thumb|The Jazz Passengers

The Jazz Passengers are an American jazz group founded in 1987 by saxophonist Roy Nathanson and trombonist Curtis Fowlkes. Alongside musicians like John Zorn, Don Byron, and John Lurie, they are widely regarded as pioneering voices in the 1980s East Village jazz scene that centered around clubs like The Knitting Factory.

Career

The band grew out of a partnership between Nathanson and Fowlkes, who met in the early 1980s while playing in the pit orchestra of the Big Apple Circus, both subsequently joining John Lurie's band The Lounge Lizards before forming The Jazz Passengers.

Fowlkes and Nathanson participated in several intergenerational projects, including Nick Hakim's 2021 release Small Things, a collaboration between Hakim and members of Onyx Collective.

Curtis Fowlkes died from heart failure in Brooklyn, New York, on August 31, 2023, at the age of 73. His memorial was held at St Peter's Church in Manhattan on May 1, 2024, and featured artists like The Jazz Passengers, Elvis Costello, The Liberation Music Orchestra, Steven Bernstein's Millennial Territory Orchestra, and Catherine Russell.

Discography

Studio albums

  • 1987 – Broken Night Red Light (Les Disques du Crépuscule)
  • 1988 – Deranged and Decomposed (Les Disques du Crépuscule)
  • 1990 – Implement Yourself (New World)
  • 1993 – Plain Old Joe (Allegro/Knitting Factory)
  • 1994 – In Love (High Street, Windham Hill)
  • 1996 – Individually Twisted (32 Jazz) with Deborah Harry
  • 2010 – Reunited (Justin Time)
  • 2017 – Still Life with Trouble (Enja)
  • 2024 – Big Large: In Memory of Curtis Fowlkes (FOOD)

Live albums

  • 1991 – Live at the Knitting Factory (Knitting Factory)
  • 1998 – "Live" in Spain (32 Jazz) with Deborah Harry
  • 2005 – The Rock Concert (A Stony Muse Production/Roy Nathanson)

References

  • The Jazz Passengers (Official Website)
  • "Jazz Passengers, A Modernist Septet", by Jon Pareles
  • "Jazz and Theater Add Up To a New Form of Vaudeville", by Peter Watrous
  • "The Jazz Passengers Discography at Allmusic"
  • The Jazz Passengers Discography at Discogs