Ted Curson | |
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Ted Curson in Turku, Finland, July 2009 | |
Background information | |
Born | (1935-06-03)June 3, 1935 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
Died | November 4, 2012(2012-11-04) (aged 77) Montclair, New Jersey |
Genres | Jazz, avant-garde jazz |
Occupation | Musician |
Instrument | Trumpet |
Years active | 1955–2012 |
Labels | Prestige, Fontana, Atlantic, Freedom, Futura, Marge, Trident, Whynot, Inner City, Chiaroscuro |
Formerly of | Charles Mingus, Spirit of Life Ensemble |
Theodore Curson (June 3, 1935 – November 4, 2012) was an American jazz trumpeter.
Life and career
Curson was born in Philadelphia. He became interested in playing trumpet after watching a newspaper salesman play a silver trumpet. Curson's father, however, wanted him to play alto saxophone like Louis Jordan. When he was ten, he gained his first trumpet.
He attended Granoff School of Music in Philadelphia. At the suggestion of Miles Davis, he moved to New York in 1956. He performed and recorded with Cecil Taylor in the late 1950s and early 1960s. His composition "Tears for Dolphy" has been used in numerous films. He was featured in a profile on composer Graham Collier in the 1985 Channel 4 documentary, Hoarded Dreams.
He was a familiar face in Finland, having performed at the Pori Jazz festival every year since it began in 1966. In 2007, he performed at Finland's Independence Day Ball at the invitation of president Tarja Halonen.
A longtime resident of Montclair, New Jersey, Curson died from a heart attack in the township on November 4, 2012.
Discography
As leader
- Plenty of Horn (Old Town, 1961)
- Ted Curson Plays Fire Down Below (Prestige, 1963)
- Live at La'Tete De L'Art (Trans-World, 1962)
- Tears for Dolphy (Fontana, 1965)
- The New Thing & the Blue Thing (Atlantic, 1965)
- Urge (Fontana, 1966)
- Ode to Booker Ervin (Columbia, 1970)
- Pop Wine (Futura, 1971)
- Cattin' Curson (Marge, 1975)
- Blue Piccolo (Whynot, 1976)
- Jubilant Power (Inner City, 1976)
- Quicksand (Atlantic, 1977)
- Flip Top (Arista/Freedom, 1977)
- Fireball (Trio, 1979)
- Blowin' Away with Dizzy Reece (Interplay, 1978)
- The Trio (Interplay, 1979)
- I Heard Mingus (Trio, 1980)
- Snake Johnson (Chiaroscuro, 1981)
- Traveling On (Evidence, 1997)
As sideman
With Bill Barron
- The Tenor Stylings of Bill Barron (Savoy, 1961)
- Modern Windows (Savoy, 1962)
- Now, Hear This! (Audio Fidelity, 1964)
With Charles Mingus
- Mingus (Candid, 1961)
- Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus (Candid, 1961)
- Mingus Revisited (Limelight, 1965)
- Mingus at Antibes (Atlantic, 1976)
With Cecil Taylor
- Love for Sale (United Artists, 1959)
- Into the Hot (Impulse!, 1962)
- In Transition (Blue Note, 1975)
- The New Breed (ABC Impulse!, 1978) (reissue of tracks from Into the Hot)
With others
- Pepper Adams, California Cookin' (Interplay, 1991)
- Ran Blake, Film Noir (Arista Novus, 1980)
- Nick Brignola, Baritone Madness (Bee Hive, 1978)
- Bill Dixon & Archie Shepp, Bill Dixon 7-tette/Archie Shepp and the New York Contemporary 5 (Savoy, 1964)
- Graham Collier, Hoarded Dreams (Cuneiform, 2007)
- Eric Dolphy, Candid, Dolphy (Candid, 1989)
- Eric Dolphy, Outward Bound (Poll Winners, 2011)
- Gil Evans, Into The Hot (Impulse!, 1962)
- Andrew Hill, Spiral (Arista/Freedom, 1975)
- Karin Krog, Joy (Meantime, 2008)
- Teo Macero, Impressions of Charles Mingus (Palo Alto, 1983)
- Misha Mengelberg & Piet Noordijk, Journey (MCN, 2011)
- Mark Murphy, Living Room (Muse, 1986)
- Sal Nistico, Neo/Nistico (Bee Hive, 1978)
- Archie Shepp, Fire Music (Impulse!, 1965)
- Archie Shepp, Quartet (FreeFactory, 2009)
- Andrzej Trzaskowski, Seant (1966)
References
- ^ Wynn, Ron (1994). Ron Wynn (ed.). All Music Guide to Jazz. Allmusic. M. Erlewine, V. Bogdanov. San Francisco: Miller Freeman Books. p. 183. ISBN 0-87930-308-5.
- ^ Gustafsson, Sari (2012-11-04). "Pori Jazzin legenda Ted Curson kuoli". Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish). Lehtikuva.
- ^ Allen, Clifford (2005-06-02). "Ted Curson: Atypical Ted". Allaboutjazz.com. All About Jazz. Retrieved 2007-08-02.
- Biography at AllMusic (web version)
- Cook, Richard; Brian Morton (2006) . The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (Eighth ed.). New York: Penguin. p. 1267. ISBN 0-14-102327-9.
- "Ted Curson". ATPFestival.com. All Tomorrow's Parties. 2005. Retrieved 2007-07-25.
- Gilchrist, Todd (2006-03-20). "Teorema". IGN.com. IGN Entertainment, Inc. Retrieved 2007-07-25.
- Teorema at IMDb
- "Hoarded Dreams". Bright-thoughts.co.uk. Retrieved August 1, 2024.
- "The President's Independence Day Reception on 6 December 2007". Office of the President of the Republic of Finland. Archived from the original on 2007-06-26. Retrieved 2009-03-24.
- "The State of Jazz: Meet 40 More Jersey Greats", The Star-Ledger, September 28, 2003, backed up by the Internet Archive as of September 27, 2008. Accessed September 15, 2017. "Ted Curson -- Long-time Montclair resident Curson is a bold trumpeter who has performed and/or recorded with Charles Mingus, Eric Dolphy, Andrew Hill, Cecil Taylor and the Spirit of Life Ensemble."
External links
Categories:- 1935 births
- 2012 deaths
- American jazz trumpeters
- American male trumpeters
- Atlantic Records artists
- Bebop trumpeters
- Chiaroscuro Records artists
- Freedom Records artists
- Hard bop trumpeters
- India Navigation artists
- Mainstream jazz trumpeters
- American male jazz musicians
- Jazz musicians from New Jersey
- Jazz musicians from Philadelphia
- Prestige Records artists
- Musicians from Montclair, New Jersey
- New York Contemporary Five members
- 20th-century American trumpeters
- 20th-century American male musicians
- 21st-century American trumpeters
- 21st-century American male musicians