Ted Curson

Theodore Curson (June 3, 1935 – November 4, 2012) was an American jazz trumpeter.^[1]^[2]

Curson was born in Philadelphia.^[1] He became interested in playing trumpet after watching a newspaper salesman play a silver trumpet.^[3] Curson's father, however, wanted him to play alto saxophone like Louis Jordan.^[3] When he was ten, he got his first trumpet.^[3]

He attended Granoff School of Music in Philadelphia.^[4] At the suggestion of Miles Davis, he moved to New York in 1956.^[1] He performed and recorded with Cecil Taylor in the late 1950s and early 1960s.^[1]^[5] His composition "Tears for Dolphy" has been used in numerous films.^[6]^[7]^[8]

He was a familiar face in Finland, having performed at the Pori Jazz festival every year since it began in 1966.^[2] In 2007, he performed at Finland's Independence Day Ball at the invitation of president Tarja Halonen.^[9]

A longtime resident of Montclair, New Jersey,^[10] Curson died there on November 4, 2012.^[2]

Discography

As leader

1961: Plenty of Horn (Old Town)
1962: Ted Curson Plays Fire Down Below (Prestige)
1962: Live At La Tête De L'Art (Trans World Records)
1964: Tears for Dolphy (Fontana)
1965: The New Thing & the Blue Thing (Atlantic)
1966: Urge (Fontana)
1964-66: Flip Top (Freedom) released 1977
1970: Ode to Booker Ervin (EMI Columbia)
1971: Pop Wine (Futura)
1973: Cattin' Curson (Marge) / Typical Ted (Trident)
1974: Quicksand (Atlantic)
1976: Blue Piccolo (Whynot) / Ted Curson and Co. (India Navigation)
1976: Jubilant Power (Inner City)
1978: Blowin' Away (Interplay) with Dizzy Reece
1979: The Trio (Interplay)
1980: I Heard Mingus (Interplay)
1980: Snake Johnson (Chiaroscuro)
1996: Traveling On (Evidence)
1999: Sugar 'n Spice (Level Green)
2007: Ted Curson in Paris: Live at the Sunside (Blue Marge)
2008: Ted Curson & The Clinic Sextet (fifty-fifty records)
2012: Live in Paris: Plays the Music of Charles Mingus (Elabeth)

As sideman

With Pepper Adams

California Cookin' (Interplay, 1983 [1991])

With Bill Barron

The Tenor Stylings of Bill Barron (Savoy, 1961)
Modern Windows (Savoy, 1961)

With Nick Brignola

Baritone Madness (Bee Hive, 1977) with Pepper Adams

With Graham Collier

Hoarded Dreams (Cuneiform, 1983 [2007])

With Andrew Hill

Spiral (Freedom, 1975)

With Charles Mingus

Mingus (Candid, 1960)
Mingus Revisited (Mercury, 1960)
Mingus at Antibes (Atlantic, 1960)
Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus (Candid, 1960)

With New York Contemporary Five

Bill Dixon 7-tette/Archie Shepp and the New York Contemporary 5 (Savoy, 1964)

With Sal Nistico

Neo/Nistico (Bee Hive, 1978)

With Archie Shepp

Fire Music (Impulse!, 1965)

With Cecil Taylor

Love for Sale (United Artists, 1959)

With Andrzej Trzaskowski

Seant (1966)

With The Clinic Sextet

Studio Live (fifty-fifty records, 2008)

With Spirit of Life Ensemble

Live au Duc (Rise Up, 2001)
Planet Jazz (Rise Up, 2009)

References

^ a b c d Wynn, Ron (1994). Ron Wynn, ed. All Music Guide to Jazz. Allmusic. M. Erlewine, V. Bogdanov. San Francisco: Miller Freeman Books. p. 183. ISBN 0-87930-308-5.
^ a b c Gustafsson, Sari (2012-11-04). "Pori Jazzin legenda Ted Curson kuoli". Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish). Lehtikuva.
^ a b c Allen, Clifford (2005-06-02). "Ted Curson: Atypical Ted". Allaboutjazz.com. All About Jazz. Retrieved 2007-08-02.
^ Biography at AllMusic (web version)
^ Cook, Richard; Brian Morton (2006) [1992]. The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (Eighth ed.). New York: Penguin. p. 1267. ISBN 0-14-102327-9.
^ "Ted Curson". ATPFestival.com. All Tomorrow's Parties. 2005. Retrieved 2007-07-25.
^ Gilchrist, Todd (2006-03-20). "Teorema". IGN.com. IGN Entertainment, Inc. Retrieved 2007-07-25.
^ Teorema on IMDb
^ "The President's Independence Day Reception on 6 December 2007". Office of the President of the Republic of Finland. Archived from the original on 2009-07-08. Retrieved 2009-03-24.
^ "The State of Jazz: Meet 40 More Jersey Greats", The Star-Ledger, September 28, 2003, backed up by the Internet Archive as of September 27, 2008. Accessed September 15, 2017. "Ted Curson -- Long-time Montclair resident Curson is a bold trumpeter who has performed and/or recorded with Charles Mingus, Eric Dolphy, Andrew Hill, Cecil Taylor and the Spirit of Life Ensemble."

External links

Ted Curson at AllMusic
http://www.fiftyrecords.com/kauppa/ffcd1052_ted_curson.html
https://web.archive.org/web/201107-20194101/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:

[wynn-1] Wynn, Ron (1994). Ron Wynn, ed. All Music Guide to Jazz. Allmusic. M. Erlewine, V. Bogdanov. San Francisco: Miller Freeman Books. p. 183. ISBN 0-87930-308-5.

[Gustaffson-2] Gustafsson, Sari (2012-11-04). "Pori Jazzin legenda Ted Curson kuoli". Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish). Lehtikuva.

[allen-3] Allen, Clifford (2005-06-02). "Ted Curson: Atypical Ted". Allaboutjazz.com. All About Jazz. Retrieved 2007-08-02.

[amgbio-4] Biography at AllMusic (web version)

[cook-5] Cook, Richard; Brian Morton (2006) [1992]. The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (Eighth ed.). New York: Penguin. p. 1267. ISBN 0-14-102327-9.

[6] "Ted Curson". ATPFestival.com. All Tomorrow's Parties. 2005. Retrieved 2007-07-25.

[7] Gilchrist, Todd (2006-03-20). "Teorema". IGN.com. IGN Entertainment, Inc. Retrieved 2007-07-25.

[8] Teorema on IMDb

[9] "The President's Independence Day Reception on 6 December 2007". Office of the President of the Republic of Finland. Archived from the original on 2009-07-08. Retrieved 2009-03-24.

[10] "The State of Jazz: Meet 40 More Jersey Greats", The Star-Ledger, September 28, 2003, backed up by the Internet Archive as of September 27, 2008. Accessed September 15, 2017. "Ted Curson -- Long-time Montclair resident Curson is a bold trumpeter who has performed and/or recorded with Charles Mingus, Eric Dolphy, Andrew Hill, Cecil Taylor and the Spirit of Life Ensemble."