Similar Artists:
Dick Wellstood,
Joe Sullivan,
Dick Hyman,
Art Hodes,
James Dapogny,
Marian McPartland,
Mary Lou Williams,
William Albright,
Red Richards,
Jay McShann,
Earl Hines,
William Bolcom
Influenced By:
Relationship With:
- Active: '80s, '90s, 2000s
- Genres: Jazz
- Instrument: Piano, Main Performer, Executive Producer
- Representative Albums: "Solos & Duets," "Old Fashioned Love"
Biography
Born just west of St. Louis in Howell, MO, in 1930, Barbara Sutton-Curtis developed her considerable piano chops in quiet competition with her big brother
Ralph Sutton, who was born in Hamburg, MO, in 1922. Barbara Sutton began playing professionally in 1949, and in 1951 Ralph set her up with a gig at
the Central Plaza in New York City. Brother and sister started performing duets publicly in 1959. Both individuals developed remarkable facility as interpreters of the Harlem stride piano tradition, and they shared a specialized devotion to the music of Thomas "Fats" Waller, unearthing a surprising number of forgotten Waller compositions and performing them all over the world. Ralph's little sister amended her surname after marrying a high-school English teacher by the name of Hal Curtis, who first heard her playing piano in 1951 and thought he was listening to Ralph. In 1969
Barbara settled in Ukiah, CA, staying active as both performer and music instructor. She gigged regularly in Menlo Park and recorded in Toronto, Canada, at
the Café de Copains. In 1987 she visited Germany with a traveling
Fats Waller tribute show and collaborated with her brother at
the Mid-America Jazz Festival in St. Louis. In 1991 they appeared together in concert at
the Kurtheater in Baden, Switzerland. Music taped at that event was included, along with selections recorded in Toronto in 1988-1989, on her album Solos & Duets, released by
Sackville Records in 1994. Ralph and
Barbara's last live album, Home Again, was recorded on twin Steinway pianos at the
Bistro Europa jazz club in St. Louis on September 29 and 30, 2000, and released under Ralph's name on
Gaslight Records in 2002. Barbara Sutton-Curtis is a skilled handler of the historic jazz repertoire and one of the world's most accomplished interpreters of
Fats Waller's extensive musical legacy. ~ arwulf arwulf, All Music Guide
