Full Description
Compelling from cover to cover, this is the story of one of the most recorded and beloved jazz trumpeters of all time. With unsparing honesty and a superb eye for detail, Clark Terry, born in 1920, takes us from his impoverished childhood in St. Louis, Missouri, where jazz could be heard everywhere, to the smoke-filled small clubs and carnivals across the Jim Crow South where he got his start, and on to worldwide acclaim. Terry takes us behind the scenes of jazz history as he introduces scores of legendary greats -Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Peterson, Dizzy Gillespie, Dinah Washington, Doc Severinsen, Ray Charles, Thelonious Monk, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Coleman Hawkins, Zoot Sims, and Dianne Reeves, among many others. Terry also reveals much about his own personal life, his experiences with racism, how he helped break the color barrier in 1960 when he joined the Tonight Show band on NBC, and why - at ninety years old - his students from around the world still call and visit him for lessons.
Contents
Preface by Quincy Jones Foreword by Bill Cosby Introduction by David Demsey 1. Big Dreams 2. First Instruments 3. Kicked Out 4. The Vashon High Swingsters 5. First Road Gig 6. Nigga 7. Ida Cox 8. Stranded 9. Lincoln Inn 10. On the Road Again 11. Tennis Shoe Pimp 12. Jailed 13. Len Bowden 14. Navy Days 15. Gray Clouds 16. The Big Apple 17. George Hudson 18. The Club Plantation 19. Galloping Dominoes 20. Tempting Offers 21. Lionel Hampton 22. Road Lessons 23. Pauline 24. Charlie Barnet 25. Count Basie 26. Big Debt 27. Duke Ellington 28. Leaving Basie 29. The University of Ellingtonia 30. Working with Duke 31. Duke's Team 32. Duke's Management Arts 33. Miles and Bird 34. Billy Strayhorn 35. Endurances 36. Flugelhorn 37. Europe 38. Norman Granz 39. Norman's Battles 40. Q 41. NBC 42. Jim and Andy's 43. Johnny and Ed 44. Mumbles 45. First House 46. Big Bad Band 47. Carnegie Hall 48. Etoile 49. Jazz Education Arena 50. Those NBC Years 51. Storms 52. Black Clouds 53. Keep on Keepin' On 54. New Love 55. Whirlwinds 56. Through the Storm 57. Second Chance 58. The Biggest Surprise Acknowledgments Honors and Awards Original Compositions Selected Discography Index Photographs follow page 186
