Birth name Curtis DuBois Fuller Name Curtis Fuller Role Trombonist | Years active 1953–present | |
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Albums Profiles | ||
Andre hayward curtis fuller delfeayo marsalis fred wesley trombone summit
Curtis DuBois Fuller (born December 15, 1934) is an American jazz, soul jazz trombonist, known as a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and contributor to many classic jazz recordings.
Contents
- Andre hayward curtis fuller delfeayo marsalis fred wesley trombone summit
- Curtis fuller volume 3 curtis fuller full album
- Biography
- References
Curtis fuller volume 3 curtis fuller full album
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 Fuller playing with Miles Davis in the late 1950s, and featured him as a sideman on record dates led by Sonny Clark (Dial "S" for Sonny, Sonny's Crib) and John Coltrane (Blue Train). 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, Fuller 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. Fuller went on to tour with Count Basie and also reunited with Blakey and Golson.
In 1999, Curtis Fuller was awarded an honorary doctorate of music from Berklee College of Music.
In 2007 Fuller was named an NEA Jazz Master.
Fuller continues to perform and record, and is a faculty member of the New York State Summer School of the Arts (NYSSSA) School of Jazz Studies (SJS).