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The Making of “The Voice Of Clark Terry”
This project has been a labor of love for vocalist Chris Humphrey and me (and for everyone else who soon became involved), for the better part of a year. It began when Chris asked me to lyricize a favorite Clark Terry tune of his for a gig that we had coming up last fall. I had lyricized a few tunes in the vocalese style for the jazz vocal group that Chris and I had both been members of in the 80’s and 90’s called, The Ritz. I hadn’t written lyrics since writing them for The Ritz on Basically Blues, Music in The Air, and Flight of the Foo Birds back in the 80’s but thought it would be fun to give it a try again. I believe it’s important to the story of this project to add that I had been diagnosed with stage IV cancer just before Chris asked me to write these lyrics. The tune he asked me to lyricize was a Clark Terry composition titled, One Foot in The Gutter from the 1960 recording of the same name. When I’d written vocalese lyrics, I tried to create a story based on the title of the piece. When I write, it’s impossible for my feelings and experiences not to be reflected and sometimes even outwardly expressed in my lyrics, (even when they are part of an otherwise fictional “story” a few truths come out). The title, One Foot in the Gutter resonated with me and brought out certain emotions that I was feeling with the health issues that I had just learned about. The lyrics became a direct reflection of what I was going through at that moment in time, (“don’t call the doctor, cuz I don’t want to hear no bad news”). When I sent them to Chris he wrote back a one-word reply, “autobiographical?”. The lyrics to “One Foot in the Gutter” certainly are.
Chris had originally asked me to lyricize just the melody and the first solo chorus to “Gutter” but after listening to Clark Terry’s performance on the Dave Bailey Sextet recording and hearing his two amazing choruses of a trumpet solo, I returned to Chris with both Clark’s melody and ALL of his trumpet solo lyricized. Chris performed them at our gig, (which was a reunion concert by The Ritz!), and it went over well both with the audience and with the band. Bassist Marty Ballou and pianist Mark Shilansky were both together with Chris and me on this gig and we all discussed the possibility of maybe taking it one step further and pursuing a project paying tribute to a mutual hero of all of ours, the legendary Clark Terry. The idea was put forth that if I was interested in continuing to put vocalese lyrics to Clark’s great library of original compositions, we could maybe have enough songs to put together a recording. This idea came up when I desperately needed something positive and hopeful to put my energy into. I dove into the project bringing my headphones, a pencil, and a notepad to each of my chemotherapy treatment sessions. I’d leave the hospital each time with a new song lyricized and send it to Chris. His positive reactions to each set of lyrics kept me inspired and gave me the confidence and drive to keep writing. I was having a blast doing this again and in all, I ended up writing lyrics to 24 Clark Terry compositions as well as to most of his trumpet solos on those tunes. Twelve of these songs are featured on this recording, (and the remaining twelve are already set for Volume 2 which is almost finished and due out before the end of 2022!).
I wrote all of these lyrics with Chris Humphrey’s musical voice in mind. My knowledge of Chris’ sensitivity, musicality, humor, incredible technical ability, and deep and soulful sense of swing left me no doubt that Chris would bring the words I wrote to life and capture the spirit of the great Clark Terry. Chris certainly did this at the highest level as well as so much more. We recorded in Chris’ studio and he also lent his recording expertise to engineer, mix, master, and produce this project, (all while singing at the highest level on it!). The rhythm section of Mark Shilansky on piano, Marty Ballou on bass, and myself on drums all got together at Chris’ studio in late winter of this past year and recorded the rhythm section tracks with Chris singing. Open choruses were left for the seven guest trumpet players to record their solos. Everyone involved in this recording has deep personal ties to and great respect and love for Clark Terry. Dr. Clark Terry received an honorary doctorate from the University of New Hampshire in 1978 and in the years following, Dr. Terry visited UNH every year to teach and perform at the annual jazz festival named in honor of him. I was very fortunate to perform with Clark Terry at UNH’s Clark Terry Jazz Festival from 1989 until Clark stopped being able to travel to NH a few years before his passing in 2015. Chris Humphrey was director of the UNH jazz choirs during this time and I have great memories of backing Chris and Clark as they traded amazing scat phrases on Clark’s famous tune, Mumbles. As well as teaching at Berklee, pianist Mark Shilansky is also the jazz piano instructor at UNH and backed Clark at these UNH jazz festival performances for many years as well. Marty Ballou is the current bassist with Peter Wolf and Duke Robillard and in the 80’s and 90’s, he was the bassist with The Ritz. Marty, (along with Chris and I), appears on the 1990 Denon recording, “Almost Blue” by The Ritz which features Clark Terry as the guest soloist.
