The first time I'd heard the Ellington band live and the first time I'd heard Clark, What a band and what a trumpet section! Clark Terry, Cat Anderson, Harold Baker and Ray Nance. I don't think Duke ever had a better one.
An open air concert in Plaza de la Trinidad. It was raining. The band was enclosed and the famous French jazz critic Hugues Panassié was sipping an aperitif protected from the rain by a huge umbrella - I wasn't! Did the rain spoil the concert for me? No way, I simply ensured that I was as wet on the inside as I was on the outside with the aid of liberal doses of cuba-libra.
This was one of the best big bands I've ever heard or seen. Alongside Clark in the trumpet section was another great trumpet player, Richard Williams. The saxes included Jimmy Heath, Ernie Wilkins, Arnie Lawrence and Chris Woods. Jimmy Willkins and Richard Boone were among the bones whilst piano, bass and drums were Horace Parlan, Eddie Jones and Grady Tate. I was on a high and the white rum only partly contributed to it.
1983. North Sea Jazz Festival. The Clark Terry Octet
That, I think was the last time I heard Clark Terry live. Fortunately, made a lot of fine records before he left us in 2015 at the age of 94 although, to be honest, I never quite got away with his Mumbles recordings but that was the only time.
Apart from the Ellington's, there's an Emarcy album, Jam Session, where he locks horns with Clifford Brown and Maynard Ferguson and doesn't settle for third place. His Don't Worry 'Bout Me on the ballad medley is pure magic.
May he still be remembered in another hundred years time and every day in between ...
Lance
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