Clark Terry Donates Archive to William Paterson U.

[Pete C]

Legend bestows his jazz treasures on WPU students
Thursday, December 9, 2004

By PATRICK TUOHEY
STAFF WRITER


He climbed to the bandstand ever so slowly - cane in one hand, arm linked with a friend's for support.

It was familiar territory for jazz legend Clark Terry, 83, who has played with the likes of Count Basie and Duke Ellington and was once again sitting before an ensemble Wednesday. Dressed in a light brown suit, the bespectacled musician with the gray mustache stood in contrast to the black-clad young players awaiting his instructions at William Paterson University.

With foot tapping and fluegelhorn in hand, Clark called the first tune and led the jazz ensemble in a lively rendition of Ellington's "Take the A Train." The special jazz performance in the university's Shea Center for the Performing Arts was in celebration of Terry's wish to donate his personal jazz archive to the university.

Rather than put his manuscripts, arrangements, custom-made horns and recordings out of reach in some museum, Terry sought to give new life to his collection of music and jazz memories at William Paterson.

"I couldn't think of a better place to have it on exhibit than here," Terry said of his collection, which contains hundreds of pieces. "The university has all sorts of beautifully talented people. They're marvelous. The people who are teaching kids here know how to do it."

The donation is a feather in the cap for a university already lauded for its jazz education program. That program has been headed in recent years by Thad Jones, Rufus Reid and other notables.

"This puts our university in a leadership position internationally, along with the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers and the Smithsonian," said David Demsey, WPU current jazz studies program coordinator, who directed Terry's performance Wednesday with the WPU Jazz Ensemble. "If we were a political science department, it would be like George Washington saying: 'I'd like you to have my stuff.'Ÿ"

That collection will have a good home: The university is raising funds to build a 500-seat concert hall and archival center. Students of jazz eager to soak up the written notes and recorded sounds will find inspiration to write their own music there.

Kevin Neaton, 20, a WPU junior from Ann Arbor, Mich., is one of them. He's visited Terry's home in Haworth several times already and has played trumpet with him.

"He brings a lot of energy to it. Playing with Clark is always fun," said Neaton, who played trumpet in the jazz ensemble Wednesday. "He makes you rise to the occasion."

Terry's collection is all the more impressive because of some of the non-musical items he's donating, such as the correspondence he has received from jazz greats and an unusual African walking stick given to him by Dizzy Gillespie.

"I have some fantastic memories," Terry said, recalling his days playing with Ellington, Basie, Ella Fitzgerald and others. "Duke could hang out with kings and queens," he said, remembering Ellington's personal style. "But Basie had wit."

But unlike today's college jazz majors, Terry and his contemporaries had no formal instruction in modern jazz. They had to learn their craft the hard way.

"I came up on the street in St. Louis," said Terry, who grew up hanging on every note played by trumpeter Charlie Creath, who gained fame as a Mississippi riverboat entertainer. "As kids we used to hang around his apartment and listen to him practice. He'd play so beautifully. Sometimes, we'd stay the whole day just to listen."

Terry's sound, which is described as a mix of the music of his St. Louis youth and contemporary stylings, would become a major influence for artists such as Miles Davis and Quincy Jones. Terry performed with Basie in the 1940s, as a featured soloist with Ellington in the '50s, and as a member of the NBC-TV Orchestra in New York.

But he also was one of the first jazz artists to recognize the need to perpetuate the music through classroom studies.

"Clark is a central figure in the history of music and is one of the founding fathers of jazz education," Demsey said. "The fact that his archives span virtually the history of modern jazz means everything.

"He wants it to be accessible to young students. He wants it to be available - and to be used. Our students will play the music all the time," he added.

So what's it like to play with the master?

"It was really cool. My mouth was open the whole time," said 18-year-old jazz pianist Joshua Richman of Hatfield, Pa.

The excitement was especially evident at a rehearsal earlier this week, Demsey said.

"They were awestruck at first," Demsey said of the students. "Then the music started and when Clark sang a few phrases, they just beamed. Then everything made sense to them. After that, you just realize you're in the presence of the real thing and just respond."

Twenty-year-old Julie O'Brien of Staten Island, a first-year WPU student and trumpet player, was impressed, not only by the master storyteller's tales about his jazz contemporaries but by his commitment to working with young people: "When he came to rehearsal, he gravitated to us."

Terry's performance Wednesday included pieces that allowed ensemble members to shine with solos as Terry nodded his head or kept the beat by slapping his leg.

"I love it," Terry said of working with young musicians. "It keeps me young."

* * *
Notes on Clark Terry

His musical career spans some 60 years in which he composed more than 200 jazz songs and |performed with some of the greats of modern jazz. Some facts about Terry:


His first trumpet as a child was made out of |garden hose.


He was a pioneer of the fluegelhorn in jazz music.


He is known for creating musical "dialogues" with himself, using different instruments or using the same instrument muted and unmuted.


He was the first African-American staff musician at NBC Television and performed with The Tonight Show Band.


He gained fame for his "Mumbles" scat routine.


He has a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame, along with such notables as Scott Joplin, Maya Angelou and Charles Lindbergh.


He has performed for seven U.S. presidents.


He was inducted into the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Hall of Fame in 1991.


He has won a Grammy Award and received Grammy nominations.|Looking for an opportunity to see Clark Terry perform? |He will appear with the WPU Jazz Ensemble on Saturday at 4 p.m. as part of a holiday celebration at the Shea Center for the Performing Arts on campus, 300 Pompton Road, Wayne.

Tickets are $12; $9 for senior citizens, non-WPU students, faculty, staff and alumni, and free for William Paterson students. Information: (973) 720-2371



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[JazzJunkie]

Thanks for posting that Pete. That was beautiful!