Musical Chairs

OK, it's not often in someone's life that they can say they played music with a jazz legend, but, as of tax day, I can now say it with all the joy of a school girl. On April 15 at Southeast Missouri State University, the men of Phi Mu Alpha held their second annual Jazz Festival where 30 high school and middle school bands came to show off their stuff and hopefully walk away with a trophy or two. That night there was a concert with Clark Terry (enter the jazz legend part). Terry is known through all jazz circles as being the man to help design and use the flugelhorn horn (very pre-Chuck-Mangione) in jazz. He's also been the influence for an entire generation of trumpeters and other jazz players around the world (i.e. Miles Davis and Quincy Jones).

Not only did I get to perform with this great piece of living jazz history, but I got to interview him as well. (We're all about expanding your horizons here at OFF!) Now, before we get to the meat and potatoes of this article, I first want to say that Clark Terry is one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. It's such a relief to talk to someone as famous as Terry and not have to put up with any kind of ego whatsoever. He is first and foremost an educator at heart, and it shines through every time he speaks. Now, carry on and have fun reading.

OFF! - I know that you're an influence yourself, but who were your influences when you were starting out?

TERRY - Oh, I had a lot of trumpet players to listen to, but Louie Armstrong mostly.

OFF! - Now, I've read in a lot of articles about you that say you are considered one of the major influences for Quincy Jones and Miles Davis.

TERRY - Well, I knew them when they were younger, and I guess I had a little influence on them. When Quincy was a kid, he'd be standin' around back stage. And he'd be comin' up to me and be askin' me, "Terry, can I please take a trumpet lesson?" It was next to impossible cause I'm workin' in the clubs getting finished at three o'clock in the morning, and he had to go to school at six o'clock in the morning. So, I said, "Well, if you can figure out a way for to make your schedule and my schedule work out, we can do it." So, he'd come every morning about four or five o'clock and I'd just turn over in bed and wake up and say, "Come on." Then he'd go off to school, and I'd go back to bed. Now, this went on for a little bit, a couple of months, and he remembered that when he got to be famous.

And also he brought his first arrangement to me and asked me if I'd have time to play it, and we had a small group at the time. So I took it with me that particular weekend to San Francisco to play, and I passed it out, and we got to the last note, and it was horrible. Then I came back home, and he came back the next day for a lesson, and he asks, "Did you play my chart?" I say, "Yea, we played it. It was really nice, you had some great ideas, and you're in the right direction. There are a few things you might want to change on it. But, if you really zero in on it and make those corrections, you can keep doin' it." And he says, "You think I got it?" And I say, "Oh yeah, you got it."

But he was very ambitious and got the talent to match it. But the most important thing is ambition. Like I was tellin' somebody earlier, kids want that candy-coated mouthpiece that plays sweetly, or they want a heated mouthpiece so they can play hot or shallow mouthpieces so they can play high, and they want all these different things instead of working for them all on one instrument.

TERRY - Well, that's always a very difficult question to answer because a lot of people think they might be a favorite person, and if you don't say so, you're in trouble. So, I've got so many guy's that I do admire and have always admired. There's a few that I don't care to go back and be around ever again. I'm sure we've all experienced that. I think they know who they are too. But, as far as musically and jazz is concerned, I would say that I enjoyed it more from my association with Ellington than any other person.

OFF! - Now I know that you stayed in New York when the Tonight Show Band left for LA. Was there any main reason that you felt you had to stay in New York rather than leave?

TERRY - Yes, I don't like California.

OFF! - I guess that's simple enough.

TERRY - I was mentioning to someone the other day, it's too big. You have get in your car to go to the bathroom.

OFF! - In your opinion, when St. Louis was quite a hub for jazz, what do you think happened to it? Why isn't jazz as popular today, and why do you think jazz musicians don't flourish in St. Louis as much any more?

TERRY - Well, if I could answer that question, I would answer the question that's on all the minds of jazz folk. I think somebody comes along with marketing ideas that have nothing to do with the situation of jazz, but they own the clubs and they want to bring in the dollars and try to make people come in. They'll do things like paint the piano green to match the decor on the walls. So, usually we have to end up getting people like that involved, and slowly they'll close down and as soon as they find out that you have to be really true blue to stay involved in that. The minute they find out that they aren't gonna make the killin' that they thought or heard they were gonna' make, they bail out.

OFF! - A lot of musicians, before they go out and attempt to play semi-professionally or professionally, they usually have a back-up plan of some sort. Did you have any backup? TERRY - No, I didn't. I was too stupid to have a back-up plan. But thank God it all worked out. Unfortunately, I didn't have any kind of extended education for me. So, I'd just go out and ask questions to people, and not everyone was particularly interested in giving me the right answers.

Like the one where I had been told that I needed to improve my tone in the lower register, and he told me, "Go home, and get in front of the mirror, play your horn, and grit your teeth and wiggle your left ear." It didn't really help my tone, but people would say, "Look at that kid wigglin' his left ear."

OFF! - My final question. I know you've had a very fruitful career, anything you wish you would have done differently?

TERRY - I would have liked have added to my experiences to master keyboards, but I never did.

OFF! - Do you think it would have made things easier for you?

TERRY - Oh, yeah, it sure would. That's why I say I did it the hard way. For a long time, I couldn't write a C, G, and B flat. I was playin' it, but I didn't know what it was 'til I figured it out for myself.