Ted Curson

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Ted Curson (Turku, Finland, 2009)

Theodore “Ted” Curson (born June 3, 1935 in Philadelphia , † November 4, 2012 in Montclair ) was an American jazz musician ( trumpet , flugelhorn ).

Live and act

Curson played the saxophone at the age of five and switched to the trumpet at the age of ten. He studied at the Granoff Conservatory in Philadelphia and then with John Costello in New York City . He began his musical career with Charlie Ventura ; Encouraged by Miles Davis he then played with Mal Waldron , Red Garland , Philly Joe Jones and Cecil Taylor , with whom he recorded a first album in 1956. In 1959 and 1960 he was part of Charles Mingus ' band , with whom he played at the 1960 Antibes Festival and took part in recordings for albums such as Pre-Bird . He then founded his own groups, but also played with Max Roach , Lee Konitz , Andrew Hill , Booker Ervin , Bill Barron and Archie Shepp . He then oriented himself in Europe, lived temporarily in Finland, where he appeared regularly at the Pori Jazz Festival from 1966 , and in 1973 was employed as a musician at the Zurich Theater. He also wrote film music , such as for Teorema by Pier Paolo Pasolini .

In the mid-1970s, he was identified as the protagonist of neobop . Since 1976 he lived again in North America, where he founded a septet with which he presented himself at the 1978 Newport Jazz Festival . With the Mingus Dynasty he played several times at festivals in the USA and toured Europe and India. In 1981 he gave a guest performance in New York's Town Hall with his own octet . He later led the house band of New York's Blue Note .

In his final years he oversaw a monthly jam session at Trumpets , a club in Montclair. In the summer of 2012 he played again with Henry Grimes in New York's Cornelia Street Cafe .

In 2003 Vincent Gallo used the song "Tears for Dolphy" for the soundtrack of his American-Japanese-French independent essay film The Brown Bunny .

Discography (selection)

literature

  • Martin Kunzler : Jazz Lexicon. Volume 1: A – L (= rororo-Sachbuch. Vol. 16512). 2nd Edition. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-499-16512-0 , pp. 253f.
  • Horst Weber , Gerd Filtgen: Charles Mingus - His life, his music, his records. Oreos (Collection Jazz), Schaftlach o. J.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Obituary (Finnish)
  2. ↑ Chris Kelsey : Ted Curson: More than a Survivor - Obituary at JazzTimes
personal data
SURNAME Curson, Ted
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Curson, Theodore
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz musician
DATE OF BIRTH June 3, 1935
PLACE OF BIRTH Philadelphia
DATE OF DEATH 4th November 2012
Place of death Montclair