Curtis Fuller

Curtis DuBois Fuller (born December 15, 1934, Detroit) is an American jazz trombonist, known as a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and contributor to many classic jazz recordings.

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 him playing with Miles Davis in the late 1950s, and featured him as a sideman on record dates led by Sonny Clark and John Coltrane; Fuller's work on the latter's Blue Train album is probably his best known recorded performance. 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, he 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. He went on to tour with Count Basie and also reunited with Blakey and Golson.

Fuller continues to perform and record, and is currently a faculty member of the New York State Summer School of the Arts (NYSSSA) School of Jazz Studies (SJS).

As leader

 * 1957: New Trombone (Prestige)
 * 1957: Curtis Fuller with Red Garland (New Jazz)
 * 1957: Curtis Fuller and Hampton Hawes with French Horns (Status)
 * 1957: The Opener (Blue Note)
 * 1957: Bone & Bari (Blue Note)
 * 1957: Jazz ...It's Magic! (Regent)
 * 1957: Curtis Fuller Volume 3 (Blue Note)
 * 1958: Two Bones (Blue Note)
 * 1959: Sliding Easy (United Artists)
 * 1959: Blues-ette (Savoy)
 * 1959: The Curtis Fuller Jazztet (Savoy)
 * 1959: Imagination (Savoy)
 * 1960: Images of Curtis Fuller (Savoy)
 * 1960: Boss of the Soul-Stream Trombone (Warwick)
 * 1961: The Magnificent Trombone of Curtis Fuller (Epic)
 * 1961: South American Cookin' (Epic)
 * 1961: Soul Trombone (Impulse!)
 * 1962: Cabin in the Sky (Impulse!)
 * 1971: Crankin' (Mainstream)
 * 1972: Smokin' (Mainstream)
 * 1978: Four on the Outside (Timeless)
 * 1978: Fire and Filigree (Bee Hive Records)
 * 1979: Giant Bones '80 (Sonet)
 * 1980: Giant Bones at Nice (Ahead)
 * 1982: Curtis Fuller Meets Roma Jazz Trio (Timeless)
 * 1993: Blues-ette Part II (Savoy)
 * 2003: Up Jumped Spring (Delmark)
 * 2003: Keep It Simple (Savant)
 * 2010: I Will Tell Her
 * 2011: The Story of Cathy and Me (Challenge Records)
 * 2012: Down Home

As sideman
With Art Blakey With Paul Chambers With John Coltrane With Sonny Clark With Lou Donaldson With Kenny Dorham With Gil Evans With Art Farmer With Dizzy Gillespie With Benny Golson With Hampton Hawes With Jimmy Heath With Joe Henderson With Freddie Hubbard With John Jenkins With Philly Joe Jones With Quincy Jones With Clifford Jordan With Yusef Lateef '''With Abbey Lincoln With Jackie McLean With Blue Mitchell With Hank Mobley With Lee Morgan With Houston Person With Bud Powell With Paul Quinichette With Wayne Shorter With Jimmy Smith With Stanley Turrentine With Phil Woods
 * Buhaina's Delight (Blue Note, 1961)
 * Caravan (Riverside, 1962)
 * Free For All (Blue Note, 1964)
 * Kyoto (Riverside, 1964)
 * Indestructible (Blue Note, 1964)
 * Mosaic (Blue Note, 1961)
 * Ugetsu (Riverside, 1963)
 * Three Blind Mice (1962)
 * 1st Bassman
 * Blue Train
 * Dial "S" for Sonny
 * Sonny's Crib
 * Lou Takes Off
 * This Is the Moment!
 * Great Jazz Standards
 * Brass Shout (United Artists, 1959)
 * The Dizzy Gillespie Reunion Big Band (MPS, 1968)
 * The Other Side of Benny Golson (Riverside, 1958)
 * Gone with Golson (New Jazz, 1959)
 * Groovin' with Golson (New Jazz, 1959)
 * Gettin' with It (New Jazz, 1959)
 * Meet the Jazztet (Argo, 1960) - with Art Farmer
 * Take a Number from 1 to 10 (Argo, 1961)
 * Pop + Jazz = Swing (Audio Fidelity, 1961) - also released as Just Jazz!
 * Baritones and French Horns
 * The Thumper (Riverside, 1959)
 * In Pursuit of Blackness
 * Mode for Joe
 * The Body & the Soul (Impulse!)
 * Jazz Eyes (Regent, 1957) - with Donald Byrd
 * Drums Around the World (Riverside, 1959)
 * Together! (Atlantic, 1961) - with Elvin Jones
 * Newport '61
 * Cliff Jordan
 * Jazz for the Thinker (Savoy, 1957)
 * Jazz Mood (Savoy, 1957)
 * Before Dawn: The Music of Yusef Lateef (Verve, 1957)
 * It's Magic (Riverside, 1958)
 * A Long Drink of the Blues
 * Makin' the Changes
 * Big 6
 * Blue Soul
 * A Caddy for Daddy
 * City Lights
 * Tom Cat
 * Blue Odyssey (Prestige, 1968)
 * Bud! The Amazing Bud Powell (Vol. 3)
 * On the Sunny Side (Prestige, 1957)
 * Schizophrenia
 * House Party
 * The Sermon!
 * In Memory Of
 * Mr. Natural
 * The Sugar Man
 * Rights of Swing