Ted Curson

{{Infobox musical artist

| image = Ted Curson.jpg

| name = Ted Curson

| caption = Ted Curson in Turku, Finland, July 2009

| background = non_vocal_instrumentalist

| birth_date = {{BirthDeathAge|B|1935|6|3|2012|11|04}}

| birth_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.

| death_date = {{BirthDeathAge|{{^}}|1935|6|3|2012|11|04}}

| death_place = Montclair, New Jersey

| genre = Jazz, avant-garde jazz

| occupation = Musician

| instrument = Trumpet

| years_active = 1955–2012

| label = Prestige, Fontana, Atlantic, Freedom, Futura, Marge, Trident, Whynot, Inner City, Chiaroscuro

| past_member_of = Charles Mingus, Spirit of Life Ensemble

}}

Theodore Curson (June 3, 1935 – November 4, 2012) was an American jazz trumpeter.{{cite book|last=Wynn|first=Ron|author-link=Ron Wynn|editor=Ron Wynn|others=M. Erlewine, V. Bogdanov|title=All Music Guide to Jazz|series=Allmusic|year=1994|publisher=Miller Freeman Books|location=San Francisco|isbn=0-87930-308-5|page=[https://archive.org/details/allmusicguidetoj00wynn/page/183 183]}}{{Cite news | first=Sari | last=Gustafsson | title=Pori Jazzin legenda Ted Curson kuoli | url=http://www.hs.fi/kulttuuri/Pori+Jazzin+legenda+Ted+Curson+kuoli/a1305612462721 | newspaper=Helsingin Sanomat | publisher=Lehtikuva | language=fi | date=2012-11-04}}

Life and career

Curson was born in Philadelphia. He became interested in playing trumpet after watching a newspaper salesman play a silver trumpet.{{cite web | url=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=17756 | title=Ted Curson: Atypical Ted | access-date=2007-08-02 | last=Allen | first=Clifford | date=2005-06-02| work=Allaboutjazz.com | publisher=All About Jazz}} Curson's father, however, wanted him to play alto saxophone like Louis Jordan. When he was ten, he gained his first trumpet.

He attended Granoff School of Music in Philadelphia.{{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p6356|label=Biography}} (web version) At the suggestion of Miles Davis, he moved to New York in 1956. He performed and recorded with Cecil Taylor in the late 1950s and early 1960s.{{cite book|last=Cook|first=Richard|author-link=Richard Cook (journalist)|author2=Brian Morton|author-link2=Brian Morton (Scottish writer)|title=The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings|orig-year=1992|edition=Eighth|year=2006|publisher=Penguin|location=New York|isbn=0-14-102327-9|page=[https://archive.org/details/penguinguidetoja00cook_1/page/1267 1267]}} His composition "Tears for Dolphy" has been used in numerous films.{{cite web|url=http://www.atpfestival.com/archive/line_up_view.php?archive=16&view=459|title=Ted Curson|access-date=2007-07-25|year=2005|work=ATPFestival.com|publisher=All Tomorrow's Parties}}{{cite web|url=http://dvd.ign.com/articles/697/697167p1.html|title=Teorema|access-date=2007-07-25|last=Gilchrist|first=Todd|date=2006-03-20|work=IGN.com|publisher=IGN Entertainment, Inc.}}{{IMDb title|0063678|Teorema}} He was featured in a profile on composer Graham Collier in the 1985 Channel 4 documentary, Hoarded Dreams.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bright-thoughts.co.uk/hoarded-dreams.html|title=Hoarded Dreams|website=Bright-thoughts.co.uk|access-date=August 1, 2024}}

He was a familiar face in Finland, having performed at the Pori Jazz festival every year since it began in 1966. In 2007, he performed at Finland's Independence Day Ball at the invitation of president Tarja Halonen.{{cite web |url=http://www.presidentti.fi/netcomm/news/showarticle.asp?intNWSAID=67104&intSubArtID=26960 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20070626124419/http://www.presidentti.fi/netcomm/news/showarticle.asp?intNWSAID=67104&intSubArtID=26960 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2007-06-26 |title=The President's Independence Day Reception on 6 December 2007 |access-date=2009-03-24 |publisher=Office of the President of the Republic of Finland}}

A longtime resident of Montclair, New Jersey,[https://web.archive.org/web/20080927062323/http://www.nj.com/greatday/stories/more.html "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." Curson died from a heart attack in the township on November 4, 2012.

Discography

=As leader=

Plenty of Horn (Old Town, 1961)
Ted Curson Plays Fire Down Below (Prestige, 1963)
Live at La'Tete De L'Art (Trans-World, 1962)
Tears for Dolphy (Fontana, 1965)
The New Thing & the Blue Thing (Atlantic, 1965)
Urge (Fontana, 1966)
Ode to Booker Ervin (Columbia, 1970)
Pop Wine (Futura, 1971)
Cattin' Curson (Marge, 1975)
Blue Piccolo (Whynot, 1976)
Jubilant Power (Inner City, 1976)
Quicksand (Atlantic, 1977)
Flip Top (Arista/Freedom, 1977)
Fireball (Trio, 1979)
Blowin' Away with Dizzy Reece (Interplay, 1978)
The Trio (Interplay, 1979)
I Heard Mingus (Trio, 1980)
Snake Johnson (Chiaroscuro, 1981)
Traveling On (Evidence, 1997)

=As sideman=

With Bill Barron

The Tenor Stylings of Bill Barron (Savoy, 1961)
Modern Windows (Savoy, 1962)
Now, Hear This! (Audio Fidelity, 1964)

With Charles Mingus

Mingus (Candid, 1961)
Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus (Candid, 1961)
Mingus Revisited (Limelight, 1965)
Mingus at Antibes (Atlantic, 1976)

With Cecil Taylor

Love for Sale (United Artists, 1959)
Into the Hot (Impulse!, 1962)
In Transition (Blue Note, 1975)
The New Breed (ABC Impulse!, 1978) (reissue of tracks from Into the Hot)

With others

Pepper Adams, California Cookin' (Interplay, 1991)
Ran Blake, Film Noir (Arista Novus, 1980)
Nick Brignola, Baritone Madness (Bee Hive, 1978)
Bill Dixon & Archie Shepp, Bill Dixon 7-tette/Archie Shepp and the New York Contemporary 5 (Savoy, 1964)
Graham Collier, Hoarded Dreams (Cuneiform, 2007)
Eric Dolphy, Candid, Dolphy (Candid, 1989)
Eric Dolphy, Outward Bound (Poll Winners, 2011)
Gil Evans, Into The Hot (Impulse!, 1962)
Andrew Hill, Spiral (Arista/Freedom, 1975)
Karin Krog, Joy (Meantime, 2008)
Teo Macero, Impressions of Charles Mingus (Palo Alto, 1983)
Misha Mengelberg & Piet Noordijk, Journey (MCN, 2011)
Mark Murphy, Living Room (Muse, 1986)
Sal Nistico, Neo/Nistico (Bee Hive, 1978)
Archie Shepp, Fire Music (Impulse!, 1965)
Archie Shepp, Quartet (FreeFactory, 2009)
Andrzej Trzaskowski, Seant (1966)