The Jazz Passengers Celebrate Curtis Fowlkes

APPEARING: MANHATTAN MARATHON @ THE BOWERY BALLROOM

Friday, January 12, 2023

The JAZZ PASSENGERS are a fantastical fusion of post-bop and musical comedy, once called a “perverse mainstream … hard-bop group as imagined by Frank Zappa.” (Bob Blumenthal, Boston Globe, 1989).  Their name, a take-off on Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, reveals the musicians’ wild ride along the eccentric currents in modern American music. Saxophonist Roy Nathanson and trombonist Curtis Fowlkes, who found strong affinity in their Brooklyn roots while together in the band of the Big Apple Circus and John Lurie’s seminal band, The Lounge Lizards, founded the band in 1987. They first broke out on the New York City avant-garde scene centering around the Knitting Factory with a hybrid of Mingus-influenced dance rhythms and original tunes complete with lyrics and/or entertaining stories. Since then the Jazz Passengers have toured extensively, traversing the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia, appearing at major festivals and in clubs and concerts across the globe. Besides Nathanson and Fowlkes the original band members included Marc Ribot on guitar, Bill Ware on vibraphone, E.J. Rodriguez on percussion, Brad Jones on bass, and Jim Nolet on violin.  

On August 31, 2023, the band lost their beloved co-founder, Curtis Fowlkes.

Today, the members of the Jazz Passengers are Roy Nathanson (soprano, alto and baritone sax), Gabe Nathanson (vocals and trumpet), Lucy Hollier (trombone), Isaiah Barr (tenor sax), Bill Ware (vibes), Brad Jones (bass), E.J. Rodriguez (percussion), Sam Bardfeld (violin), and featuring Marc Ribot (guitar).

The Jazz Passengers’ 30th Anniversary CD, “Still Life With Trouble” was released in 2017, and in January 2023, the Jazz Passengers went back into the studio to revisit their songbook with a new record project that features the vocals of Curtis Fowlkes, who passed away in August, and Gabe Nathanson, Roy’s son who also plays trumpet. The Jazz Passengers will announce the release of this record in 2024.