Curtis Fuller - The Curtis Fuller Jazztet (1959)

Published by Love2Share | Filed under Jazz

Hardbop.tripod.com:
At the end of ‘58, Benny Golson asked Curtis to share the front line for a Riverside blowing date entitled “The Other Side Of Benny Golson,” which put the emphasis on Benny’s tenor playing rather than his composing and arranging. The chemistry between these two hornmen clicked, and they would record an album under Curtis’s name for Savoy ( Blues-ette) and three under Benny’s name for Prestige in 1959 with various rhythm sections. They also made two Fuller albums for Savoy with trumpet added to the front line, which laid the groundwork for the creation of the Jazztet.

In February 1960, the Jazztet, a sextet under the leadership of Benny Golson and Art Farmer, made their first album. Curtis Fuller was the trombonist and McCoy Tyner made his recording debut as the pianist. The Jazztet became a very successful unit from the start, but Fuller and Tyner left a few months into the life of the band. They were headed in other directions.

In the summer of ‘61, Curtis made Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers a sextet for the first time. The combined writing and playing talents of Fuller, Freddie Hubbard, Wayne Shorter and Cedar Walton, driven by Blakey and Jymie Meritt (later Reggie Workman), created one of the most exciting and distinctive bands in the history of hard bop.

Curtis stayed with the Jazz Messengers until February 1965. He spent the rest of that decade freelancing around New York, adding his beautiful sound to a number of Blue Note dates such as Lee Morgan’s Tom Cat, Hank Mobley’s A Caddy For Daddy, Joe Henderson’s Mode For Joe and Wayne Shorter’s Schizophrenia.

Reviewer:
Curtis Fuller was a well-established hard bop trombone player in New York when he made these excellent sides for Savoy in 1959. Going into the studio with an all-star lineup Lee Morgan (tp) Benny Golson (ts) Wynton Kelly (p) Paul Chamber (b) Charlie Persip (d)), the results reveal a propensity for coming up with superb original compositions and the talent to play them well.

The CD wastes no time heating up: the first track (IT’S ALL RIGHT WITH ME) is very much on fire already, especially Benny Golson. On another up-tempo tune, Fuller’s blues piece JUDY’S DILEMMA, Golson has his Coltrane hat on, as the sheets of sound come pouring out of his horn. Lee Morgan is muted on this tune and plays a handsome solo. The highlight track for me is WHEATLEIGH HALL, a Dizzy Gillespie composition that has a KILLER JOE riff behind it - a most infectious tune (the kind you can’t get out of your head hours after you’ve finished listening to it). Morgan plays muted trumpet again and is beautiful on the theme. This is a great CD with no false moves, just straight ahead, solid hard bop jazz. Definitely worth checking out.

Amazon.com reviewer:
Compared to say Blue Note titles, Savoys usually come off sounding like a quickly thrown together jam session. But for some (wonderful) reason, the albums Curtis Fuller made for Savoy in 1959-60 are every bit as good as the ones he made for Blue Note two years earlier. And with the Blue Notes currently unavailable domestically as individual releases (though they are available as pricey imports or as a boxed set on the Mosaic label), it makes the Savoys even more essential.

While not quite as good as “Bluesette”, “The Curtis Fuller Jazztet( te) With Benny Golson” is an outstanding hard bop date. An all-star lineup of Lee Morgan, Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers, and Charlie Persip join future Jazztet mates Golson and Fuller for this August 1959 session. (By the way, this date was recorded before the Art Farmer/Benny Golson Jazztet was formed, but when it was released in 1960, Savoy was obviously trying to capitalize on the group’s name recognition, and Fuller’s participation in the band.) The disc features three standards, with Gillespie’s “Wheatleith Hall” the standout, and two Fuller originals, “Arabia” and “Judy’s Dilemma.” Actually, this is an early version of “Arabia” as it makes an encore appearance two years later on Art Blakey’s “Mosaic,” once Fuller joined the Jazz Messengers.

Which brings me to my reason for giving this disc only four stars instead of five. The latter version of “Arabia” is unleashed by the Blakey band as it swings with confidence and poise, while the original version shows only glimpses of this song’s potential. And that in a nutshell is the problem with “The Curtis Fuller Jazztet” — on the whole, it has great promise but it never quite reaches the classic status that was seemingly its birthright. Maybe the Savoy trademark — the unrehearsed jam session — has struck again after all. With a bit more preparation, “The Curtis Fuller Jazztet” would have been a masterpiece.

Personnel:
Lee Morgan (trumpet)
Curtis Fuller (trombone)
Benny Golson (tenor saxophone)
Wynton Kelly (piano)
Paul Chambers (bass)
Charlie Persip (drums)

Tracks:
1 It’s All Right With Me
2 Wheatleith Hall
3 I’ll Walk Alone
4 Arabia
5 Judy’s Dilemma