LISTEN TO THE EPISODE
In April 1957, Clark Terry was thirty-six and still playing trumpet in Duke Ellington’s orchestra when he walked into a New York studio to moonlight as a leader. The quintet he assembled was ridiculous — Johnny Griffin on tenor, Wynton Kelly on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums. That rhythm section was the engine behind Miles Davis at exactly the same moment, and Griffin was tearing through the city with a ferocity that would soon make him a household name among jazz listeners.
In this episode of Deep in the Stacks, we listen to what happens when one of jazz’s most conversational trumpeters assembles a rhythm section borrowed from Miles and turns them loose on everything from bebop standards to his own sly originals — and why Serenade To A Bus Seat somehow slipped through the cracks during the hard bop explosion.
THE RECORD
Clark Terry Quintet
Serenade To A Bus Seat
Riverside RLP 12-237 · 1957
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Clark Terry
Clark Virgil Terry Jr. (1920–2015) came up through the St. Louis jazz scene and joined Charlie Barnet’s band in 1947 before spending nearly a decade with Duke Ellington’s orchestra (1951–1959). Terry’s sound was unmistakable — warm, witty, and conversational, with a flugelhorn tone that practically spoke in complete sentences. His key albums as leader include Serenade To A Bus Seat (1957), In Orbit (1958) with Thelonious Monk, and Color Changes (1960). He also appeared on some of the era’s landmark sessions, including Thelonious Monk’s Brilliant Corners and various Ellington recordings.
After leaving Ellington, Terry joined the NBC Tonight Show band in 1960 and became one of the first Black musicians on a network television staff orchestra. He stayed with the show for over a decade, becoming a beloved figure on national television while continuing to record prolifically. His “Mumbles” vocal routine — a joyful scat built from nonsense syllables — became a signature that delighted audiences for the rest of his career.
Terry continued performing and teaching into his nineties, mentoring generations of younger players and earning a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010. He died in 2015 at ninety-four — one of jazz’s most generous spirits and one of the few musicians equally at home in Ellington’s orchestra, Monk’s studio, and a late-night television band. Explore more episodes.
SESSION DETAILS
Recorded
April 1957
Studio
Reeves Sound Studios
New York, NY
Producer
Orrin Keepnews
Engineer
Jack Higgins
Personnel
Johnny Griffin — tenor saxophone
Wynton Kelly — piano
Paul Chambers — bass
“Philly” Joe Jones — drums
WHY THIS ALBUM MATTERS
Serenade to a Bus Seat matters because it captures Clark Terry between the Duke Ellington orchestra (where he played 1951-59) and his solo career as one of the most identifiable trumpet voices in jazz. The 1957 Riverside session has the relaxed feel of a Duke small-group date — Terry's tone is warm, conversational, full of the half-valve effects he later turned into the "Mumbles" scat style. Johnny Griffin's tenor adds urgency, Wynton Kelly's piano is at his pre-Miles best, and the Paul Chambers / Philly Joe Jones rhythm section was simultaneously the engine of the Miles Davis Sextet. The album is hard bop with the room temperature dialed down ten degrees, and it's stayed in print continuously for nearly seven decades.
Side 1
Side 2
Riverside RLP 12-237 · Original mono pressing
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