Clark Terry
Clark Terry was a jazz musician best known for his work as a featured horn player on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, where he worked for 12 years. Terry was the first African American staff musician at NBC, beginning his tenure in 1967.
During his time on The Tonight Show, he recorded the hit “Mumbles,” featuring his signature scat singing. Stylistically, Terry ranged from swing to hard bop to jazz, pioneering the use of the flugelhorn in the latter. Over Terry’s career he released over 80 albums as a bandleader and hundreds more as a sideman on albums by the likes of Ray Charles, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie and Quincy Jones. One discography places his recorded performance number at 788.
Clark Terry was a jazz musician best known for his work as a featured horn player on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, where he worked for 12 years. Terry was the first African American staff musician at NBC, beginning his tenure in 1967.
During his time on The Tonight Show, he recorded the hit “Mumbles,” featuring his signature scat singing. Stylistically, Terry ranged from swing to hard bop to jazz, pioneering the use of the flugelhorn in the latter. Over Terry’s career he released over 80 albums as a bandleader and hundreds more as a sideman on albums by the likes of Ray Charles, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie and Quincy Jones. One discography places his recorded performance number at 788.
Terry was a proponent of the importance of education. He taught jazz, mentored at colleges and universities and organized camps and clinics. One such organization was a Harlem youth band that became the seed for Jazz Mobile in New York City. In 2014 the documentary Keep on Keepin’ On followed Terry’s mentorship over four years with a piano prodigy.
Terry died February 21, 2015, in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. He was 94.
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