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Cy Touff

Cy (Cyril James) Touff played bass trumpet, an unusual horn then and now. He took up the instrument in the late 1940s, having earlier played piano, saxophone, xylophone, trumpet and trombone.

He studied with Lennie Tristano in his native Chicago, and played with a number of band leaders there. He worked with Woody Herman from 1953-6, and spent time on the west coast, where he performed and recorded with Ritchie Kamuca and others.

He returned to Chicago in the mid-50s, and continued to perform and do session work into the 1980s.

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200
Album Review

Cy Touff & Sandy Mosse: Tickle Toe

Read "Tickle Toe" reviewed by Jerry D'Souza


Time has its wrinkles. Within its folds can lie discoveries that make the heart happy like this album recorded by Cy Touff (bass trumpet) and Sandy Mosse (tenor sax) in 1981. The two had called on John Campbell (piano), Kelly Sill (bass) and Jerry Coleman (drums) and entered Universal Studios for a session of mainstream tunes. However, the music lay dormant for several years. The dust has finally been cleared and the music has now been released.

Touff and Mosse ...

210
Album Review

Cy Touff/Sandy Mosse: Tickle Toe

Read "Tickle Toe" reviewed by John Barron


The pairing-up of jazz personalities often fails to live up to the hype, falling short of listener expectations. Musical camaraderie is not something that can simply be conjured up by outside sources--despite the ongoing efforts of record labels and festival promoters. Successful musical partnerships are more often than not the result of experiential similarities between artists, with regard to a particular era or style. A fine example of this can be heard on Tickle Toe, a long-lost Chicago session from ...

152
Album Review

Cy Touf / Sandy Mosse: Tickle Toe

Read "Tickle Toe" reviewed by Nic Jones


These co-leaders had been stalwarts of the scene for decades by the time they cut these sides in Chicago in 1981. They worked that rich seam of post-bop music that conversely looked back to the music immediately prior to that significant shift. Here, they lay out their credentials in the company of a rhythm section that's right in the pocket and alert to every twist and turn the music takes.

In the early years of his career, tenor ...

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I always enjoyed hearing Cy play. When I lived in Chicago in the late 1970s and early 1980s, I heard Ears play at Andy's every Tuesday night from 5 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. They were terrific. Cy was a great guy! George Spink (Tuxedo Junction)

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