Ted Curson

Theodore "Ted" Curson (born June 3, 1935, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ) is a jazz trumpeter. 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.

As leader

 * 1961: Plenty of Horn
 * 1962: Fire Down Below (Prestige Records, with Gildo Mahones, George Tucker, Roy Haynes)
 * 1964: Tears for Dolphy
 * 1964: Flip Top (Freedom Records)
 * 1965: The New Thing and the Blue Thing (Atlantic Records)
 * 1970: Ode to Booker Ervin (EMI)
 * 1971: Pop Wine
 * 1973:  Cattin' Curson with Georges Arvanitas and Chris Woods
 * 1976: Blue Piccolo (Whynot Records)
 * 1976: Ted Curson and Co. (India Navigation)
 * 1978:  'Round About Midnight
 * 1979: Snake Johnson (Chiaroscuro Records)
 * 1980: I Heard Mingus
 * 1990: Travelling On

As sideman
With Charles Mingus With Archie Shepp With Cecil Taylor With Andrzej Trzaskowski
 * Pre Bird (Mercury 1960)
 * Mingus at Antibes (Atlantic)
 * Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus
 * Mingus, (Candid, 1960)
 * Fire Music (Impulse!, 1965)
 * Love for Sale (1959)
 * Seant (1966)