Jazz Articles about Ted Curson

About Ted Curson

Album Review

Charles Mingus: Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus To Pre Bird Revisited

Read "Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus To Pre Bird Revisited" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
March 27, 2024

In his liner notes for Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus To Pre Bird Revisited, Bill Shoemaker sets out the context in which the two featured albums should be considered. He observes that so enormous was Charles Mingus' artistic vision that no two (or perhaps three) albums can encompass its totality. How true that is, even of the pairing of two Mingus albums that are as different as could be: Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus (Candid, 1960) and Pre Bird (Mercury, ...

Album Review

Charles Mingus: At Antibes 1960 Revisited

Read "At Antibes 1960 Revisited" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
October 11, 2023

At Antibes could easily be an all-time favorite Charles Mingus recording if he had not produced such extraordinary sessions as Mingus Ah Um (Columbia, 1959), Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus (Candid, 1961), The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady (Impulse!, 1963) and Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus (Impulse!, 1964). Listeners can make their own picks, but this live recording from 1960 at the Antibes Jazz Festival in Juan-les-Pins, France, has a power unique unto itself. One can almost feel the ...

Album Review

Charles Mingus: At Antibes 1960 Revisited

Read "At Antibes 1960 Revisited" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
September 28, 2023

Charles Mingus' exhilarating blend of roots and the avant-garde only rarely seems as binary* (see below) as it does on this recording from the 1960 Antibes Jazz Festival. Most often on a Mingus album, you do not hear the joins. This time, on one level, you do. Mingus leads a pianoless quintet completed by Booker Ervin on tenor saxophone, Eric Dolphy on alto saxophone and bass clarinet, Ted Curson on trumpet and Dannie Richmond on drums. Bud Powell ...

Radio & Podcasts

Fire Starters

by Patrick Burnette
March 23, 2023

The boys take another walk down the “out" side of the street this episode, with looks at a little known outing from one of Charles Mingus' trumpet players to a twin-guitar / alto sax ensemble, to two rather challenging works on the Pyroclastic label. Mike's more patient with those efforts than Pat. Who's ready for some asbestos earmuffs? Pop matters delves into what Iggy Pop got up to with his buddy David Bowie during that infamous Berlin hang.

Album Review

Archie Shepp: Fire Music To Mama Too Tight Revisited

Read "Fire Music To Mama Too Tight Revisited" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
September 26, 2022

In 2022, it is widely accepted that, when free jazz (aka the New Thing) was in its ascent in New York in the 1960s, there was, despite superficial appearances, no fundamental incompatibility between it and the historical jazz tradition. More contentiously, revisionist historians are now suggesting that there was no real conflict between New Thing and changes-based or modal-based musicians either. They should try telling that to Archie Shepp. In autumn 1966, during the Miles Davis quintet's ...

Album Review

New York Contemporary Five: Consequences Revisited

Read "Consequences Revisited" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
June 27, 2020

This 2020 reissue of the New York Contemporary Five recordings from 1963-64 can't help but draw one's attention to the social unrest occurring in America in 2020. In 1964 the riots in Harlem and Philadelphia over police brutality were followed by similar riots a few years later in Watts, Newark, Detroit, etc. In the growing civil unrest these recordings were born. The New Thing was the equivalent to what Chuck D of Public Enemy claimed when he said rap music ...

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Album Review

Ted Curson: In Paris: Live at the Sunside

Read "In Paris: Live at the Sunside" reviewed by Ken Dryden

by Ken Dryden
September 10, 2007

Ted Curson is still very active as a trumpeter and flugelhornist in his seventies, when most players formerly had to give up the instrument for health reasons. Surrounding himself with a strong, young band made up of enthusiastic French musicians, plus several vocalists, Curson's two-CD set compiles highlights from a pair of nights at the Sunside in Paris. Like Dizzy Gillespie, Curson's intonation and power aren't what they were as a younger man, but his solos are ...