Curtis Ousley who performed under the stage name King Curtis, was an American saxophone

Saxophone

The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...

 virtuoso

Virtuoso

A virtuoso is an individual who possesses outstanding technical ability in the fine arts, at singing or playing a musical instrument. The plural form is either virtuosi or the Anglicisation, virtuosos, and the feminine form sometimes used is virtuosa...

 known for rhythm and blues

Rhythm and blues

Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...

, rock and roll

Rock and roll

Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...

, soul

Soul music

Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...

, funk

Funk

Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...

 and soul jazz

Soul jazz

Soul jazz is a development of jazz incorporating strong influences from blues, soul, gospel and rhythm and blues in music for small groups, often an organ trio featuring a Hammond organ.- Overview :Soul jazz is often associated with hard bop. Mark C...

. Variously a bandleader, band member, and session musician

Session musician

Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...

, he was also a musical director and record producer

Record producer

A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...

. Adept at tenor

Tenor saxophone

The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble...

, alto

Alto saxophone

The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in 1841. It is smaller than the tenor but larger than the soprano, and is the type most used in classical compositions...

, and soprano

Soprano saxophone

The soprano saxophone is a variety of the saxophone, a woodwind instrument, invented in 1840. The soprano is the third smallest member of the saxophone family, which consists of the soprillo, sopranino, soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, bass, contrabass and tubax.A transposing instrument pitched in...

 saxophone, he was best known for his distinctive riffs and solos such as on "Yakety Yak

Yakety Yak

"Yakety Yak" is a song written, produced, and arranged by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller for The Coasters and released on Atlantic Records in 1958, spending seven weeks as number one on the R&B charts and a week as number one on the Hot 100 pop list...

", which later became the inspiration for Boots Randolph

Boots Randolph

Homer Louis "Boots" Randolph III was an American musician best known for his 1963 saxophone hit, "Yakety Sax"...

's "Yakety Sax

Yakety Sax

"Yakety Sax" is a piece of music written by James Q. "Spider" Rich and popularized by saxophonist Boots Randolph.The composition includes pieces of assorted fiddle tunes such as "Chicken Reel", and was written for a performance at a venue called The Armory in Hopkinsville, Kentucky...

" and his own "Memphis Soul Stew".

Career

King Curtis started playing saxophone at the age of twelve in the Fort Worth area. He took interest in many musical genres including jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

, rhythm and blues, and popular music. As a student pursuing music he turned down college scholarships in order to join the Lionel Hampton

Lionel Hampton

Lionel Leo Hampton was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor. Like Red Norvo, he was one of the first jazz vibraphone players. Hampton ranks among the great names in jazz history, having worked with a who's who of jazz musicians, from Benny Goodman and Buddy...

 Band. During his time with Lionel Hampton he was able to write and arrange music and learn guitar. In 1952 Curtis decided to move to New York and became a session musician

Session musician

Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...

, recording for such labels as Prestige, Enjoy, Capitol, and Atco. He recorded with Nat Adderley

Nat Adderley

Nathaniel Adderley was an American jazz cornet and trumpet player who played in the hard bop and soul jazz genres. He was the brother of saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley....

 and Wynton Kelly

Wynton Kelly

Wynton Kelly was a Jamaican-born jazz pianist, who spent his career in the United States. He is perhaps best known for working with trumpeter Miles Davis from 1959-1962.-Biography:...

, Buddy Holly

Buddy Holly

Charles Hardin Holley , known professionally as Buddy Holly, was an American singer-songwriter and a pioneer of rock and roll...

 and Andy Williams

Andy Williams

Howard Andrew "Andy" Williams is an American singer who has recorded 18 Gold- and three Platinum-certified albums. He hosted The Andy Williams Show, a TV variety show, from 1962 to 1971, as well as numerous television specials, and owns his own theater, the Moon River Theatre in Branson, Missouri,...

.

Stylistically, Curtis took inspiration from saxophonists Lester Young

Lester Young

Lester Willis Young , nicknamed "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and clarinetist. He also played trumpet, violin, and drums....

, Louis Jordan

Louis Jordan

Louis Thomas Jordan was a pioneering American jazz, blues and rhythm & blues musician, songwriter and bandleader who enjoyed his greatest popularity from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "The King of the Jukebox", Jordan was highly popular with both black and white audiences in the...

, Illinois Jacquet

Illinois Jacquet

Jean-Baptiste Illinois Jacquet was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, best remembered for his solo on "Flying Home", critically recognized as the first R&B saxophone solo....