The seven guest trumpet soloists on this recording are some of the best you’ll find anywhere and all of them also have very deep ties to Clark Terry. Trent Austin is a UNH graduate who toured with The Artie Shaw Orchestra, is the current trumpet soloist with The Kansas City Jazz Orchestra, and owner of Austin Custom Brass. Chris Klaxton is a UNH grad who received his master's degree from the University of Miami. He is the trumpet instructor at UNH and the University of Southern Maine and is a first-call trumpet player in New England. Chris was also Clark Terry’s personal assistant and a close friend traveling on the road with him for many years. Chris Burbank is another UNH and UMiami graduate who played in the US Naval Academy Jazz Band and is currently playing trumpet with the famed US Army Blues in Washington, DC. Jeff Stout recently retired from an illustrious 50-year teaching career at Berklee College of Music. Besides being the first call jazz trumpet player in Boston and throughout New England for all of those fifty years, Jeff was the featured trumpet soloist with the Buddy Rich band in the early 70’s. New Hampshire native Barry Danielian attended camps and festivals at UNH before attending Berklee and William Patterson College in NJ. Barry is the current trumpet player in Bruce Springsteen’s E Street horns and has recorded and toured with Tower of Power and Blood Sweat and Tears to name a few. Dave Ballou is also a Berklee graduate who received his master's degree from UNH. Dave toured with Woody Herman’s band in the 80’s and has recorded with a virtual who’s who of jazz as well as releasing seven recordings as a leader on the Steeplechase label. Dave currently is a professor of music at Towson University in Maryland. Tom Palance is a UNH grad who went on to be a featured soloist with US Navy’s Commodore’s jazz band for twenty years. Tom is a top call player in New England was the former director of jazz at Salem State University and is currently teaching at Berklee.
Putting on the headphones and listening to Clark Terry at each of my chemotherapy treatments got me through a very difficult year and I’m so happy to see this project realized and released. So many of my feelings, experiences, and thoughts managed to work their way into these lyrics. All the while, I wanted to remain true to Clark’s music and even while I was writing my own fictional stories based on the titles that he gave each tune, I was thinking of Clark and trying to put the love and positive vibes that I always felt radiating from him into every word. Chris Humphrey interprets my lyrics and Clark’s music so beautifully putting so much of his own personality and feelings into every tune. Chris was the catalyst who put this project into motion and he worked very hard in every aspect of this project to get it completed and released. I’m so thankful to him for all the heart and soul that he put into this project and this music. Lastly, I’d strongly recommend listening to Clark Terry’s original recordings of the tunes on this recording to fully experience the greatness of his writing and playing. Listening to the originals will also help in appreciating how beautifully Chris Humphrey interprets and captures Clark Terry’s deep feeling, phrasing, humor, and sense of swing in his incredible singing on this recording.
All of us have grown musically and personally from our experiences being with and around Clark Terry. We all benefited greatly from the powerful influence of one of the greatest musicians, educators, and human beings in the history of this music that we all love. Everyone involved in this project hopes to shine a bright light on Clark Terry’s great compositions as well as on his world-class performances on them. This project truly was a labor of love for every one of us. I’m extremely grateful to have been a part of this and thankful to each musician involved for their musicianship, friendship, and their amazing contributions to this recording. Special thanks to Chris Humphrey for the original idea, the work involved in bringing it to the finish line with such professionalism, and especially for bringing my lyrics to life in a perfect and loving tribute to “The Voice of Clark Terry”.
