[ad_1]
 |
| Curtis Fowlkes (Photograph by Peter Gannushkin) |
When a fundraiser for Curtis Fowlkes was created in August 2023 as a result of the
man had been scuffling with congestive coronary heart failure and, in response to
mates, was starting the method of dwelling palliative/hospice care, one
already needed to worry the worst. Now the good trombonist, the person with the
attribute cap, has handed away.
Curtis Fowlkes was born in Brooklyn in 1951 and was raised
Bedford-Stuyvesant and Brownsville neighborhoods. All through his life, solely
few individuals embodied the New York borough as a lot as he did. He realized to
play the trombone fairly early and began incomes his dwelling since excessive
faculty as a musician in numerous Latin, reggae, calypso, funk and R&B
bands. Fowlkes studied at Manhattan Neighborhood School, the place his classmates
on the flip of the last decade in 1970 included William Parker, Roy Campbell Jr.
and Charles Tyler. Like many musicians of as of late he performed music that
was impressed by John Coltrane in flats and lofts – New York was a
inventive sizzling spot at the moment. From 1977 on, when he received into the CETA
program with Ernie Wilkins’ Jazzmobile mission, he thought-about himself a
full-time musician, he mentioned in an interview. Within the Nineteen Eighties he turned well-known
as a member of The Lounge Lizards, the super-hip so-called punk-jazz band
lead by saxophonist John Lurie. He had joined them for gigs earlier, however on
report he could possibly be heard for the primary time on their Dwell in Tokyo – Massive
Coronary heart album in 1986. Shortly earlier than, in the summertime of 1982, a 12 months after he
and his spouse moved into the Bedford-Stuyvesant brownstone that his
grandfather bought in 1921, Fowlkes met saxophonist Roy Nathanson within the
Massive Apple Circus band at Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. This was a vital
second for each, since Nathanson launched him to the Lounge Lizards and –
much more vital – the 2 began the Jazz Passengers in 1987, a typical
New York Downtown scene band devoted to placing leisure and humor
again into jazz – usually postmodern. Within the following years Fowlkes additionally
carried out as a sideman with bassist Charlie Haden’s reunited Liberation
Music Orchestra and with the alumni Ellington Orchestra led by Louis
Bellson. What’s extra, he at all times performed with bands outdoors the jazz circle:
He carried out and recorded with The Band’s Levon Helm, Glen Hansard, Elvis
Costello, Sheryl Crow, Cibo Matto and The Police’s Andy Summers, solely to
identify a number of. He was additionally a part of the Kansas Metropolis All-Stars, who appeared in
Robert Altman’s 1996 movie Kansas Metropolis.
Curtis Fowlkes performed on numerous superb, recommendable albums. You
can’t go mistaken with the three Lounge Lizards releases, Dwell in Tokyo – Massive
Coronary heart (Island Data, 1986), No Ache For Desserts (Island Data, 1987)
and Voice Of Chunk (veraBra Data, 1989), the final one is a private
favourite. The numerous Jazz Passengers albums are fantastic examples of the New
York Downtown Jazz period, in case you ask me I’d hearken to Dwell on the
Knitting Manufacturing unit (Knitting Manufacturing unit Works, 1991) and Plain Previous Joe (Knitting
Manufacturing unit Works, 1993). A really good album with him as a frontrunner is Curtis
Fowlkes/Catfish Nook: Mirror (Knitting Manufacturing unit Works, 1999). Of his
later works I’d advocate Sean Sonderegger, Areni, Agbabian, Curtis
Fowlkes, Harvey Valdes, Greg Chudzik and Joe Hertenstein: Eat The Air
(Skirl Data, 2015). Additionally nice: The Charlie Hunter Trio’s
Let Them Bells Ring On
(self launched, 2015).
Not solely Brooklyn will miss this glorious musician. Our condolences go out
to his household.
See Curtis Fowlkes and Roy Nathanson play dwell at KBOO in 2012:
[ad_2]