The Clark Terry Archive

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From The Newark Star-Ledger.

PRESERVING A LIFETIME IN JAZZ

Wednesday, December 08, 2004

BY PEGGY McGLONE

Star-Ledger Staff

Legendary jazz trumpeter Clark Terry played with Count Basie, was a featured soloist in Duke Ellington's orchestra and performed with his own bands, big and small, in concerts around the globe.

The Haworth resident is also a renowned teacher -- he mentored a young Miles Davis decades ago -- a generous coach and sought-after instructor who still teaches from his home.

   

Terry's dedication to jazz education has led him to donate hundreds of items -- original arrangements, recordings, personal correspondence and other jazz memorabilia -- to William Paterson University in Wayne, where it will be housed in a planned Clark Terry Archive.

"All the people I love to hear play and to play with are here," said Terry, who turns 84 next week. "(William Paterson) is beautifully equipped with a (jazz) staff unlike any other university in the area."

The creation of the Clark Terry Archive will be announced on campus today at a ceremony and performance by Terry and the William Paterson University Jazz Ensemble, under the direction of David Demsey. The university will use the occasion to launch a fund-raising campaign to build a concert hall and jazz archival center, complementing its Shea Center for the Performing Arts.

"Clark is one of the most significant figures in the history of jazz. He's one of the few who played with both Duke Ellington and Count Basie, which is the musical equivalent of knowing Washington and Jefferson. ... It's the root of the tree," said Demsey, professor of music and coordinator of the university's jazz studies program.

Terry was one of the first performers to understand the importance of teaching jazz to the next generation, Demsey said. The author of two books on playing the trumpet, Terry is an adviser to the National Association of Jazz Educators and former director of the Clark Terry Great Plains Jazz Camp in Kansas. In July, he was artist-in-residence at William Paterson's annual Jazz Improvisation Workshop for high school and college students.

"People like Clark, and Billy Taylor, they were the first major leaguers to say 'we want to be involved in teaching this music,'" Demsey said. "He taught one of my students a trumpet lesson in the car on the way over" to the campus yesterday for rehearsal, he added.

Young musicians are always asking for help, Terry said, and he vowed a long time ago to be one of the generous ones.

"When I came up as a kid, the old timers were against the young people getting involved. I always said if I ever had the opportunity, I would be happy to (teach). I've been doing that religiously," he said, adding with a chuckle, "and I can't help it. It keeps me young."

Born in St. Louis, the self-taught musician first played with Charlie Barnet and Charlie Ventura. He joined the Count Basie band in 1948 and played there for three years. He moved to the Duke Ellington Orchestra in 1951 and was a featured soloist for eight years.

In the early 1960s, Terry performed in the NBC "Tonight Show" band, where he became known as a vocalist for his hit song, "Mumbles." After the nightly TV show moved to California, Terry stayed in New York and began a career performing in concert halls and studios, making dozens of records with his own big band and with his quintet, the Jolly Giants.

Terry was also a pioneer of the flügelhorn in jazz, a musician revered for the distinctive vocal quality of his horn. For the last decade, he has fronted a quintet with saxophonist David Glasser, pianist Don Friedman, drummer Sylvia Cuenca and bassist Marcus McLaurine, an instructor at William Paterson.

The material included in the archive represents the amazing span of Terry's life's work, said Demsey. It features sheet music and arrangements by greats like Ernie Wilkins, Quincy Jones and Frank Foster, and gig recordings of shows dating back to the '50s and '60s, when Terry was at the helm of his Big Bad Band.

There are more than a dozen horns specially crafted for Terry, letters from Louis Armstrong and various United States presidents, and memorabilia ranging from ceremonial keys to various cities to honorary degrees.

"He wants his material associated with an active jazz program with young players, not in a museum," Demsey said. "These arrangements are going to get played, the horns will be used."