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Happy 87th Birthday Clark Terry!


Cyril

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Clark is one of my favorites. I've seen him so many times going back to my high school days. One of the most distinctive sounds of all.

Let's see- the Mumbles punchlines over the years: "Watergate", "Where's the beef?", what were some of the others?

And his current mantra: "The Golden Years SUCK!" :g

Happy Birthday Clark! :party:

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Happy Birthday, CT!!

Just in case clem can't bring himself to look at this thread, here's his earlier tribute:

ODE TO MUMBLES (excerpt)

clark terry fucked my wife

clark terry knocked up my daughter

clark terry is a son of a bitch

clark terry doesn't shovel the sidewalk

clark terry is a lousy lay

clark terry doesn't swallow

clark terry killed kennedy

clark terry killed king

clark terry burned my toast

clark terry spilled my coffee

clark terry is a tease

clark terry is a state of mind

clark terry street is a dead end

clark terry dolls aren't safe for children

clark terry day is always a washout

clark terry & that fucking leafblower again-- goddamnit!

clark terry voted for nixon

clark terry voted for reagan

clark terry voted for bush-- four times!

clark terry forgot the words to "i remember april"

-- Ralph J. Gleason

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Actually, I once demurred in print about what seemed to me to be Terry's tendency to coast/offer up strings of cliches (albeit ones that he himself had minted) -- this response based on hearing Terry's then annual visits (in the early to mid-1980s) to the Jazz Showcase. Response to the review was interesting -- Terry went on a local jazz radio show hosted by Black activist Russell Meeks, and with Meeks cheering him on, and perhaps stoking him up beforehand, Terry said at some length and with much heat that the motive behind my lying review must have been racism. The other shoe (or another shoe) dropped next year, when Terry was paired by Joe Segal with Al Cohn (in previous years IIRC Terry performed as the sole horn or with, perhaps on one occasion, Red Holloway). In any case, Cohn at that time was playing with great intensity, and with that going on beside him, Terry played with a fire and creativity that I hadn't heard from him for some time -- both in person and on record. Lord knows what Terry thought if and when he read the enthusiastic review in the paper the next day. Probably he assumed that it was written by a now-cowed racist.

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Terry can play, but I'm with Larry on this issue of coasting and shallowness - and it ain't race, as Larry knows - about 25 years ago I ran into a well known (African American) pianist on the street in front of a club where he was playing with Terry's group - I asked him how he liked the gig - he said: "He can play when he wants to, but he's still doing that damn 'Secret Love.' "

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Hardly a day goes by that I don't think about cricket!

(well, ok, "a day" is a figure of speech, and like the biblical usage, could easily mean millions of years, and "think about", well..not consciously, but who knows what really goes on in the subconscious mind, and "cricket" is probably a euphemism for everything that falls into my personal "whatever..." category, but still, it's the thought that counts, right?)

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Haven't listened to it for a long time, but one of my favorite Terry recordings is one of his earliest as a leader - -"Swahili" (EmArcy), from 1955, with a formidable lineup: Horace Silver, Art Blakey, Oscar Pettiford, Cecil Payne, and Jimmy Cleveland. IIRC, that rhythm section kicked butt. Also, with Blakey rumbling underneath, on the title track Terry's variation on Rex Stewart's half-valve effects sounded seriously ominous.Vintage Quincy Jones charts, too -- though vintage Quincy would have have a short season IMO.

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Happy Birthday, CT!!

Just in case clem can't bring himself to look at this thread, here's his earlier tribute:

ODE TO MUMBLES (excerpt)

clark terry fucked my wife

clark terry knocked up my daughter

clark terry is a son of a bitch

clark terry doesn't shovel the sidewalk

clark terry is a lousy lay

clark terry doesn't swallow

clark terry killed kennedy

clark terry killed king

clark terry burned my toast

clark terry spilled my coffee

clark terry is a tease

clark terry is a state of mind

clark terry street is a dead end

clark terry dolls aren't safe for children

clark terry day is always a washout

clark terry & that fucking leafblower again-- goddamnit!

clark terry voted for nixon

clark terry voted for reagan

clark terry voted for bush-- four times!

clark terry forgot the words to "i remember april"

-- Ralph J. Gleason

I still get a kick out of this, gentleman that I am...

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