R.I.P. Jazz great Curtis Fuller has passed away

[Henry Whalley]

Ethan Iverson on Twitter: "RIP Curtis Fuller. A key presence on so many classic records. I know the work with Blakey best: On "This is for Albert," Fuller gets a powerful say in-between Wayne Shorter and Freddie Hubbard. https://t.co/ydGt4Nmi32" / Twitter

[Kathleen]

Saw that news on Facebook

NPR did a nice piece on Curtis:
Curtis Fuller, Leading Trombonist Of Jazz's Detroit Wave, Dies At 86

https://www.npr.org/2021/05/10/995507160/curtis-fuller-leading-trombonist-of-jazzs-detroit-wave-dies-at-86

[EastsideAl]

Curtis was someone I knew a little bit through my dad. He would always wave and come over to hang out with us a bit when he saw us at a show. What a marvelous gentleman and musician he was.

Curtis was orphaned at an early age and was raised in the city's orphanage at Herman Kiefer. Whenever he played in Detroit, like his appearances at the Jazz Festival, a group of very grown up "Kiefer kids" would always show up to see him and he would often send a little shout out to them.

[Henry Whalley]

Curtis was orphaned at an early age and was raised in the city's orphanage at Herman Kiefer.

Good story, thanks. I didn't know about the orphanage. I googled it only to learn that the web has zero information on it.

[EastsideAl]

Later in his childhood he was at the Children's Aid Society in Detroit. In his teenage years he lived at a Catholic boys facility in Inkster, where he went to high school and first learned the trombone. After a short time at WSU he went to NYC with fellow rising Detroit jazz star Yusef Lateef and stayed, becoming a well-recorded first call trombonist by the time he was 22.