, Earl Bostic

Earl Bostic

Earl Bostic was an American jazz and rhythm and blues alto saxophonist, and a pioneer of the post-war American Rhythm and Blues style. He had a number of popular hits such as "Flamingo", "Harlem Nocturne", "Temptation", "Sleep", "Special Delivery Stomp", and "Where or When", which showed off his...

, and Gene Ammons

Gene Ammons

Eugene "Jug" Ammons also known as "The Boss," was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, and the son of boogie-woogie pianist Albert Ammons.-Biography:...

. Known for his syncopated and percussive style, he was both versatile and powerful as a musician. He put together a group during his time as a session musician including Richard Tee, Cornell Dupree, Jerry Jemmott, and Bernard Purdie.

Move into Rock

King Curtis enjoyed playing jazz and rock but decided he would make more money as a rock musician. From the 1950s until the mid 1960s, he worked as a session player, recording under his own name and with others such as the Coasters, with whom he recorded "Yakety Yak." Buddy Holly

Buddy Holly

Charles Hardin Holley , known professionally as Buddy Holly, was an American singer-songwriter and a pioneer of rock and roll...

 hired him for session work, during which they recorded "Reminiscing." Buddy wrote this song, but gave Curtis the songwriting credit for flying down to the session. His best-known singles from this period are "Soul Twist

Soul Twist

"Soul Twist" is a 1962, instrumental, crossover single for saxophonist, King Curtis. His debut single on the R&B charts was his most successful, hitting number one on the R&B charts for two weeks. "Soul Twist" crossed over to the top 40, where it was one of three singles by King Curtis to make...

" and "Soul Serenade."

In 1965, he moved to Atlantic Records

Atlantic Records

Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...

 and recorded his most successful singles, "Memphis Soul Stew" and "Ode to Billie Joe

Ode to Billie Joe

"Ode to Billie Joe" is a 1967 song written and recorded by Bobbie Gentry , a singer-songwriter from Chickasaw County, Mississippi. The single, released in late July, was a number-one hit in the United States, and became a big international seller. The song is ranked #412 on Rolling Stones list of...

" (1967). He worked with The Coasters

The Coasters

The Coasters are an American rhythm and blues/rock and roll vocal group that had a string of hits in the late 1950s. Beginning with "Searchin'" and "Young Blood", their most memorable songs were written by the songwriting and producing team of Leiber and Stoller...

, led Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin

Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...

's backing band The Kingpins

The Kingpins

The Kingpins featuring Lorraine Muller - The Queen of Ska was a ska band from Montréal, Canada, signed to the Stomp Records label. The last Kingpins tour took place in 2004, after which the members of the band reformed under the name Lo and the Magnetics founded by Muller in order to reflect the...

. The Kingpins opened for The Beatles

The Beatles

The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...

 during their 1965 performance at Shea Stadium

Shea Stadium

William A. Shea Municipal Stadium, usually shortened to Shea Stadium or just Shea , was a stadium in the New York City borough of Queens, in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park. It was the home baseball park of Major League Baseball's New York Mets from 1964 to 2008...

. Curtis produced records, often working with Jerry Wexler

Jerry Wexler

Gerald "Jerry" Wexler was a music journalist turned music producer, and was regarded as one of the major record industry players behind music from the 1950s through the 1980s...

 and recorded for Groove Records

Groove Records

Groove Records was founded by Billboard reporter Bob Rolontz in 1953 as a rhythm and blues label. The label tried hard to break into the R&B market. Piano Red was its first hit but Mickey and Sylvia was its first big seller. The label also recorded King Curtis, Arthur Crudup, Brook Benton and...

 during this period.

In 1970, he appeared with Aretha Franklin and The King Pins on Aretha Live at Fillmore West

Aretha Live at Fillmore West

Aretha Live at Fillmore West is a gold-certified album by Aretha Franklin, released in 1971. It was reissued on compact disc in the 1990s through Rhino Records. An expanded, limited edition 4-CD box set entitled, Don't Fight The Feeling: The Complete Aretha Franklin & King Curtis Live At Fillmore...

, and another record, Live at Fillmore West

Live at Fillmore West

-Live at Fillmore West expanded edition:Released July 11, 2006, featuring 5 additional tracks.-Don't Fight The Feeling: The Complete Aretha Franklin & King Curtis Live At Fillmore West:...

, which included a version of "Memphis Soul Stew" and covers of Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...

's "Whole Lotta Love

Whole Lotta Love

"Whole Lotta Love" is a song by English rock band Led Zeppelin. It is featured as the opening track on the band's second album, Led Zeppelin II, and was released in the United States and Japan as a single. The US release became their first hit single, it was certified Gold on 13 April 1970, when it...

