Ted Curson
Encyclopedia
Theodore "Ted" Curson is a jazz
trumpet
er. He is perhaps best-known for recording and performing with Charles Mingus
.
Curson became interested in playing trumpet after watching a newspaper salesman play a silver trumpet. Curson's father, however, preferred that Ted become an alto saxophone
player like Louis Jordan
. Finally, when Ted was 10 years old, he received a "raggedy" trumpet.
Curson attended Granoff Musical Conservatory. At the suggestion of Miles Davis
, he moved to New York in 1956. Curson performed and recorded with Cecil Taylor
in the late 1950s and early 1960s. His 1964 composition "Tears for Dolphy
" has been used in the films Teorema, Last Date, and The Brown Bunny
.
Curson is a resident of Montclair, New Jersey
. He is also a familiar face in Finland, having performed annually at the Pori Jazz
festival each year since the beginning of the event in 1966. In 2007, Curson performed at Finland's Independence Day Ball at the invitation of president Tarja Halonen
.
With Archie Shepp
With Cecil Taylor
With Andrzej Trzaskowski
With Spirit Of Life Ensemble
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...
trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
er. He is perhaps best-known for recording and performing with Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus Jr. was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and civil rights activist.Mingus's compositions retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop and drew heavily from black gospel music while sometimes drawing on elements of Third stream, free jazz, and classical music...
.
Curson became interested in playing trumpet after watching a newspaper salesman play a silver trumpet. Curson's father, however, preferred that Ted become an alto saxophone
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...
player like 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...
. Finally, when Ted was 10 years old, he received a "raggedy" trumpet.
Curson attended Granoff Musical Conservatory. At the suggestion of Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
, he moved to New York in 1956. Curson performed and recorded with Cecil Taylor
Cecil Taylor
Cecil Percival Taylor is an American pianist and poet. Classically trained, Taylor is generally acknowledged as one of the pioneers of free jazz. His music is characterized by an extremely energetic, physical approach, producing complex improvised sounds, frequently involving tone clusters and...
in the late 1950s and early 1960s. His 1964 composition "Tears for Dolphy
Eric Dolphy
Eric Allan Dolphy was an American jazz alto saxophonist, flutist, and bass clarinetist. On a few occasions he also played the clarinet and baritone saxophone. Dolphy was one of several multi-instrumentalists to gain prominence in the 1960s...
" has been used in the films Teorema, Last Date, and The Brown Bunny
The Brown Bunny
The Brown Bunny is a 2003 independent American art house film written, produced and directed by actor Vincent Gallo about a motorcycle racer on a cross-country drive who is haunted by memories of his former lover. The film had its world premiere at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival to boos and catcalls...
.
Curson is a resident of Montclair, New Jersey
Montclair, New Jersey
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 38,977 people, 15,020 households, and 9,687 families residing in the township. The population density was 6,183.6 people per square mile . There were 15,531 housing units at an average density of 2,464.0 per square mile...
. He is also a familiar face in Finland, having performed annually at the Pori Jazz
Pori Jazz
Pori Jazz is a large international jazz festival, held annually in the coastal city of Pori , Finland. It is one of the oldest and best known jazz festivals in Europe, having been arranged every year since 1966...
festival each year since the beginning of the event in 1966. In 2007, Curson performed at Finland's Independence Day Ball at the invitation of president Tarja Halonen
Tarja Halonen
Tarja Kaarina Halonen is the incumbent President of Finland. The first female to hold the office, Halonen had previously been a member of the parliament from 1979 to 2000 when she resigned after her election to the presidency...
.
As leader
- 1961: Plenty of Horn
- 1962: Fire Down Below (Prestige RecordsPrestige RecordsPrestige Records was a jazz record label founded in 1949 by Bob Weinstock. The company was located at 203 South Washington Avenue in Bergenfield, New Jersey, and recorded hundreds of albums by many of the leading jazz musicians of the day, sometimes issuing them under the names of several...
, with Gildo MahonesGildo MahonesGildo Mahones is an American jazz pianist.Early in his career, Mahones played with Joe Morris and Milt Jackson. He served in the Army during the Korean War and then played with Lester Young from 1953 to 1956. Later in the 1950s he toured with the Jazz Modes , Sonny Stitt, and Benny Green...
, George TuckerGeorge Tucker (musician)George Andrew Tucker was an American jazz double-bassist.Tucker attended the New York Conservatory of Modern Music, studying bass in the late 1940s. Early in his career he played with Earl Bostic, John Coltrane, and Jackie McLean...
, Roy HaynesRoy HaynesRoy Owen Haynes is an American jazz drummer and bandleader. Haynes is among the most recorded drummers in jazz, and in a career lasting more than 60 years has played in a wide range of styles ranging from swing and bebop to jazz fusion and avant-garde jazz...
) - 1964: Tears for DolphyTears for DolphyTears for Dolphy is a 1964 album by jazz trumpeter Ted Curson. The album's title track, an elegy for Eric Dolphy, has been used in the films Teorema, Last Date, and The Brown Bunny.- Track listing :All tracks recorded on August 1, 1964....
