Valentine's Day - The Story of Cathy and Me
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Artist:
What is love? Ask that question to 100 different people and you will get 100 different answers. Why? - perhaps love cannot exist in a vocalisation. It is more powerful than that. It can make you soar to the pinnacle of bliss or bring you lower than the depths of hell. I can't tell you what it is, but I sure know it when I feel it. It is an emotion, a powerful emotion. And one outlet through which one can let it flow, is music. Ask Curtis. Curtis knew love.
Curtis Fuller: trombone
Lester Walker: trumpet
Daniel Bauerkemper: tenor saxophone
Akeem Marable: tenor saxophone (1, 3, 4, 8, 9, 14)
Henry Conerway III: drums
Clarence Levy: percussion (4, 8, 10)
Nick Rosen: piano
Kenny Banks, Jr.: piano (1, 3, 5, 9, 14)
Brandy Brewer: bass
Kevin Smith: bass (4, 5, 8)
Tia Michelle Rouse: vocals (5, 11)
1.Interlude 1:My Name Is Curtis DuBois Fuller (2:01)
2.Little Dreams (7:25)
3.The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face (4:14)
4.I Asked & She Said Yes (3:42)
5.The Right To Love (7:51)
6.My Lady's Tears (5:25)
7.Interlude 2:My Children (1:49)
8.Sweetness (3:07)
9.Look What I Got (5:29)
10.Interlude 3:Cancer,A Horrible Experience (1:24)
11.Life Was Good,What Went Wrong (4:23)
12.Love Was Everything When Love Was You And Me (3:56)
13.Too Late Now (5:39)
14.Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year (5:06)
15.Interlude 4:My Wish For Cathy And My Friends (2:42)
http://www.downbeat.com/default.asp?sect=editorspicks201109#7
The Story Of Cathy And Me is more than a jazz album. It's a love story for the ages. You know you're in for something stunning from the opening interlude: Over a lush duet by pianist Kenny Banks Jr. and saxophonist Akeem Marable, the leader states, "My name is Curtis DuBois Fuller. I was born in 1932 in Detroit, Michigan. I grew up in a Jesuit orphanage. My wife was Catherine Rose Driscoll; [that] was her maiden name. She was really what you call a soul mate." And from there, the trombonist delivers an intimate musical confession about his life with Cathy, who passed away in January 2010, felled by lung cancer. The album is set in three acts—how they met, how they lived and how he now lives without her—with four spoken interludes. While brief, the spoken-word passages are quite powerful. They are about his children, the cancer and a final wish for Cathy and his friends. It's tough not to tear up just a bit, and laugh a bit, too, when hearing his voice. The same is true for the music in between, which is warm, personal and wonderful. Yes, there's a sense of sadness and melancholy throughout the album, and the loss is obviously painful, but Mr. Fuller's music has always displayed a sense of brightness. His "Little Dreams" is a sunny tune, masterfully displaying all the hope a young Curtis might have had for his future with Cathy. "I Asked And She Said Yes" makes you want to fall in love all over again. "Sweetness" has a buoyant groove as well as some lovely unison lines between Fuller and trumpeter Lester Walker. And the group's rendition of Frank Loesser's "Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year" serves as a testament to the endurance of love. In his final interlude, Mr. Fuller says, "I've had the love of my life. You get yours." And he laughs. I'm sorry for his loss, but thankful for his message. Tonight, I'll go home and hug my wife a little longer than usual, and I'll thank Curtis Fuller for reminding us all about what really matters.
http://www.challengerecords.com/product/1291373418
This CD is a reflection of how Curtis is going on without his dear wife of so many years. If how he survives with the memory of her burning in his heart as he does what he was inescapably meant to do all of his life, play his trombone just as she would have wanted him to do. When she was with him she vigorously and ambitiously supported and encouraged him as a major pinion in his success-filled life.
This CD begins by emotionally reaching into the deepest grotto of your hearts core, and you're symbolically Curtis Fuller but for a moment as you feel what he must be feeling, but, of course, he with greater abundance and intensity, an intensity that will follow him indefinitely as his heart hangs low with sadness and regret… and deep, personal memories.
Wiki:
Curtis DuBois Fuller (born December 15, 1934, Detroit) is an American jazz trombonist, known as a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and contributor to many classic jazz recordings
Fuller's Jamaican-born parents died when he was young; he was raised in an orphanage. While in Detroit he was a schoolfriend of Paul Chambers and Donald Byrd, and also knew Tommy Flanagan, Thad Jones and Milt Jackson. After army service between 1953 and 1955 (when he played in a band with Chambers and brothers Cannonball and Nat Adderley), Fuller joined the quintet of Yusef Lateef, another Detroit musician. In 1957 the quintet moved to New York, and Fuller recorded his first sessions as a leader for Prestige Records.
Alfred Lion of Blue Note Records first heard him playing with Miles Davis in the late 1950s, and featured him as a sideman on record dates led by Sonny Clark and John Coltrane; Fuller's work on the latter's Blue Train album is probably his best known recorded performance. Fuller led four dates for Blue Note, though one of these, an album with Slide Hampton, was not issued for many years. Other sideman appearances over the next decade included work on albums under the leadership of Bud Powell, Jimmy Smith, Wayne Shorter, Lee Morgan and Joe Henderson (a former room mate at Wayne State University in 1956).