", Isaac Hayes

Isaac Hayes

Isaac Lee Hayes, Jr. was an American songwriter, musician, singer and actor. Hayes was one of the creative influences behind the southern soul music label Stax Records, where he served both as an in-house songwriter and as a record producer, teaming with his partner David Porter during the...

' "I Stand Accused" and Stevie Wonder

Stevie Wonder

Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...

's "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours

Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours

"Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours" is a soul single by American musician Stevie Wonder, recorded for Motown's Tamla label. Released in June 1970, the song spent six weeks at number one on the U.S. R&B chart and peaked at number three on the U.S. Pop chart...

". The line-up for these performances included: Hammond organ

Hammond organ

The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, in the 1960s and 1970s it became a standard keyboard...

 player Billy Preston

Billy Preston

William Everett "Billy" Preston was a musician who gained notoriety and fame, first as a session musician for the likes of Sam Cooke, Ray Charles and The Beatles, and later finding fame as a solo artist with hits such as "Space Race", "Will It Go Round in Circles" and "Nothing from...

, bassist Jerry Jemmott

Jerry Jemmott

Gerald Joseph Stenhouse "Jerry" Jemmott is an American bass guitarist. Also known as Gerald "Fingers" Jemmott, Rasan Mfalme or "the Groovemaster", Jemmott was one of the chief session bassists of the late 1960s and early 1970s, working with many of the period's well known soul, blues, and jazz...

, guitarist Cornell Dupree

Cornell Dupree

Cornell Luther Dupree was an American jazz and R&B guitarist. He worked at various times with Bill Withers, Donny Hathaway, King Curtis and Steve Gadd, appeared on David Letterman, and wrote a book on soul and blues guitar: Rhythm and Blues Guitar ISBN 0-634-00149-3...

, Pancho Morales (percussion), drummer Bernard "Pretty" Purdie and The Memphis Horns

The Memphis Horns

The Memphis Horns are an American horn section made famous by their many appearances on Stax Records. They have been called "arguably the greatest soul horn section ever." Originally a sextet, the Memphis Horns gradually slimmed down to a duo, Wayne Jackson on trumpet and Andrew Love on tenor...

. A cover of Procol Harum

Procol Harum

Procol Harum are a British rock band, formed in 1967, which contributed to the development of progressive rock, and by extension, symphonic rock. Their best-known recording is their 1967 single "A Whiter Shade of Pale"...

's "Whiter Shade of Pale" was taken from this album, and used as the title music in the cult British comedy film

Comedy film

Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...

, Withnail & I. In July 1971, Curtis recorded saxophone solos on "It's So Hard

It's So Hard

"It's So Hard" is a song written and performed by John Lennon which first appeared on his 1971 album Imagine. Shortly after the album's release, the song was released as the B-side to the single "Imagine."...

" and "I Don't Wanna Be a Soldier Mama I Don't Wanna Die" from John Lennon

John Lennon

John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...

's Imagine

Imagine (album)

Imagine is the second album by John Lennon. Recorded and released in 1971, the album tended toward songs that were gentler, more commercial and less avant-garde than those on his critically acclaimed previous album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. The album is considered the most popular of his works...

. Along with The Rimshots

The Rimshots

The Rimshots were an American funk and disco band, popular in the late 1970s. The group started out as the house band for the labels All Platinum Records and in particular, Stang Records in the early 1970s...

, he recorded the original theme song for the 1971 hit television show, Soul Train

Soul Train

Soul Train is an American musical variety show that aired in syndication from October 1971 to March 2006. In its 35-year history, the show primarily featured performances by R&B, soul, and hip hop artists, although funk, jazz, disco, and gospel artists have also appeared.As a nod to Soul Trains...

.

Death

Around midnight on August 13, 1971 Curtis was lugging an air-conditioning unit towards his brownstone

Brownstone

Brownstone is a brown Triassic or Jurassic sandstone which was once a popular building material. The term is also used in the United States to refer to a terraced house clad in this material.-Types:-Apostle Island brownstone:...

 apartment on West 86th Street in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 when he noticed two junkies

Substance abuse

A substance-related disorder is an umbrella term used to describe several different conditions associated with several different substances .A substance related disorder is a condition in which an individual uses or abuses a...

 were using drugs on the steps to his home. When he asked them to leave, an argument started. The argument quickly became heated and turned into a fist fight with one of the men, 26-year old Juan Montañez. Suddenly, Montañez pulled out a knife and stabbed

Stabbing

A stabbing is penetration with a sharp or pointed object at close range. Stab connotes purposeful action, as by an assassin or murderer, but it is also possible to accidentally stab oneself or others.Stabbing differs from slashing or cutting in that the motion of the object used in a stabbing...

