Christof Lauer Trio // Curtis Fuller Brasstet

Christof Lauer Trio

Christof Lauer’s international trio of virtuoso musicians offers the added attraction that each musician plays two different instruments. Godard is a tuba player, but equally competent on the historical serpent, a slightly hoarse-sounding, snakelike exotic monster, a precursor to the ophiclieides made from wood covered in leather. Heral is an excellent drummer and percussionist as well and Lauer’s playing on soprano and tenor sax is so different in character, that one may justifiably speak of two different instruments. An ensemble of numerous possibilities this is – music with driving rhythm, lyrical with an angular edge and suffused with a soulful and strangely foreign beauty.

Curtis Fuller Brasstet

The most recorded jazz trombonist of his lifetime, Curtis Fuller's illustrious career spans six decades and includes tenures with many of the greatest names in this music. Born Dec. 15th, 1934 in Detroit, Fuller was orphaned at an early age, but found family in the close-knit jazz community of the musically fertile Motor City. He first picked up the trombone in the school band at Cass Tech High School, where his fellow students included Donald Byrd and Paul Chambers and the list of graduates reads like a Who's Who of jazz.

He plays the slide trombone with astonishing virtuosity, boasting a huge, rounded tone and a punchy, lightning-quick attack that recalls the legendary J.J.Johnson. Fuller's prodigious technique led many jazz greats, such as John Coltrane, to enlist him as a sideman (he appeared on Trane's classic 1957 album Blue Train and many other Blue Note recordings) and got signed by Alfred Lion.