut recording for the fabled label. The Music Matters series of two-disk, 45 rpm vinyl records is winding down after close to one hundred ...
read moreCurtis Fuller: Down Home
by Edward Blanco
Legendary trombonist Curtis Fuller was 22 years old when he played on John Coltrane's landmark Blue Train (Blue Note, 1957), and the saxophonist remained best friends with Fuller during the 1950s and '60s. In 2005, the trombonist met saxophonist Keith Oxman, and has since developed a friendship leading to Fuller's favorable comparison of his new friend to Coltrane. For the past seven years, Fuller has been performing and recording with a sextet of players he now calls his “band of ...
read moreJazz Musician of the Day: Curtis Fuller
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Curtis Fuller's birthday today!
Curtis Fuller was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1934. He came to music late, playing the baritone horn in high school and switching to the trombone at age 16. Detroit, at the time, was the breeding ground for an astonishing pool of fresh, highly individual talent. Milt Jackson and Hank Jones had already gone to New York and made their names. But coming of age in Detroit in the early fifties ...
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Curtis Fuller: Sunday in Athens
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Over the weekend, trombone legend Curtis Fuller, 78, performed at the Half Note in Greece. Our man in Athens Jimi Mentis was front row center and captured the hard bop action. Appearing with Fuller were Josh Bruneau (tp, flh), Ralph Reichert (ts), Rob Bargad (p), Milan Nikolic (b) and Joris Dudli (d). Here's Star Eyes... Here's Caravan... Here's Fuller's Blues... JazzWax tracks: You'll find Curtis Fuller's most recent album Down Home (Capri) here. A JazzWax thanks to Jimi ...
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Jazz Musician of the Day: Curtis Fuller
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Curtis Fuller's birthday today!
Curtis Fuller was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1934. He came to music late, playing the baritone horn in high school and switching to the trombone at age 16. Detroit, at the time, was the breeding ground for an astonishing pool of fresh, highly individual talent. Milt Jackson and Hank Jones had already gone to New York and made their names. But coming of age in Detroit in the early fifties ...
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Curtis Fuller: 'Cabin in the Sky'
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
If you love Miles Davis' Miles Ahead and Porgy and Bess—both arranged by Gil Evans—then you simply must consider Curtis Fuller's Cabin in the Sky. Recorded over two days in April 1962 for Impulse, the album's orchestrations are on par with both Davis albums and frame Fuller's trombone beautifully. [Pictured above, Curtis Fuller] Arranged by Manny Albam [pictured above]—one of the finest composer-arrangers of the '50s and '60s who remains woefully underappreciated—Cabin in the Sky has the same sighing quality ...
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Jazz Musician of the Day: Curtis Fuller
Source:
All About Jazz is celebrating Curtis Fuller's birthday today!
Curtis Fuller was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1934. He came to music late, playing the baritone horn in high school and switching to the trombone at age 16. Detroit, at the time, was the breeding ground for an astonishing pool of fresh, highly individual talent. Milt Jackson and Hank Jones had already gone to New York and made their names. But coming of age in Detroit in the early fifties ...
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Curtis Fuller, "The Story of Cathy and Me," 2011
Source:
Gapplegate Music Review by Grego Edwards
Mr. Curtis Fuller, a giant of the trombone, the hard-bopping master on countless sessions from the '50s on... He is still doing it, though not as energetically and not as consistently as in his prime. Hey, he is not a young man. And with age comes a kind of reflective wisdom that you can dig for yourself on his new disk, The Story of Cathy and Me (Challenge 73309). It's a heart-felt tribute to his late wife and how much ...
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Jazz Trombonist Curtis Fuller Lectures at Harvard on Monday, October 31
Source:
MassJazz: Jazz in Massachusetts
Blue Note jazz trombonist and composer Curtis Fuller has been invited as a Visiting Artist at at Harvard University's Office of the Arts on Monday, October 31, 2011, 7:30 p.m, .at the New College Theatre Studio, 10-12 Holoyke Street in Cambridge. Fuller will discuss his work in a conversation with Tom Everett, Director of the Harvard Bands, and later will perform in an open rehearsal with the Harvard Jazz Band. The event is free and open to the public and ...
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Jazz Musician of the Day: Curtis Fuller
Source:
All About Jazz is celebrating Curtis Fuller's birthday today!
Curtis Fuller
Curtis Fuller was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1934. He came to music late, playing the baritone horn in high school and switching to the trombone at age 16. Detroit, at the time, was the breeding ground for an astonishing pool of fresh... more
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Announcing the Winners of the "Curtis Fuller - I Will Tell Her" Giveaway
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All About Jazz
Curtis Fuller - Live in Chicago
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Riffs on Jazz by John Anderson
While on vacation last week, I had the pleasure of catching legendary hard bop trombonist Curtis Fuller at Andy's Jazz Club in Chicago on September 16. Andy's, just north of the Loop, was founded in 1951 by Andy Rizzuto and it is still one of the best places to hear jazz in Chicago, every day of the week. My friend Tim and I were sitting at a table literally abutting the front of the stage, with Fuller and his quintet ...
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Curtis Fuller
Instrument: Trombone
Born: December 15, 1934
Died: May 8, 2021
