Clark Terry (1920-2015)

© Reuters

Clark Terry, the jazz trumpeter, composer and educator, who was a member of the bands of both Count Basie and Duke Eliington, and who was said to have been a mentor to Miles Davis and Quincy Jones, died on Saturday, February 21, at the age of 94. He passed away at a hospice near his Pine Bluff, Arkansas home of complications from diabetes. Known for his technical proficiency and good humor, he had a career that spanned over 70 years, during which he was one of the country's most frequently recorded musicians. In addition to the trumpet, he helped popularize the flugelhorn and was a tongue-in-cheek scat singer.

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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