Les Harris Jr.
August 2022
This project has been a labor of love for vocalist Chris Humphrey and me (and for everyone else who soon became involved), for the better part of a year. It began when Chris asked me to lyricize a favorite Clark Terry tune of his for a gig that we had coming up last fall. I had lyricized a few tunes in the vocalese style for the jazz vocal group that Chris and I had both been members of in the 80’s and 90’s called, The Ritz. I hadn’t written lyrics since writing them for The Ritz on Basically Blues, Music in The Air, and Flight of the Foo Birds back in the 80’s but thought it would be fun to give it a try again. I believe it’s important to the story of this project to add that I had been diagnosed with stage IV cancer just before Chris asked me to write these lyrics. The tune he asked me to lyricize was a Clark Terry composition titled, One Foot in The Gutter from the 1960 recording of the same name. When I’d written vocalese lyrics, I tried to create a story based on the title of the piece. When I write, it’s impossible for my feelings and experiences not to be reflected and sometimes even outwardly expressed in my lyrics, (even when they are part of an otherwise fictional “story” a few truths come out). The title, One Foot in the Gutter resonated with me and brought out certain emotions that I was feeling with the health issues that I had just learned about. The lyrics became a direct reflection of what I was going through at that moment in time, (“don’t call the doctor, cuz I don’t want to hear no bad news”). When I sent them to Chris he wrote back a one-word reply, “autobiographical?”. The lyrics to “One Foot in the Gutter” certainly are.
Chris had originally asked me to lyricize just the melody and the first solo chorus to “Gutter” but after listening to Clark Terry’s performance on the Dave Bailey Sextet recording and hearing his two amazing choruses of a trumpet solo, I returned to Chris with both Clark’s melody and ALL of his trumpet solo lyricized. Chris performed them at our gig, (which was a reunion concert by The Ritz!), and it went over well both with the audience and with the band. Bassist Marty Ballou and pianist Mark Shilansky were both together with Chris and me on this gig and we all discussed the possibility of maybe taking it one step further and pursuing a project paying tribute to a mutual hero of all of ours, the legendary Clark Terry. The idea was put forth that if I was interested in continuing to put vocalese lyrics to Clark’s great library of original compositions, we could maybe have enough songs to put together a recording. This idea came up when I desperately needed something positive and hopeful to put my energy into. I dove into the project bringing my headphones, a pencil, and a notepad to each of my chemotherapy treatment sessions. I’d leave the hospital each time with a new song lyricized and send it to Chris. His positive reactions to each set of lyrics kept me inspired and gave me the confidence and drive to keep writing. I was having a blast doing this again and in all, I ended up writing lyrics to 24 Clark Terry compositions as well as to most of his trumpet solos on those tunes. Twelve of these songs are featured on this recording, (and the remaining twelve are already set for Volume 2 which is almost finished and due out before the end of 2022!).
I wrote all of these lyrics with Chris Humphrey’s musical voice in mind. My knowledge of Chris’ sensitivity, musicality, humor, incredible technical ability, and deep and soulful sense of swing left me no doubt that Chris would bring the words I wrote to life and capture the spirit of the great Clark Terry. Chris certainly did this at the highest level as well as so much more. We recorded in Chris’ studio and he also lent his recording expertise to engineer, mix, master, and produce this project, (all while singing at the highest level on it!). The rhythm section of Mark Shilansky on piano, Marty Ballou on bass, and myself on drums all got together at Chris’ studio in late winter of this past year and recorded the rhythm section tracks with Chris singing. Open choruses were left for the seven guest trumpet players to record their solos. Everyone involved in this recording has deep personal ties to and great respect and love for Clark Terry. Dr. Clark Terry received an honorary doctorate from the University of New Hampshire in 1978 and in the years following, Dr. Terry visited UNH every year to teach and perform at the annual jazz festival named in honor of him. I was very fortunate to perform with Clark Terry at UNH’s Clark Terry Jazz Festival from 1989 until Clark stopped being able to travel to NH a few years before his passing in 2015. Chris Humphrey was director of the UNH jazz choirs during this time and I have great memories of backing Chris and Clark as they traded amazing scat phrases on Clark’s famous tune, Mumbles. As well as teaching at Berklee, pianist Mark Shilansky is also the jazz piano instructor at UNH and backed Clark at these UNH jazz festival performances for many years as well. Marty Ballou is the current bassist with Peter Wolf and Duke Robillard and in the 80’s and 90’s, he was the bassist with The Ritz. Marty, (along with Chris and I), appears on the 1990 Denon recording, “Almost Blue” by The Ritz which features Clark Terry as the guest soloist.