 Curtis in the chest. Curtis managed to wrestle the knife away and stab his assailant four times before collapsing. Montañez staggered away from the scene and Curtis was taken to Roosevelt Hospital, where he died from his wounds less than an hour later.

Montañez was arrested at the same hospital Curtis had been taken to. When police officers investigating the murder learned that another man had been admitted to Roosevelt hospital with stab wounds around the same time as Curtis, they quickly realized that the two events were connected. Montañez was charged with Curtis' murder and subsequently sentenced to a term of imprisonment.

On the day of Curtis' funeral Atlantic Records

Atlantic Records

Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...

 closed their offices. Jesse Jackson

Jesse Jackson

Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. is an African-American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as shadow senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997. He was the founder of both entities that merged to...

 administered the service and as the mourners filed in, Curtis's band 'The Kingpins' played "Soul Serenade". Amongst those attending were Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin

Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...

, Cissy Houston

Cissy Houston

Emily "Cissy" Houston is a Grammy Award–winning American soul and gospel singer. She led a very successful career as a backup singer for such artists as Elvis Presley, Mahalia Jackson, Wishbone Ash and Aretha Franklin, and is now primarily a solo artist...

, Brook Benton

Brook Benton

Brook Benton was an American singer and songwriter who was popular with rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and pop music audiences during the late 1950s and early 1960s, when he scored hits such as "It's Just A Matter Of Time" and "Endlessly", many of which he co-wrote.He made a comeback in 1970...

 and Duane Allman

Duane Allman

Howard Duane Allman was an American guitarist, session musician and the primary co-founder of the southern rock group The Allman Brothers Band...

. Franklin sang the closing spiritual "Never Grow Old" and Stevie Wonder

Stevie Wonder

Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...

 performed "Abraham, Martin and John

Abraham, Martin and John

"Abraham, Martin and John" is a 1968 song written by Dick Holler and first recorded by Dion. It is a tribute to the memories of icons of social change, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr., John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy...

 and now King Curtis".

Curtis was subsequently buried in a red granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

-fronted wall crypt in the 'West Gallery of Forsythia Court' mausoleum at Pinelawn Memorial Park
in Farmingdale

Farmingdale, New York

The Village of Farmingdale is an incorporated village on Long Island within the Town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, New York in the United States...

, New York, the same cemetery that holds Jazz greats Count Basie

Count Basie

William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...

 and John Coltrane

John Coltrane

John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...

.

Awards

In 1970, Curtis won the Best R&B Instrumental Performance

Grammy Award for Best R&B Instrumental Performance

The Grammy Award for Best R&B Instrumental Performance was awarded from 1970 to 1990 and in 1993. The award had several minor name changes:*From 1970 to 1985 the award was known as Best R&B Instrumental Performance...

 Grammy

Grammy Award

A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...

 for "Games People Play".

Curtis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...

 on March 6, 2000.

King Curtis

• The Good Old Fifties (1959)
• Have Tenor Sax, Will Blow (1959)
• Azure (1960)
• King Soul (1960)
• Soul Meeting (1960)
• Party Time (1961)
• Trouble in Mind (1961)
• Old Gold (1961)
• Night Train (1961)
• Doin' the Dixie Twist (1962)
• Country Soul (1962)
• Soul Twist and other Golden Classics (1962)
• It's Party Time (1962)
• The Best of (1962)
• Soul Serenade (1964)
• Plays Hits made by Sam Cooke (1965)
• That Lovin' Feeling (1966)
• Live at Small's Paradise (1966)
• Play Great Memphis Hits (1967)
• Memphis Soul Stew (1967) #33 Pop, #6 R&B
• Sweet Soul (1968)
• Sax in Motion (1968)
• Instant Groove (1969)
• Everybody Talkin (1970)
• Get Ready (1970)
• Blues at Montreux (1971)

King Curtis and The Kingpins

• Soul Twist (1962) with The Noble Knights
• The Shirelles & King Curtis Give A Twist Party (1962) with The Shirelles
  The Shirelles
  The Shirelles were an African-American girl group that achieved popularity in the early 1960s. They consisted of schoolmates Shirley Owens , Doris Coley , Addie "Micki" Harris , and Beverly Lee...
  
  a/k/a Eternally, Soul (1968)
• King Size Soul (1967)
• Live at Fillmore West (1971)