ACCLAIMED JAZZ TROMBONIST IN HARD-BOP ERA OF ’50S, ’60S

Curtis Fuller, an acclaimed jazz trombonist who was a key contributor to the bluesy, hard-bop style of the 1950s and 1960s and who was named a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts, died May 8 at a nursing home in Detroit. He was 88.

His daughter, Mary Fuller, did not cite a specific cause.

Fuller was among the dozens of musicians to emerge from the fertile mid-century jazz scene of Detroit, where he learned to play intricate, fast-paced bebop figures on the unwieldy trombone. Instead of using keys or valves, a trombonist has to move a long slide to shift from one note to another.

When Fuller arrived in New York in the mid-1950s, he immediately became a major figure in the hard-bop movement, then being developed by such musicians as saxophonists John Coltrane and Benny Golson, trumpeters

Lee Morgan, Kenny Dorham and Art Farmer, and drummers Art Blakey and Louis Hayes - all of whom Fuller would record with.

“Curtis is one of the greatest trombonists to ever play the instrument,” Hayes told the Arizona Star in 2007.

In 1957, Fuller was briefly in Miles Davis's band and made his first albums as a leader. He appeared on many others as a sideman, including one of Coltrane's most lauded recordings from the period, “Blue Train.”

On the title track, Fuller played a powerful five-note introductory figure in unison with Coltrane, later joined by Morgan on trumpet. It is one of the most memorable jazz tunes of the era and features a fluid solo by Fuller.