1965 · Album
Curtis Fuller & Hampton Hawes With French Horns
Recorded 1965 · Original Jazz Classics (Riverside Records)
French Horns and Piano in Conversation
An uncommon front line of French horns and reeds pushes Hawes into textural territory he rarely explored.
The session that produced this album brought together an unusual front line: David Amram and Julius Watkins on French horns, Sahib Shihab on alto saxophone, and Curtis Fuller on trombone, with Hampton Hawes at the piano, Addison Farmer on bass, and Jerry Segal on drums. The combination is rare enough in jazz that it shapes everything you hear—there's no standard playbook for how these voices should sit together, so the musicians had to find it in real time. The warm, mellow timbre of the French horns cuts against the sharper attack of Shihab's alto, while Fuller's trombone rides the middle ground, and Hawes responds to all of it with a pianist's attentiveness rather than dominance. Hawes was known for his straightforward swing and blues feeling in trio settings, but here he adjusts his approach, laying out space for the horns to breathe and coloring beneath them with restraint. The session has the quality of an experiment that worked—not groundbreaking in any programmatic sense, but genuinely engaged and conversational. This is a record for listeners drawn to unusual instrumental combinations and musicians willing to adapt their instincts to a context that doesn't come with built-in expectations. It's peripheral to Hawes's main body of work, neither his best entry point nor a peak, but it captures him in a specific moment, solving problems a standard lineup would never face.
Who's playing
Addison Farmerbass
Hampton Hawespiano
Teddy Charlespiano
Sahib Shihabalto saxophone
Curtis Fullertrombone
Jerry Segaldrums
David AmramFrench horn
Julius WatkinsFrench horn
