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Ted Curson. Who remembers him?


Hardbopjazz

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Guest donald petersen

i have urge. i like it a lot. usually i don't like booker ervin but his tone seems more normal on this one...though maybe it is the poor fidelity of my CDR.

the rhythm section also plays in an unconventional way. i can't really explain what i mean. the drummer, edgar bateman, is tom heavy, i guess. and the bassist (don't remember who) goes along with it.

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Guest donald petersen

i was just reading a blog by those ironic pieces of swill the bad plus (i got to this dothemath site googling something random) and i was reading an interview with billy hart, who i like. and he was being asked who he considered underrated drummers. he said bobby ward, who i don't know. and his other choice was edgar bateman. the drummer on "urge", who, as i said, does some cool stuff on this one.

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  • 1 month later...

The French label Marge is releasing this month 'Ted Curson in Paris/Live at the Sunside'

curson-2.jpg

It was recorded last August at the Paric Sunside club.

Curson was accompanied by Pierrick Pedron, alto, Guillaume Naturel, flute, Alain Jean-Marie, piano, Gilles Naturel, bass, Philippe Soirat, drums and several vocalists!

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All of Curson's recordings with Bill Barron are worth hearing. "Urge" is indeed very good as are some of the things he did on I believe India Navigation - especially a very interesting trio date with Ray Drummond and Roy Haynes called "Trio".

"The Trio," on Interplay, was interesting. It's very tough for a trumpeter to sustain interest over an entire album in a trio setting, carrying the whole melodic (and much of the improvisatory) content. I took this as a major challenge Ted set for himself, and damn if he didn't pull it off!

b751_1.JPG

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i was just reading a blog by those ironic pieces of swill the bad plus (i got to this dothemath site googling something random) and i was reading an interview with billy hart, who i like. and he was being asked who he considered underrated drummers. he said bobby ward, who i don't know. and his other choice was edgar bateman. the drummer on "urge", who, as i said, does some cool stuff on this one.

I agree - that's an excellent date by all involved.

Mine has a different jacket, with a photo of Curson, subtitled "Fontana - The Jazz Life." There were some other cool records in this series, by Howard McGhee, Bud Powell and Paul Bley.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Ted Curson played in a memorial celebration for Denis Charles here in New York at Tonic in December, 'O3; others who played that night (or at least were scheduled to play) included Pheeroan akLaff, Rashied Ali, Nathan Breedlove, Roxane Butterfly, Roy Campbell, Jr., Joel Forrester, Joe Gallant, Henry Grimes, Montego Joe, Sabir Mateen, Jemeel Moondoc, Buell Neidlinger (to my memory, he didn't make it), William Parker, Jimmy Vass, and more. The following June 1st, Henry Grimes & Ted Curson did an on-air special together on the great radio station WKCR, and the next day Henry and Ted played absolutely gorgeous duets at Cornelia Street Cafe. In September of 'O4 there was a great party at Ted and Marge's place in Montclair, NJ at which the guest of honor was Finland's President Tarja Halonen. We haven't seen Ted since then, but he does indeed live at least half the year in Finland. To my ears, he's still playing with great power and eloquence but has also taken to singing a fair amount.

Edited by musicmargaret
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  • 2 weeks later...

Sorry for this late notice (I just happened upon this), but Ted Curson is on the air in person right now on New York's greatest radio station, WKCR, 89.9 FM in the New York area, or on the Web at www.wkcr.org. I heard mention that he will be playing on May 2Oth at Victory Hall, 186 Grand St., Jersey City, NJ, 2O1-333-795O or 2O1-2O8-O51O, www.victoryhall.org, and on May 25th at the Priory, 223 West Market St. in Newark, NJ, 973-242-8O12.

Edited by musicmargaret
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Guest donald petersen

he divides his time between montclair and finland? that's pretty cool.

montclair is a good place...who else is there? oliver lake is. others too.

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Good thing this thread popped up--I just picked up a copy of Graham Collier's Hoarded Dreams (from the early 80's), and Ted is a featured soloist. He'd lost none of his old ebullience and keeps up well in fast company (Kenny Wheeler, Manfred Schoof, Henry Lowther, Tomasz Stanko). My only reservation might be that, fine as the set is--terrific arrangements, compositions--there's scarce little of the full-on trumpet line improvising together (and when it occurs, it's a BOOM-fest, versus the quieter, more detailed ensemble work that I know all of these men can provide). The whole line-up is killer, and it's in some ways enough to hear cats like Curson working in such unusual, momentous environs.

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Fan of Ted Curson. Sadly, I have just 'Plenty of Horn', which is an excellent date. I thought Curson and Bill Barron were a good foil for each other, especially on 'Modern Windows Suite'. Like his work with Mingus as well. Has anyone heard his Atlantic side, 'The New Thing and the Blue Thing'? Looks interesting.

Edited by Holy Ghost
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  • 1 month later...

By coincidence I happened to be spinning this one right now....

now-hear-this.jpg

Slammin'! :tup

What label is that? Lonehill? Is that a comp of Savoy material?

Will spin Modern Wondows Suite tonight. Curson is a special kind of trumpeter-kind of like Woody Shaw-he is able to play in all kinds of settings and sounds convincing in each of those cases.

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By coincidence I happened to be spinning this one right now....

now-hear-this.jpg

Slammin'! :tup

What label is that? Lonehill? Is that a comp of Savoy material?

Will spin Modern Wondows Suite tonight. Curson is a special kind of trumpeter-kind of like Woody Shaw-he is able to play in all kinds of settings and sounds convincing in each of those cases.

That was an Audio Fidelity issue. Since their logo is gone, I guess it's a "Spanish" issue.

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By coincidence I happened to be spinning this one right now....

now-hear-this.jpg

Slammin'! :tup

What label is that? Lonehill? Is that a comp of Savoy material?

Will spin Modern Wondows Suite tonight. Curson is a special kind of trumpeter-kind of like Woody Shaw-he is able to play in all kinds of settings and sounds convincing in each of those cases.

That was an Audio Fidelity issue. Since their logo is gone, I guess it's a "Spanish" issue.

Is that a reissue of an original album then?

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