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Clark Terry was born to a poor family
in St. Louis on December 12, 1920, the seventh of eleven children.
His mother died when he was six, and his father discouraged his
interest in music. Nevertheless, after graduating from high school,
he started his carreer by barnstorming with local bands. In 1942, he
joined the Navy and was assigned to the band. After the war, he
joined the big band of George Hudson. This was followed by gigs with
Charlie Barnet and Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson.
He rose to prominence as a member of Basie's band from 1948 to 1951, and with Ellington from
1951 to 1959.
After a brief stint with Quincy Jones,
he became a staff musician with NBC and was a member of the Tonight
Show band until 1972 when the program moved to Los Angeles. He became
a household name through his bantering with Johnny Carson during “Stump the Band” sketches. Throughout this time, he
played and recorded with small groups in both swing and hard bop
styles. Here is playing flugelhorn on “Argentia,” a song he wrote and recorded with
Thelonious Monk in 1958.
Beginning in 1967, Clark Terry was a member of
Jazz at the Philharmonic. He played often with big bands at Carnegie
Hall, Lincoln Center and around the world, and toured in small groups with
musicians such as Oscar Peterson, J. J. Johnson, Gerry Mulligan and
Bob Brookmeyer. His discography includes about 80 albums as leader
or co-leader and many more recordings as a sideman. Here he plays "Samba de Orfeu" at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1977.
While with Oscar Peterson he recorded
“Mumbles,” a comic scat singing number which became one of his
signature tunes. This performance is from 2007.
For many years, Clark Terry was an adjunct
professor at William Paterson University in Wayne, NJ, which has an
archive of his memorabilia. He received the NEA Jazz Master Award in
1991, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010, was inducted into
the Jazz at the Lincoln Center Hall of Fame in 2013, and holds 16
honorary doctorates. His autobiography, Clark,
was published in 2011. The 2014 documentary Keep On
Keepin' On tells the story of
his relationship to pianist Justin Kauflin, a student of his at
William Paterson, with whom he continued to work after his diabetes
forced him to retire to Pine Bluffs.
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