Barbara Sutton Curtis

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Barbara Sutton Curtis (born September 16, 1930 in Howell (Missouri) ; † October 30, 2019 ) was an American jazz musician ( piano ). According to Allmusic , Sutton Curtis is "an experienced arranger of the historical jazz repertoire and one of the world's most accomplished interpreters of Fats Waller's extensive musical legacy."

Live and act

Barbara Sutton Curtis was the younger sister of the pianist Ralph Sutton . She followed her brother's interests and played piano in the high school band before attending Lindenwood College in Saint Charles , Missouri . In the following years she played in several jazz bands in the St. Louis area. Sutton began working professionally as a musician in 1949; In 1950 she performed every Sunday on Popular Street on the St. Louis riverside as the pianist for the Dixieland Six . In 1951 she made an appearance with her brother Ralph in the Central Plaza in New York City. Brother and sister began performing duets in public in 1959. Both developed remarkable skills as interpreters of the Harlem stride piano tradition, and they shared a special devotion to the music of Fats Waller , rediscovering a number of forgotten Waller compositions and performing them worldwide.

Sutton's last name changed after she married a high school English teacher named Hal Curtis (who first heard her play the piano in 1951 and believed he was listening to Ralph). In 1969 she settled in Ukiah, California and remained active as both a performer and a music teacher. She played regularly at Menlo Park and recorded at Café de Copains in Toronto, Canada . In 1987 she visited Germany with a traveling Fats Waller tribute show. That same year worked with her brother at the Mid-America Jazz Festival in St. Louis. Since then he has made a number of recordings under his own name; In 1984 she recorded the album Long Overdue in Santa Rosa , followed by the solo album Old Fashioned Love ( Sackville , with recordings 1987-91) and Solos and Duets (1991), with recordings of a concert with Ralph Sutton, Reggie Johnson and Jake Hanna in the Baden spa theater . At the end of September 2000 she appeared in St. Louis with Ralph Sutton, Keter Betts and Frank Capp in Bistro Europa ; the recording was released in 2002 on the album Home Again . In the field of jazz, she was involved in seven recording sessions between 1984 and 2000, according to Tom Lord .

Discographic notes

  • Long Overdue (C Jam, 1984), with Rod Pacini (ts), Will Siegel (g, vcl), Steve Baird (b, vcl) Hal Curtis (dr)
  • Solos and Duets (Sackville, 1991)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Barbara Sutton Curtis obituary. Trbutes.com, November 6, 2019, accessed November 6, 2019 .
  2. ^ Mary Unterbrink: Jazz Women at the Keyboard . McFarland & Company Incorporated Publ. 1983
  3. ↑ Tom Lord The Jazz Discography (online, accessed November 18, 2019)
personal data
SURNAME Sutton Curtis, Barbara
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Curtis, Barbara
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz musician (piano)
DATE OF BIRTH September 16, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Howell (Missouri)
DATE OF DEATH October 30, 2019