Curtis Fuller

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For the American football player, see Curtis Fuller (American football).
Curtis Fuller
Background information
Birth name Curtis DuBois Fuller
Born December 15, 1934 (1934-12-15) (age 77)
Origin Detroit, United States
Genres Jazz, Hard Bop
Occupations Trombonist, Performer
Instruments Trombone
Labels Blue Note, Prestige, Savoy, Impulse!

Curtis DuBois Fuller (born December 15, 1934, Detroit) is an American jazz trombonist, known as a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and contributor to many classic jazz recordings.[1]

Contents

[edit] Biography

Fuller's Jamaican-born parents died when he was young; he was raised in an orphanage. While in Detroit he was a schoolfriend of Paul Chambers and Donald Byrd, and also knew Tommy Flanagan, Thad Jones and Milt Jackson. After army service between 1953 and 1955 (when he played in a band with Chambers and brothers Cannonball and Nat Adderley), Fuller joined the quintet of Yusef Lateef, another Detroit musician. In 1957 the quintet moved to New York, and Fuller recorded his first sessions as a leader for Prestige Records.

Alfred Lion of Blue Note Records first heard him playing with Miles Davis in the late 1950s, and featured him as a sideman on record dates led by Sonny Clark and John Coltrane; Fuller's work on the latter's Blue Train album is probably his best known recorded performance. Fuller led four dates for Blue Note, though one of these, an album with Slide Hampton, was not issued for many years. Other sideman appearances over the next decade included work on albums under the leadership of Bud Powell, Jimmy Smith, Wayne Shorter, Lee Morgan and Joe Henderson (a former room mate at Wayne State University in 1956).

Fuller was also the first trombonist to be a member of the Art Farmer-Benny Golson Jazztet, later becoming the sixth man in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers in 1961, staying with Blakey until 1965. In the early 1960s, he recorded two albums as a leader for Impulse! Records, having also recorded for Savoy Records and Epic after his obligations to Blue Note had ended. In the late 1960s, he was part of Dizzy Gillespie's band, that also featured Foster Elliott. He went on to tour with Count Basie and also reunited with Blakey and Golson.

Fuller continues to perform and record, and is currently a faculty member of the New York State Summer School of the Arts (NYSSSA) School of Jazz Studies (SJS).[2]

On January 13, 2010, Curtis' wife, Catherine Rose Driscoll Fuller died.

[edit] Discography

[icon] This section requires expansion.

[edit] As leader

[edit] As sideman

With Art Blakey

With John Coltrane

With Sonny Clark

With Lou Donaldson

With Kenny Dorham

With Gil Evans

With Benny Golson

  • Meet The Jazztet
  • Gettin' With It
  • Gone With Golson
  • Groovin' With Golson
  • The Other Side Of Benny Golson

With Jimmy Heath

  • The Thumper

With Joe Henderson

With Freddie Hubbard

With Philly Joe Jones

  • Drums Around The World

With Quincy Jones

With Clifford Jordan

With Jackie McLean

  • A Long Drink Of The Blues
  • Makin' The Changes

With Blue Mitchell

With Hank Mobley

With Lee Morgan

With Bud Powell

With Wayne Shorter

With Jimmy Smith

With Stanley Turrentine

With Phil Woods

  • Rights Of Swing

[edit] References

  1. ^ Allmusic
  2. ^ NYSSSA SJS Artistic Staff
  3. ^ http://www.jazzreview.com/cdreview.cfm?ID=3860

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Curtis_Fuller&oldid=464266828"
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