A legendary trumpeter who played with some of the great St. Louis big bands of
the 1940s and '50s, Clark Terry mentored a new generation of stars including
Miles Davis and Quincy Jones and was said by Dizzy Gillespie to make "the
happiest sound in jazz." Born into a poor family in Missouri, Terry was one of
11 children and couldn't afford trumpet lessons, so instead learned second-hand
from the local kids who could. He went on to play in the US Navy band during
WWII and gave up a promising career as a boxer to become a sideman in the Count
Basie Orchestra, also playing with Duke ...