Perhaps the premier trombonist in the hard-bop movement, Fuller's neat facility and unemphatic methods typify the honest toil of the genre, as well as its occasional facelessness. He worked with Yusef Lateef in his native Detroit before arriving in New York in 1957, quickly establishing himself in a scene which wasn't long on trombonists. His glory years were with The Jazztet (1959–60) and Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers (1961–5), but his most famous entry remains what is basically a cameo role, on John Coltrane's Blue Train (1957). Fuller made three albums of his own for Blue Note and a few more for Impulse! in the 60s, but he became disenchanted with the business approach of jazz labels and since then has been seen more often in touring bands than before microphones. The best work of this reliable player draws, inevitably, on the J J Johnson style, allied with a sobriety which can tame any hints of wildness. In a time when trombonists have come to favour a more expressionist method, Fuller now seems a rather remote figure.

Biography from Richard Cook's Jazz Encyclopedia (2005).

If you'd like more information, check out The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz (2002) or The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz (2007), both of which are still in print.