- 1964: Flip Top (Freedom RecordsFreedom RecordsFreedom Records was a jazz record label linked with the producer Alan Bates, as with his Black Lion Records.Individual recordings were distributed via Polydor Records and Transatlantic Records during the early 1970s before the company was bought by Arista Records.-Discography:*1000 Albert Ayler &...
) - 1965: The New Thing and the Blue Thing (Atlantic RecordsAtlantic RecordsAtlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
) - 1966: Urge (Fontana)
- 1970: Ode to Booker Ervin (EMI)
- 1971: Pop Wine
- 1973: Cattin' Curson with Georges ArvanitasGeorges ArvanitasGeorges Arvanitas was a jazz pianist and organist.- Life and career :He began life as a child of Greek immigrants from Constantinople. At the age of four he began studying piano and initially trained as a classical. However he switched to jazz some time in his teens and would be known for jazz in...
and Chris WoodsChris WoodsChristopher 'Chris' Charles Eric Woods is a former England international football goalkeeper, who played in the Football League and Premier League for Queens Park Rangers, Norwich City, Sheffield Wednesday, Reading, Southampton and Burnley, in the Scottish Football League for Rangers, and in Major... - 1974: Quicksand (Atlantic RecordsAtlantic RecordsAtlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
) - 1976: Blue Piccolo (Whynot RecordsWhynot Records-Discography:...
) - 1976: Ted Curson and Co. (India NavigationIndia NavigationIndia Navigation was an American independent record label that was active from the 1970s to the early 1990s. Founded by corporate lawyer Bob Cummins, the label specialized in jazz music, particularly avant-garde jazz.-Discography:...
) - 1978: 'Round About Midnight
- 1979: Snake Johnson (Chiaroscuro RecordsChiaroscuro Records-Artists:*Nat Adderley*Howard Alden*George Barnes*Louie Bellson*Gene Bertoncini*Eubie Blake*Ruby Braff*John Bunch*Don Cherry*Buck Clayton*Eddie Condon*Johnny Costa*Kenny Davern*Wild Bill Davison*Lou Donaldson*Dorothy Donegan*John Eaton*Don Ewell...
) - 1980: I Heard Mingus
- 1990: Travelling On
As sideman
With Charles MingusCharles Mingus
Charles Mingus Jr. was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and civil rights activist.Mingus's compositions retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop and drew heavily from black gospel music while sometimes drawing on elements of Third stream, free jazz, and classical music...
- Pre Bird (Mercury 1960)
- Mingus at AntibesMingus at AntibesMingus at Antibes was originally a double album recorded at a live 1960 performance at Juan-les-Pins by jazz bassist and composer Charles Mingus; it was released in 1976....
(Atlantic) - Charles Mingus Presents Charles MingusCharles Mingus Presents Charles MingusCharles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus is an album by jazz bassist and composer Charles Mingus, recorded and released in 1960. To produce an atmosphere, Mingus makes spoken introductions "live" in the studio: hence the album's title....
- Mingus, (Candid, 1960)
With Archie Shepp
Archie Shepp
Archie Shepp is a prominent African-American jazz saxophonist. Shepp is best known for his passionately Afrocentric music of the late 1960s, which focused on highlighting the injustices faced by the African-Americans, as well as for his work with the New York Contemporary Five, Horace Parlan, and...
- Fire MusicFire MusicFire Music is a studio album by Archie Shepp released on Impulse! Records in 1965. "Malcolm, Malcolm Semper Malcolm" is dedicated to Malcolm X, whilst "Los Olvidados" is a homage to the film of the same name. The Allmusic review by Scott Yanow states "This particular early Archie Shepp recording...
(Impulse!, 1965)
With Cecil Taylor
Cecil Taylor
Cecil Percival Taylor is an American pianist and poet. Classically trained, Taylor is generally acknowledged as one of the pioneers of free jazz. His music is characterized by an extremely energetic, physical approach, producing complex improvised sounds, frequently involving tone clusters and...
- Love for SaleLove for Sale (Cecil Taylor album)Love for Sale is an album by pianist Cecil Taylor recorded for the United Artists label in April 1959. The album features performances by Taylor with Buell Neidlinger, and Denis Charles with Bill Barron and Ted Curson added on three tracks. The Allmusic review by Thom Jurek states "This may be the...
(1959)
With Andrzej Trzaskowski
Andrzej Trzaskowski
Andrzej Trzaskowski was an eminent Polish composer and jazz musician who, between 1959 and 1990, composed the music and/or conducted the score for some thirty films....
- SeantSeant (Andrzej Trzaskowski album)Seant - studio album by Andrzej Trzaskowski Sextet released on Polskie Nagrania in 1966 as Polish Jazz series volume 11. Album features appearance of American jazz trumpeter Ted Curson.-Track listing:Side A:#"Seant" - 9:58...
(1966)
With Spirit Of Life Ensemble
- Live Au Duc (Rise Up Productions 2001)
- Planet Jazz (Rise Up Productions 2009)
External links
- http://www.fiftyrecords.com/kauppa/ffcd1052_ted_curson.html
- http://www.turkujazz.fi/esiintyjat/esittelyt/tcatcs.html
- http://www.turunsanomat.fi/ajassa/?ts=1,3:1007:0:0,4:7:0:1:2007-12-05,104:7:502857,1:0:0:0:0:0: