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Curtis Fuller

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Curtis Fuller was an American jazz trombonist, born in 1932 in Detroit. His father came from Jamaica and died before he was born; his mother died when he was nine. For a time he grew up in an orphanage. One of the nuns took him to a concert by Illinois Jacquet, with J.J. Johnson on trombone, and there he fell under the spell of jazz. At sixteen he began to play the trombone. At school he was in the same class as future jazz musicians such as Paul Chambers, Donald Byrd and Tommy Flanagan.

Music and breakthrough

In the army he played in a band with Chambers and the brothers Cannonball and Nat Adderley. He then played with Yusef Lateef, with whom he went to New York in 1957. There he made his first records as a bandleader for Prestige. Alfred Lion of Blue Note brought him to his label and put him on recordings by Sonny Clark and by John Coltrane, on the 1957 album Blue Train. Later he played with Bud Powell, Jimmy Smith, Wayne Shorter, Lee Morgan and Joe Henderson.

Influence

Fuller was the first trombonist in the Jazztet of Art Farmer and Benny Golson, and from 1961 to 1965 he played in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. He played hard bop, a robust, swinging form of jazz with long solos, and showed that the trombone could be just as agile in it as a saxophone. In 2007 he was honoured as an NEA Jazz Master. He died in 2021.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Blue Train by John Coltrane. Notice Curtis Fuller's solo after those of Coltrane and Lee Morgan: hear how he plays warm, rounded lines on the trombone above the swinging rhythm section.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

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See also

Categories: Artists