RIP Clark Terry

[Alyn_Shipton]

Last survivor of the Ellington 56 band...and so much more.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/22/us-people-clarkterry-idUSKBN0LQ07L20150222

A lovely man to interview:

http://www.podcastchart.com/podcasts/jazz-library-n-z/episodes/jazzlibnz-16-may-08-clark-terry

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

how sad a real giant of the music but he made 94!

[Serial_Apologist]

A lovely man to interview:
http://www.podcastchart.com/podcasts...08-clark-terry

Many, many people have said this.

Goodbye Mr Terry - for me the greatest trumpet link between Swing and Bop.

(I always figured Clark Terry to have been the one big influence on Harry Beckett's highly individual style)

[clive heath]

Not everyone's first choice but not bad, eh?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjruI-f_IjQ

[Ian Thumwood]

The thing that grabbed me most about Clark Terry is that, perhaps more than any other jazz musician, the sound he produced on his horn captures his personality. I've always imagined that Terry would have been a brilliant raconteur with boundless energy and a great sense of fun. There's no way that you can't listen to a record with Clark Terry on and not feel better. Terry was probably pretty unique in that I think anyone who ever heard his playing would have automatically become a fan. His trumpet is one probably the happiest sound in jazz. I first came across his approach on an Impulse record by Lionel Hampton where he shared the front line with Ben Webster that is called "You better know it" which I bought with some birthday money when I was 16. I've been a fan ever since.

The curious thing about Clark Terry is that he seems to have been instrumental in offering advice on the instrument for an amazing number of trumpeters from successive generations. I know he helped Guy Barker a lot. He will be a player who will be missed by musicians by a wide range of jazz musicians. He was also responsible for discovering a range of younger musicians including the singer Dianne Reeves - something for which I am extremely grateful for as I am a big fan of her singing. Terry actually appears on some of her Blue Note albums - as mischievous as ever on the Sarah Vaughan tribute album she made.

Picking up on SA's comments, I think that, along with Paul Gonsalves, Terry was, along with Paul Gonsalves, probably the most "modern" soloist engaged by Ellington and was a key part in the success of the 1950's aggregation where the Duke's band seemed to acquire a second wind. Prior to this he had been a member of Basie's octet and therefore one of the few players who can claim to have worked with both the Duke and the Count.

[burning dog]

Loved him since I was about 10 or 11

It seems his "sound" matched his character.



I played with him

but only on Music Minus One

PS SA I'd never considered the similarity with Harry Beckett before but its apparent now you've mentioned it.

[Serial_Apologist]

The thing that grabbed me most about Clark Terry is that, perhaps more than any other jazz musician, the sound he produced on his horn captures his personality. I've always imagined that Terry would have been a brilliant raconteur with boundless energy and a great sense of fun. There's no way that you can't listen to a record with Clark Terry on and not feel better. Terry was probably pretty unique in that I think anyone who ever heard his playing would have automatically become a fan. His trumpet is one probably the happiest sound in jazz.

All of which Harry Beckett had in common, iimss, Ian.

[clive heath]

my first awareness of Clark Terry was a solo in one of the sections of Duke's "Portrait of Ella Fitzgerald" where he was likened to "someone trying to blow their way out of a paper-bag". This was my first ever Duke LP ( actually a double, Ella and small group paired with Ella and the Big-Band), the next was "Such Sweet Thunder" where Clark contributes a solo of magnificent poise and charm in praise of Lady Macbeth (!) "Lady Mac" .

Incidentally he also contributes to "Up and Down" illustrating Puck's mischievous manipulation of the two pairs of lovers in "Midsummer Night's Dream". The notes on the stereo CD re-issue claim that Clark plays a musical phrase which represents "I will lead them up and down" at the end of the track. Not so. The re-issue uses a different take from the LP which does have the phrase described, the CD re-issue does not.

Apart from the session with Oscar on which there is one track where he duets with himself, as I understand it (AIUI ?), playing the flugel with one hand and the trumpet with the other ( he was scared that he would lose the use of one arm so he learnt to use both), I have the interesting blend of Thelonius and Clark "In Orbit", "Mellow Moods", ( think Bob Hoskins!) and "Colour Changes" with Yusef Lateef, Seldon Powell, Tommy Flanagan and others which I have returned to more than a lot of my CD collection.

On the whole I would rather listen to the musician than the musician being interviewed ( notwithstanding Max Kaminsky's memoirs "My Life in Jazz" which is a great read) which is perhaps why I love the story told here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYzjw5QKrxI

[Serial_Apologist]

there is one track where he duets with himself, as I understand it (AIUI ?), playing the flugel with one hand and the trumpet with the other
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYzjw5QKrxI

That's the first I've heard of anyone doing it on trumpet! Quite hard, compared to on a reed instrument, I would imagine.

[clive heath]

Its in the Guardian so ....

