In a special invitation-only ceremony to be held during GRAMMY Week on Saturday, Jan. 30, 2010, and a formal acknowledgment during the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards telecast, which will be held at Staples Center in Los Angeles on Sunday, Jan. 31, 2010, and broadcast live at 8 p.m. ET/PT on the CBS Television Network, one of Jazz's most beloved citizens, Clark Terry will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from The Recording Academy .
“This year's honorees are a prestigious group of diverse and prominent creators who have contributed some of the most distinguished and influential recordings, “ said Recording Academy President/CEO Neil Portnow. “Their outstanding accomplishments and passion for their craft have created a timeless legacy that has positively affected multiple generations, and will continue to influence generations to come. It is an honor and privilege to recognize such talented individuals who have had and will continue to have such an influence in both our culture and the music industry."
The Lifetime Achievement Award honors lifelong artistic contributions to the recording medium. This award is determined by vote of The Recording Academy's National Board of Trustees. The other honorees this year are: Leonard Cohen, Bobby Darin, David “Honeyboy" Edwards, Michael Jackson, Loretta Lynn, and Andr Previn.
Considered to be one of the early pioneers to use a flugelhorn in jazz, Clark Terry's career in jazz spans more than sixty years. He is a world-class trumpeter, flugelhornist, educator, and NEA Jazz Master. He performed for seven U.S. Presidents, and was a Jazz Ambassador for State Department tours in the Middle East and Africa. He received two Grammy certificates, three Grammy nominations, thirteen honorary doctorates, keys to cities, lifetime achievements and halls of fame awards. He was knighted in Germany and is the recipient of the French Order of Arts and Letters. Clark's star on the Walk of Fame, and his Black World History Museum's life-sized wax figure can both be visited in his hometown, St. Louis, Missouri.
Clark composed more than two hundred jazz songs, and his books include Let's Talk Trumpet: From Legit to Jazz, Interpretation of the Jazz Language and Clark Terry's System of Circular Breathing for Woodwind and Brass Instruments.
He recorded with The London Symphony Orchestra, The Dutch Metropole Orchestra, The Duke Ellington Orchestra and The Chicago Jazz Orchestra, at least thirty high school and college ensembles, his own duos, trios, quartets, quintets, sextets, octets, and two big bands - Clark Terry's Big Bad Band and Clark Terry's Young Titans of Jazz. His career as both leader and sideman with more than three hundred recordings demonstrates that he is one of the luminaries in jazz.
Clark's discography reads like a “Who's Who In Jazz, “ with personnel that includes great jazz artists such as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Quincy Jones, Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Peterson, Dizzy Gillespie, Dinah Washington, Ben Webster, Charlie Barnet, Doc Severinsen, Ray Charles, Billy Strayhorn, Dexter Gordon, Thelonious Monk, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughn, Coleman Hawkins, Zoot Sims, Milt Jackson, Bob Brookmeyer, Jon Faddis, and Dianne Reeves.
In 1960, Clark helped break the color barrier at NBC, “The Urban League had inquired of NBC why they had so few black employees, only to be told that there were no black people qualified to play music on television. The League sent out questionnaires seeking musicians who could “play studio music, read music, play in a section, play first trumpet, solo, etc. My name happened to come up on all the questionnaires, “ related Terry.
Soon he became a fixture in the “Tonight Show" band, with which he was often featured in the “stump the band" segment, sometimes performing what had become somewhat of a trademark, his “Mumbles" act.
The Lifetime Achievement Award is just the beginning of a year full of celebrations for Clark Terry's 90th birthday on December 14, 2010. So stay tuned... “the best is yet to come" or as Clark says, “Keep on keepin' on."