Friday jazz: Remembering Curtis Fuller

 The other day, I was listening to John Coltrane's Blue Train.  It is one of Coltrane's earlier albums, before he started experimenting.  Before Giant Steps, before A Love Supreme, before his full embrace of the avant-garde.  Yet, Blue Train may be the greatest hard bop album ever recorded, standing alongside anything in the discography of Art Blakey, Horace Silver or the other giants of the style.  I was admiring the trombone work of Curtis Fuller, specifically.  The next day, I learned of the recent death of Curtis Fuller.  Today, we honor Curtis Fuller.

Let's just marvel at the title track.  First, consider the opening riff.  You need that horn section, of which Curtis is a part.  Is this the hardest thing in the world to play?  No, but that riff is genius.  Then we go into the main piece, and of course, St. John takes his solo.  Yes, there is a Church of John Coltrane in San Francisco, because where else?  Anyway, this is before Giant Steps, and all of that, so Coltrane's method is still developing.  Charlie Parker still looms over every sax player, even the tenors, and Sonny Rollins is pretty much the pinnacle here, in '57, so straightforward, blues-based, bop-style improvisation is what you're getting, but Coltrane is doing it more in a Blue Note style.  Less abstract, more hard-driving blues.  He just can't help himself, though, with the bebop.  It's Coltrane, and he's off in the aether.

But then comes Curtis.  The trombone is not your standard bebop or hard bop instrument.  Your basic bebop quintet is saxophone/trumpet/piano/bass/drums.  Reduce that as you please, or substitute an instrument as you please.  Experimentalists would play around a lot with arrangements.  See, for example, Jimmy Guiffre.  The trombone, though, has an odd place in jazz history (and a common place in Guiffre's experiments!).  Closely tied to the New Orleans tradition, it never really became standard in bebop or post-bop traditions.  These days, you get an occasional trombone player, like Trombone Shorty, who is awesome, and also more of a New Orleans funk musician, but it got lost in the shuffle.  The great 12-string guitarist, Leo Kottke, actually started on the trombone, and switched to guitar.  I'm glad he did, but I kinda dig the trombone.

As an instrument, it is difficult.  The slide requires a lot of control, and the depth of tone required... it's a hard instrument.  And Curtis comes in, after Coltrane, and brings it back to some cool, deep blues.  Listen to the contrast between that Coltrane solo, showoff that he is (and deserves to be-- he's John Fucking Coltrane), and Curtis.

That contrast is vital to the whole album.  Blue Train is one of the greatest albums in jazz.  Coltrane, obviously... I could gush about him at length, but let's take some time to appreciate how vital Curtis Fuller was.  Ironically, I was doing just that right before learning of his death.

Curtis Fuller...  listen...