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Clark Terry, In Orbit (Riverside)
The coincidence of trumpeter Clark Terry and producer Orrin Keepnews passing within a few days of one another brings to mind a timeless album on Keepnews’s Riverside label. Terry’s 1958 In Orbit featured a special sideman. He asked for Thelonious Monk on piano. For a reissue of the album the producer wrote that, to his surprise, “…Monk agreed without hesitation, did not ask for a heavy fee (I believe he was paid no more than twice the union-scale maximum) and turned in the most relaxed, happiest and funkiest Monk performances I have ever witnessed. One reason may have been that Clark made no special fuss over him–and included only one Monk tune on the album.” The result remains an essential item in both Terry’s and Monk’s discographies, and a feather in Keepnews’s cap.
May I second this recommendation that no one should miss.
The In Orbit LP (now CD ) certainly proves that Clark Terry and Thelonious Monk
were made for each other. God Bless them both. It was the first thing I wanted to listen
to when I read about CT going to hospice, and I think it stands up as both at their very best,
thoroughly enjoying each other and the incredible swinging support from Philly Joe Jones and Sam Jones. CT reportedly learned “Let’s Cool One” on the spot, with Monk simply demonstrating it a few times to show that it was perfect for Clark Terry. A session that can never grow old, which is true of almost all the Keepnews Riverside things.
Everything CT did was so timeless. Along with the Count Basie and Duke Ellington things, this is also a good time to listen to Billy Taylor’s Taylor Made Jazz, a session with Clark Terry and other Ellingtonians giving the royal treatment to some Ducal-sounding Billy Taylor originals.