One of my first memories of CT was watching a VHS tape of Clark playing with woody hermans band wailing away on mumbles (upside down of course). My band director up in Maine was a huge ct fan. In fact I would be safe to say that Clarks visit in 1980 (well before my time) at Nokomis catapulted the program in ways never dreamed of. Naturally I borrowed every lp I could grab and transcribed as much CT as possible. I was never much of a reader, still am not, but playing by ear came to me fairly easily. So there I was with ct and oscar, then ct and oscar duo sessions, flintstones, mumbles, tee pee time, the battles at montreux, well basically everything a kid in Central Maine could acquire prior to the days of spotify. One thing that I will remain steadfast on as a trumpeter clark has no rival. He simply has the finest embochure and dexterity I have ever seen. The power and the command of time... His sense of swing is unparalleled. Be it with performing with a Middle school band or with Ray Brown he was always swinging. I remember the first time I met clark. We were playing in hs at the unh fest. He was playing with phil woods. I snuck into the green room and proceeded to be my normal bumbly self basically drooling with admiration I had for clark. He was gracious and kind. He was very very ill I had found out later but you couldnt tell by his spirit or his swing. Come to find out that about a year later I had been accepted to unh and Dave Seiler wanted me to go out to the camp CT hosted every summer. Being a kid from Maine and on a very limited income I couldnt afford it. I remember so vividly hanging up on clark when he called as I thought it was a joke. What? My hero calling me? I thought it was one of my pals playing a trick on me. Needless to say he did call back and I was petrified. He said to me I hear you might want to come to my camp. I told him I would love to but just couldnt afford it. He said just get here and dont worry about it. Someone gave me a scholarship. I wonder who? Yet another example of his kindness beyond compare. Years later, so many wonderful celebrations, festivals, concerts, jam sessions, trumpet lessons well into the morning, lobsters, bad glasses of drysack, and of course laughs I found myself a bit scared to see my hero again. I said to myself I want to remember him as being this positive man who was always there with a smile and encouraging kick in the tail. We all know about his health concerns and I was going to well up and ball like a baby when I saw him. You know what happened? When I walked into Gwen and Clarks house the amount of love and positivity was overpowering. I had some great quiet moments with Clark. There is not a single day I do not think of him, almost always followed by a huge smile on my face. Then more and more folks arrived filling the house with so much love! Next up a Big band concert in his living room with him instructing us on tempi, phrasing, and smiling. Then a long jam session started up with clark going to take a nap. As the night was winding down around 11pm Justin and CT were rapping in his bedroom and another session ensued with some of the greatest moments I have experienced playing for my hero. I left this early morning headed to the airport with a renewed sense of love and excitement. More than anything I had the greatest lesson on remaining positive and the passion to live life as passionately as Clark does. God Bless you Clark Terry!
Posted on: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 16:56:26 +0000
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