The seven guest trumpet soloists on this recording are some of the best you’ll find anywhere and all of them also have very deep ties to Clark Terry. Trent Austin is a UNH graduate who toured with The Artie Shaw Orchestra, is the current trumpet soloist with The Kansas City Jazz Orchestra, and owner of Austin Custom Brass. Chris Klaxton is a UNH grad who received his master's degree from the University of Miami. He is the trumpet instructor at UNH and the University of Southern Maine and is a first-call trumpet player in New England. Chris was also Clark Terry’s personal assistant and a close friend traveling on the road with him for many years. Chris Burbank is another UNH and UMiami graduate who played in the US Naval Academy Jazz Band and is currently playing trumpet with the famed US Army Blues in Washington, DC. Jeff Stout recently retired from an illustrious 50-year teaching career at Berklee College of Music. Besides being the first call jazz trumpet player in Boston and throughout New England for all of those fifty years, Jeff was the featured trumpet soloist with the Buddy Rich band in the early 70’s. New Hampshire native Barry Danielian attended camps and festivals at UNH before attending Berklee and William Patterson College in NJ. Barry is the current trumpet player in Bruce Springsteen’s E Street horns and has recorded and toured with Tower of Power and Blood Sweat and Tears to name a few. Dave Ballou is also a Berklee graduate who received his master's degree from UNH. Dave toured with Woody Herman’s band in the 80’s and has recorded with a virtual who’s who of jazz as well as releasing seven recordings as a leader on the Steeplechase label. Dave currently is a professor of music at Towson University in Maryland. Tom Palance is a UNH grad who went on to be a featured soloist with US Navy’s Commodore’s jazz band for twenty years. Tom is a top call player in New England was the former director of jazz at Salem State University and is currently teaching at Berklee.
Putting on the headphones and listening to Clark Terry at each of my chemotherapy treatments got me through a very difficult year and I’m so happy to see this project realized and released. So many of my feelings, experiences, and thoughts managed to work their way into these lyrics. All the while, I wanted to remain true to Clark’s music and even while I was writing my own fictional stories based on the titles that he gave each tune, I was thinking of Clark and trying to put the love and positive vibes that I always felt radiating from him into every word. Chris Humphrey interprets my lyrics and Clark’s music so beautifully putting so much of his own personality and feelings into every tune. Chris was the catalyst who put this project into motion and he worked very hard in every aspect of this project to get it completed and released. I’m so thankful to him for all the heart and soul that he put into this project and this music. Lastly, I’d strongly recommend listening to Clark Terry’s original recordings of the tunes on this recording to fully experience the greatness of his writing and playing. Listening to the originals will also help in appreciating how beautifully Chris Humphrey interprets and captures Clark Terry’s deep feeling, phrasing, humor, and sense of swing in his incredible singing on this recording.
All of us have grown musically and personally from our experiences being with and around Clark Terry. We all benefited greatly from the powerful influence of one of the greatest musicians, educators, and human beings in the history of this music that we all love. Everyone involved in this project hopes to shine a bright light on Clark Terry’s great compositions as well as on his world-class performances on them. This project truly was a labor of love for every one of us. I’m extremely grateful to have been a part of this and thankful to each musician involved for their musicianship, friendship, and their amazing contributions to this recording. Special thanks to Chris Humphrey for the original idea, the work involved in bringing it to the finish line with such professionalism, and especially for bringing my lyrics to life in a perfect and loving tribute to “The Voice of Clark Terry”.
Les Harris Jr.
August 2022