Fuller was also the first trombonist to be a member of the Art Farmer-Benny Golson Jazztet, later becoming the sixth man in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers in 1961, staying with Blakey until 1965. In the early 1960s, he recorded two albums as a leader for Impulse! Records, having also recorded for Savoy Records and Epic after his obligations to Blue Note had ended. In the late 1960s, he was part of Dizzy Gillespie's band, that also featured Foster Elliott. He went on to tour with Count Basie and also reunited with Blakey and Golson.
Fuller continues to perform and record, and is currently a faculty member of the New York State Summer School of the Arts (NYSSSA) School of Jazz Studies (SJS).
On January 13, 2010, Curtis' wife, Catherine Rose Driscoll Fuller died.
Locating MOG account...
Comments (27)
I like the jazziness of these songs......the interludes were hard because they are so depressing.
The instrumental of the First Time Ever I Saw Your Face is also really good.
Some of this music sounds right out of Taxi Driver!
I agree that we all have definitions of love, and for me the difference between romantic love and...other kinds of love is huge.
I guess they are all related - just the intensity changes...
yes, I agree there!
Those of us who understand love can ascribe to these sentiments.
Of course, we need to be of like mind in order for you to understand what I mean when I say "understand love"
Therein lies the conundrum
I know what I mean
Do you?
But, if you know what I mean, is it just that you understand what I'm saying on an intellectual level, or do you feel it on an emotional level?
Damn! I just dropped the fn roach!
Nice post - gotta go... :-)
Haha, I understand the urgency of your departure, anyways....
I know this is a rather simple concept on the surface, and I BELIEVE I understand what you are saying, too...people have KILLED in the name of "love". But I think the idea, however general, of love, is something one should never give up on, or emptiness and bitterness are sure to follow.
P.S.-- Do you think I have this all mastered? Not by a LONG shot! But I believe I will keep trying. :-)
Thanks for your comment, Rummy!
ah, another burn on the mixing board... each one tells a story - I think
Human nature - most of us keep trying - we can't help it (can we?)
Everyone's definition of love is formed by their emotional needs. And these needs are so different from person to person.
I guess finding a "soul mate" is meeting someone whose definition agrees with yours.
I'm not supposed to think this much when I'm working.
I think my head is starting to hurt.
See what u started! :-)
--spoken by the great Inrumford!
but not just the intensity changes, although I agree that can be a big part of it....but.....is one's love for one's child the same as one's relationship with a friend or a spouse? The intensity can be very different, but the dynamics are different in other ways, too........and what if someone has 3 kids, for example (some of you can help sith this question)...do you love one more intensely than the others (i hope not, but maybe if one of them was Jeffrey Dahmer it might be hard to say you love him as much as his brothers John and Paul who never hurt a fly). I don't know these things; I'm just a caveman lawyer....someone help with this...conundrum! :)
I think my head is starting to hurt again... :-)
Okay, we don't want that, so.....
but Happy Valentine's Day!
and to u as well - u have a wonderful heart - it shows - I hope it is protected... there are so few of them left
Now I have big smile, thanks!
this was a lovely post to start my lasagna last night! I missed most of the commentary as I was clanking around in the kitchen.
I don't know Andrea. I have two daughters. There was a period when I felt a stronger connection to my youngest. We just seemed to have a better understanding of each other and more respect. My oldest was much more rambunctious, free willed....and for these things I loved her. She just threw more arrows my way...it was a test of endurance.
Physical love is like a magnet and will overlook any and all obsticals in its way.
agreed deb, but it's existence is short lived... and for the most part, one dimensional
On the whole, I'd rather be in Philadelphia. - W. C. Fields =8-P
What a lovely post. Valentine's Day is my Anniversary so it's more than just a Hallmark holiday for me. I'm lover of jazz and I'm really enjoying the tuneage as I write this...I'm not familiar with Curtis Fuller. Well, I am now.
Happy Anniversay, Brian!
And Dab-if you see this, thanks for that input...I did think that parents love each child differently (my mom sort of always told me this but I caused them more grief than my brothers combined). I have only one son, so I appreciate a concrete example like that (and it confirms what my mom said).
Deb* (I need to try to type accurately), sorry!
my mom always told me I was "special"
That's right, Rummy, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise!! You ARE special...your mom was right! (Unless by "special" she meant.....uh..)
Yes, your mom is right..You are very special!! :-)
my Dad on the other hand, wellllllllllll, we won't go there. I think Mom was being protective
well your mom was being sweet :)
Did you like Sanford & Son? They did show that quality show in the GWN? Fred Sanford frequently called his son "Big Dummy" but it was clear he loved him deeply.
Or maybe your dad thought you were --uh-- special, too but didn't like to show sappy emotions?
nah - Dad is an island unto himself - no man is an Island? - don't tell dad that :-)
but of course, all that serves to guide me in what direction not to go in.
And perhaps, makes be a slightly better human being.
or not
r u gonna send me a bill?
no, free for YOU my friend! But I have a song you can send your dad: Simon&Garfunkel's I am a Rock, but maybe you shouldn't.
The lyrics say a lot about that, though, huh? Once someone told me I ....
Wait! Are YOU gonna send ME a bill?
it's on its way! :-)
and I will pay it promptly after I receive it, heheh... :-)
do not be so sure that u won't :-)
okay, i won't, haha...be so sure, that is! :-)