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Clark Terry


mgraham333

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I saw Clark Terry's Serenade to a Bus Seat on the shelf and decided to give it a try having heard him as a side man (Monk's Brilliant Corners) a few times and on Friendship w/ Max Roach.

Terry is on trumpet

Johnny Griffin - tenor sax

Wynton Kelly - piano

Paul Chambers - bass

Philly Joe Jones - drums

A great line up to say the least.

This was Griffin's and Kelly's first appearance on Riverside.

AMG gives it four stars and I would agree. Here's what else they had to say:

This CD reissue matches together trumpeter Clark Terry (before he switched to flugelhorn) with tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin, pianist Wynton Kelly, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Philly Joe Jones. Most notable about the music is that Terry wrote five of the eight selections (including the colorful title cut which pays tribute to life on the road with Duke Ellington); the other numbers are "Donna Lee," a pretty version of "Stardust" and a slightly Latinized "That Old Black Magic." Terry and Griffin were a potent team, making one regret that they did not record together much through the years. This set contains excellent straightahead jazz performed with plenty of spirit. — Scott Yanow

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Matt, I don't know Serenade to a Bus Seat, but if you start digging Terry, you should look for his Emarcy debut album, just called Clark Terry (AMG), reissued in the Verve Elite Edition series. A very good one! Jimmy Cleveland, Cecil Payne, Horace Silver, Oscar Pettiford, Wendell Marshall and Blakey are the sidemen.

Another real good one is the album he made with Monk, In Orbit (AMG), on Riverside.

And Daylight Express (AMG), a twofer featuring a short Terry album as well as a good date he co-led with Paul Gonsalves, is another good one.

Another Verve Elite Edition disc featuring extraordinary work by Terry (and Burrell, Hancock, Carter) is Ed Thigpen's Out of the Storm (AMG).

I think all of these (except In Orbit) are OOP, but might still be around. Keep your eyes open and grab them if you pass them by!

ubu

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  • 11 months later...

And Daylight Express (AMG), a twofer featuring a short Terry album as well as a good date he co-led with Paul Gonsalves, is another good one.

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Yes, this is a fine disc, with the Gonsalves session especially (bitter)sweet. The track "Festival" was an attempt at a sort of studio re-creation of his famed live choruses with Duke. It actually comes off pretty nicely. And — gasp! — Keepnews didn't truncate this session. The whole thing's here ... with one bonus track! Definitely worth seeking out.

The evil empire has it. :unsure:

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That Emarcy disc, CLARK TERRY, is a real killer - fantastic, and has some really nice rarities at the end as was the custom for the outstanding (and much missed by me!) Verve Elite Edition series. Next to that one, I enjoy COLOR CHANGES the most, and don't forget the Big Baad Big Band dates he made for Vanguard with Ernie Wilkins as co-leader, if you're into vinyl these can be had pretty cheaply.

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don't forget the Big Baad Big Band dates he made for Vanguard with Ernie Wilkins as co-leader, if you're into vinyl these can be had pretty cheaply.

These have long been a favourite of mine - lots of nice Ernie Wilkins charts and a dream band lineup. I remember seeing a BBC TV broadcast of this band back in about 1975/76 and it had the likes of Richard Williams and Chris Woods in the lineup (who was heavily featured). Naturally, Clark did a version of 'Mumbles' on the broadcast and threw in some 'topical' comments about Watergate. A rare abberation by the BBC at that time to actually broadcast some real jazz...

I bet they wiped the tape and stuck some soap or game show **** over the top of it ;)

Edited by sidewinder
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  • 3 weeks later...

Just giving 'Swahili' a spin on the VEE disk. Very nice Quincy Jones arrangements and stellar band with Horace Silver, Jimmy Cleveland, Cecil Payne, Oscar Pettiford and Art Blakey in the lineup. With Horace and Art laying down the groove, how can you lose !

Edited by sidewinder
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Just giving 'Swahili' a spin on the VEE disk. Very nice Quincy Jones arrangements and stellar band with Horace Silver, Jimmy Cleveland, Cecil Payne, Oscar Pettiford and Art Blakey in the lineup. With Horace and Art laying down the groove, how can you lose !

Jimmy Cleveland pretty much steals the show from CT on this LP, imho.

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  • 3 months later...

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If you like Clark...this album is a MUST HAVE. One of my all-time favorite jazz albums...and I am NOT an Oscar Peterson fan. Clark is simply stunning throughout...whether he's trading fours with himself (trumpet in one hand, flugelhorn in the other), debuting the Mumbles character...or just plain WAILING...this is an almost superhuman performance and a real desert island disc.

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  • 9 years later...

Just giving 'Swahili' a spin on the VEE disk. Very nice Quincy Jones arrangements and stellar band with Horace Silver, Jimmy Cleveland, Cecil Payne, Oscar Pettiford and Art Blakey in the lineup. With Horace and Art laying down the groove, how can you lose !

Jimmy Cleveland pretty much steals the show from CT on this LP, imho.

10 year reminder to me to give this one a spin !

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  • 7 years later...

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