CD Review: George Gershwin's Porgy & Bess- Clark Terry
with Jeff  Lindberg’s Chicago Jazz Orchestra

Label: Americana Music Group 2004

With the exception of Duke Ellington, no other American composer has used African American folk idioms as an integral thematic ingredient so successfully as George Gershwin.  Some of his most memorable extended works ( An American In Paris, Rhapsody In Blue, and Porgy And Bess ) reflect a skillful, loving grasp of America’s unique folk tradition, while some of his popular songs and show tunes have contributed significantly to the jazz canon as classic vehicles for improvisation. 

Though the individual tunes, among them Embraceable You, But Not For Me, Fascinating Rhythm, Oh Lady Be Good and many, many more continue to evolve as media upon which artists individually express themselves, the extended works tend to be performed as written. One notable exception was the 1958 Miles Davis/Gil Evans collaboration on Porgy And Bess that ultimately became the definitive jazz version of Gershwin’s creation. 

Individually, the great tunes from Porgy And Bess ( Summertime, It Ain’t Necessarily So,  I Loves You Porgy ) continue to evolve in the hands of jazz players everywhere, but the Davis/Evans work in its entirety has remained too perfect to mess with until now.  But if anyone should dare to take a shot at an orchestra- with- lead trumpet version of Gershwin’s opera, who better than Clark Terry?  After all this is not a competitive sport but an art form we’re talking about here. 

Terry, at 84 years old, has the musical maturity and taste to pay tribute to Gershwin and Miles Davis, while simultaneously adding significant portions of Clark Terry to the process.  Terry’s version then, on trumpet and flugelhorn, is not a better or a worse version but simply another version.  What Terry brings to the score is some sixty years of experience, from a lifetime in music that includes a spot in the bands of both Basie and Duke Ellington, a long hitch in the NBC Orchestra, and the privilege of having been a witness to all the major evolutions of jazz since the early forties. 

Terry, who was an influence on the young Miles Davis in his formative years, is in maturity nearly a polar opposite of the Prince of Darkness, possessed of a sunny disposition, a sense of humor that comes through the horn, and a brightness of tone that Davis abandoned long ago upon finding his own musical voice.  Terry’s attitude and depth of experience comes through in both the blues material and the ballads on Porgy and Bess, making for a rewarding listening experience all around.

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