Clark Terry Blows His Own Horn, In A Good Way

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As I’ve mentioned before in this blog, that pile of music-related books never seems to get any smaller as time goes by, but the good news is that I am actually making my way through some of them, it’s just that they are as quickly replaced by new biographies and collections of essays cutting across every musical genre and era of the last century.

Two books that I finally devoured over the last couple of weeks, I am happy to say I can highly recommend to jazz and roots music fans.

One is Clark, a new biography from the great jazz trumpet player, bandleader and composer Clark Terry and his 270 page story is one of the more detailed and wonderfully penned works I have read by one of the elder statesmen of jazz.

Terry is headed toward his 92nd birthday and although he been able to lead a very active and productive life well beyond what most of his peers have experienced, Terry’s health has been in decline the last while and many of his associates, friends and admirers have been raising money via benefits to offset his medical expenses. This is just one more reminder for those of us that live in Canada that we should be thankful for our health care system, despite any flaws it might have.

In fact just a few weeks ago a cast that included guitarist Gene Bertoncini, Ron Carter, Wallace Roney, Jimmy Cobb, Victor Lewis, Mulgrew Miller, John Simon, Cedar Walton, Phil Woods, Louis Hayes and Lou Donaldson - and that’s only about a fifth of the talent pool – came together in New York City and raised over $25,000 for the Terry cause.

The two-and-a-half hour benefit concert was held in Manhattan at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church and it was according to all reports a magnificent evening of jazz music. No kidding!

Back to the book: Terry’s remarkable journey is dotted with wonderful imagery, largely succinct but layered examinations of the personalities who moved in and out of his world and vice versa, and beautifully flowing memories of the music he made with the likes of Count Basie, Duke Ellington and his own ensembles. He also weaves in the truly obscene social ills and racism that were more than a backdrop in a black man’s existence in North America, but he does so without sweeping condemnation or residual bitterness.

He makes no apologies for his incredible work ethic that was in overdrive before he hit his teen years in Missouri. You can read dozens of biographies about great jazz musicians and I don’t know if you’ll find another about an individual who built his first instrument out of scrap metal plumbing fittings, such was his desire to be a trumpet player.

The book also drove me back to a great piece of vinyl I bought in one of those Boxing Day sale delete bins at Woolco in Capilano Mall, when I was probably 16 years old. Cut in 1969, the recording featured Clark Terry, sax man Ernie Wilkins and the Montreux Jazz Festival International Big Band. Terry was on fire when required and as beautifully subtle and serene when floating across a lush arrangement from his buddy Wilkins. Two bucks tops and the disc still commands the listener's complete attention from start to finish.

If you are a jazz fan you can’t go wrong with Clark, which features a preface by Quincy Jones and foreward from Bill Cosby. Clark is published by the University of California Press.

The other book I finally got around to cracking comes from the award-winning author and music historian Colin Escott. Escott may be best known for his incredibly well-researched biography on Hank Williams, which is considered “the source” on the country music legend.

Two years ago I came across another of Escott’s texts in a sale bin at Chapters on Whyte Avenue, for a whopping 50 cents. Roadkill on the Three-Chord Highway: Art and Trash in American Popular Music is a mind-boggling collection of 14 essays published in 2002.

Mind-boggling because once again Escott digs deep and finds sources one would have to go to great lengths to find and then talk to.

The core thread of the book is a light he shines on artists from an era long faded to black; covering not just stars but individuals who made significant contributions to pop, rockabilly and country music. Well-known names like Roy Orbison, Perry Como, Patti Page, Jim Reeves and Wanda Jackson sit next to those of Mitchell Torok, Ned Miller and Skeets McDonald in the contents page of this collection that ultimately gives the reader a detailed idea of what the recording and publishing industries were like in the fifties and early sixties.

Factually, Escott unearths information of lives lived that was buried for years, and this read is a reminder that this transplanted Brit really is one of the finest wordsmiths in the world of music journalism. Now I have to go find Escott’s Good Rockin’ Tonight: The Sun Records Story.

As we all know, there are precious few six-night gigs left for musicians in this part of, or any part of, North America.

There are a couple of taverns in this province that still give bands a home, a week at a time, and one that gives the nod to country groups in Edmonton is the New West Hotel on 111 Avenue and 150 Street.

The structure looks like it should be set on a main street in a small prairie town, but it has been a home to country music for a few decades and thankfully remains so.

Joyce Smith still plays the room once in a while and for the week of May 21st to 26th a cool combo that goes by the name The Herbs will be holding court at the funky yet inviting room that is a passport to walking into 1963.
 
The Herbs are the kind of group that Allison Brock of Wide Cut Country would be touting if she lived in Edmonton. Classic country tunes abound and many of them “revamped” and given a little kick by this crew of five instrumentalists and singers.

As a recent press release stated, The Herbs “blindly go where others fear to tread, playing Funky, Rockin', Jazzy, Country Soul music.”

Current membership in the band finds Charlie DeShane and Rene Boisvert on guitars, Bobby Rosa on bass, Jimmy Dragatis on drums and Smokey Fennell on pedal steel and banjo. Past members include pianist Gary Bowman, and Stu Mitchell who now resides on the East Coast.

As Fennell says, “we also cover alt. country material from the seventies, meaning stuff like the New Riders and Commander Cody. It’s very much a roots breed of Americana country music.”

Past line-ups of The Herbs have delivered and I certainly think this unit will give patrons more than a bang for their buck, although on second thought, there is no cover charge at the New West so it’s impossible to lose on this one.

Fennell is one of those ex-pat Americans who came up here a number of years ago with a group called The Lonestar Cattle Company out of California. He decided to stay and our scene has benefitted from his talents ever since. The multi-instrumentalist also plays the country circuit with singer Krysta Scoggins and he has been working with Danny Hooper for 12 years.

“I’ve finally got my own project in the recording stages and it’s a collection of rock and pop tunes arranged in bluegrass settings. The material covers everything from The Doors' 'People Are Strange' to Michael Jackson’s 'Billie Jean'. We’re calling it the Same Old Newgrass Band,” says Fennell who will be on stage with The Herbs Monday thru Thursday from 8:30pm to 11:30pm.

Friday and Saturday the music flows at the New West from 9pm until 1:30am.

I wish Allison could catch these guys, I’m sure she’d love ‘em.