Clark Terry: Music in The Garden (Live at the Museum of Modern Art, 1968)

The title of this LP gets its name from the location of the concert, which took place in the garden of New York's Museum of Modern Art. Clark Terry put together a pickup group for this August 1968 performance, and with musicians of the caliber of Zoot Sims, Don Friedman, Larry Ridley, and Dave Bailey; things came together very nicely. Terry and Sims had, of course, worked together on a number of previous occasions, and most of the tunes were very familiar to everyone. The spirited opener, "Now's the Time," has some great unison playing by Terry and Sims. Many of the songs which follow are gems from the Duke Ellington playbook, again no surprise since Terry served with the maestro between 1951 and 1959. The extended workout of "Satin Doll" is a bit unusual, though the musicians never run short of ideas. Terry's vocal-like muted trumpet is the focus of "I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good)," while his effective gimmick of alternating between a muted trumpet in one hand and a flügelhorn in the other is the centerpiece of "In a Mellotone," backed by Ridley's tasty bassline. Terry's impromptu blues "One Two Blues, You Know What to Do" features his hilarious scat vocals, and they sign off with a quick chorus of "Take the 'A' Train."