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/feb/22/clark-terry

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

playing with Tubby

[Ian Thumwood]

playing with Tubby

I've been playing this record in my car today. Over the last couple of weeks I've been playing some of my old classic CD's that I hadn't played for a long while and given them a dust off after hearing tracks from them on JRR. It's quite interesting to be re-acquainted with classic jazz recordings that you thought you knew. My version of this has about 4 bonus tracks on. When I bought it I always felt that this record vindicated Tubby Hayes as a true giant of the tenor of that era. Listening to it again it is interesting that I now feel that the rest of the band aren't really much better than some of the English rhythm sections he worked with. Hayes is clearly the best thing about the whole record although Clark Terry's intermittent appearances of some tracks adds a touch of contrast and a degree of vitality. The originals are the best tracks ("A pint of bitter" being my favourite) but the disc includes a few Rollins tunes which don't quite seem so hip these days. "Soon" is taken too fast as well.

I couldn't help but thinking that Alfred Lion should have nabbed Hayes and plonked him in to one of his more stellar line-ups. This is a good album but Tubby deserves better. For me the problem is Horace Parlan who is a bit pedestrian. Same goes for drummer Dave Bailey who I have never come across on any other recording. Costa is quite interesting but I'm not too fussed by his fluffy sound on the vibes. Had Hayes recorded with the likes of Wynton Kelly, Paul Chamber and Philly Joe it would have been a sure fire classic. As it is, the record is relies on the ever excellent Terry to provide a foil to the Englishman.

I also have given Oliver Nelson's "Blues and the abstract truth" a spin. It was surprising just how short this album is. There are some interesting surprises on the disc. I'd forgotten that Roy Haynes was on board and he is almost as startling as Eric Dolphy. when I last played this record Bill Evans really disappointed me yet this time I didn't think that Dolphy gave him the slip as much as I had thought. His solo on "Yearnin'" is uncharacteristically "down home." I would also have to say that some of Nelson's scores sound very difficult - even the composer seemed to find "Cascades " quite hard to play. This is one of the most interesting tracks. The best track is "Stolen moments" which is musical perfection with one solo after the other being a model of beautiful music. Oliver's alto reminded me of Benny Carter. Freddie Hubbard's trumpet is also on the money. He keeps on cropping on the records I've been turning out of late.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

Had Hayes recorded with the likes of Wynton Kelly, Paul Chamber and Philly Joe it would have been a sure fire classic

surely would!!!

Blues & The Abstarct Truth is imho one of the greatest albums ever recorded by humans ....

[Ian Thumwood]

Calum

It's fascinating returning to some of these disc, especially after reading the new Blue Note book. I think that there is a tendency to over-praise a lot of records from that era and Blue Note's fans seem very uncritical on occasions. The books doesn't do anything to re-appraise the music recorded and artists like Sam Rivers or Herbie Nichols aren't given too much attention or at least what they merit by the author Havers. The best thing about it is the photography but there are some gaping holes in the scope of music discussed and the lack of a complete blue Note discography something that makes it difficult to fully praise. It's odd that whilst I am addicted to Blue Note records, I'm starting to think that some of the discs are starting to show their age and don't sound quite so cool. I was listening to Lou Donaldson's "The natural soul" last week and my initial enthusiasm for it was misplaced.

I still think Hayes' "Mexican Green" is the apogee of what he produced in the studio. It's a wholly original approach to jazz marked by Hayes' writing. The album with Clark Terry is good because you can hear Hayes outside of a British context and it is always good to hear anything with the trumpeter on. SA's comments about Terry being a "swing-bop" player rankled me as I see Terry as having little to do with swing era trumpet players like Allen, Eldridge, Berigan, Clayton, Edison, etc and more of a player who was post-Dizzy. I think there is some of Dizzy's crafty rhythmic play in Terry's music albeit Gillespie's articulation and use of dynamics marks him as perhaps the finest rhythmic front line player in the history of jazz. Terry was really part of the 1950's approach to the trumpet but he had a knack of making his playing more immediately communicative than any other player from his generation. As I said earlier, who doesn't love his playing?

What is intrifuing about the Hayes record is that the rest of the band is a bit old fashion. Duvivier was a swing era player with origins in Lucky Millinder's band but one who could slot in with more progressive players like Herbie Nichols. The drummer Dave Bailey is pretty ordinary, keeping good time whilst contributing to a rhythm section which was a bit mainstream even in 1961. It 's a good album yet had he joined the Blue Note roster I think his true quality would have been better served.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

i have to say that Hayes and Costa are knocking me out on Airegin ..... Parlan was a better fit in Mingus bands and his own recordings than here where his chanting style does not suit the job really ... always liked Duvivier a great walking bassist ... Dave Bailey played with Mulligan amongst many others ... the more i listen to the album the more i like Bailey's work on it

referencing Gillespie is very much to the point when you listen to Terry on Opus Ocean where his timbre is almost the man himself .....