Swiss Air
Clark Terry
At The Montreux Jazz Festival
With the International Festival Big Band
Arrangements by Ernie Wilkins
Produced by Helen Keane
Recorded June 22, 1969, at the Casino De Montreux, Switzerland
Sound Engineer: Pierre Grandjean of Technical Department Radio Suisse Romande
Editing and remix at Les Paul's Studio in Mahwah, New Jersey
Engineer: Bob Schwarz
Festival Announcer: Geo. Voumard
Cover Photo: Frits Van Swoll (Left) Clark Terry, (Right) Ernie Wilkins
Liner Photos: Frits Van Swoll & Jean Waldis
Polydor 24-5002
From the back cover: In June, 1968, I was president of the jury of the Montreux Jazz Festival, which differs from the majority of such events in that it is a contest, and its primary emphasis is on European jazz musicians. Groups from all over England and the Continent compete for its prizes.
One of the two vice-presidents of that jury was Robert Share, administrator of the Berklee School Of Music. Bob was profoundly impressed (as were we all) by the caliber of today's young European jazz players and he suggested that the next year, a fine big band could be assembled from among the competing musicians, under the direction of a top American jazzman. It was obvious that selection of a leader would be critically important. And the selection fell by a process that now seems inevitable, to Clark Terry.
Clark is not only a great musician. He is also a great and patient teacher who has conducted clinics in schools all over the United States. and it is the measure of his unending curiosity and hunger to grow that, long after he had become a famous and successful musician, he took Berklee's correspondence course. "Bob Share marked my papers personally," he remarked with a grin recently. If anybody could put together a band of young musicians, from 12 countries, and speaking different languages, Clark Terry and Ernie Wilkins, chief arranger for Clark's own big band at home, and one of the great arrangers jazz has produced.
By the time the 1969 festival came around, there was a growing feeling of excitement and anticipation about the project. Helen Keane had arrived to produce the album for Poled and when the musicians who had been chosen to make up the festival band assembled in the small theater just off the lobby of the Montreux Casino, Clark put them at their ease immediately. By the final night of the festival, they almost literally worshipped him.
The band rehearsed three hours a day for 3 days. All the musicians had to worry about their own small combos, which were competing in the evenings. Yet they gave unstintingly to this larger, international project. The rehearsals became so popular that the theater was filled each day with people, fascinated by watching this band grow.
On the final night of the festival, the band was presented. It was, as you can hear from presented. It was, as you can hear from the rhythmic applause of the audience, a smash. (Rhythmic applause in America signifies impatience; in Europe it means supreme approval.)
It used to be said that you couldn't find a good rhythm section in Europe. This is no longer true as you'll hear here. This rhythm section consists of guitarist Louis Stewart, from Ireland (who won the festival award, including a scholarship to Berklee, as the festival's best soloist); Steve Boston, conga, and Dave Pike, vibraharp, two Americans who now live in Europe; pianist George Vukan, of Hungary; and drummer Franco Manzecchi, of France. There are two bassists, Benoit Charvet, from France and Hugo Rasmussen, from Denmark. They play on different tracks.
Ernie Wilkins arranged all the compositions. He is the composer of Broadway Joe and Swiss Air. There are two standards in this album: Duke Ellington's All Too Soon and Hoagy Carmichael's Stardust. Clark Terry wrote Mumbling In The Alps and Levee Camp Blues. The odd sound you hear at the opening of the last-named is Clark, playing the pocket trumpet and then only on the mouthpiece of his horn. On Swiss Air, you'll hear him doing a trick, if you want to call this feat of virtuosity by so frivolous a word, for which he has become famous. With a fluegelhorn in one hand, a Harmon muted trumpet in the other, he alternates solos with himself!
There is one number that requires special comment – Stardust. During Clark's fluegelhorn solo, there was a power failure in the basement of the Montreux Casino, and the four-track machine on which the album was being recored went out. while Pierre Grandjean, the young engineer who was doing the recording, was trying to straighten out the problem, another engineer was making a two-track tape for Swiss radio. So beautiful was Clark's solo in Stardust that everyone felt it would be a crime to omit it. And so the Swiss radio take is used here, which is the reason the sound quality isn't up to the level of the rest of the album. That quality, incidentally, is at a quite exceptional level for a "live" performance.
What is there to say about Clark as a player?
He is a great jazzman, yes. He is also an extraordinary trumpet player, which is not quite the same thing. It often occurs to me that American jazz-trained, are the greatest brass players in history. And in all the history of jazz (most of which we have on records), I have never heard anyone who played with the fluency and control Clark has. By this line or reasoning, I feel that Clark must be – must be – the greatest trumpet player who has ever walked this earth.
The atmosphere at the 1969 Montreux Jazz Festival was one of pure joy. Much of that came from the soul and the horn of Clark Terry – Gene Lees.
Swiss Air
Vibraharp - Dave Pike, Germany
Guitar - Louis Stewart, Ireland
Trumpet - Richar Roiusselet, Belgium
Tenor Saxphone - Ernie Wilkins
Trombones - 1st Solo – Raymond Droz, Switzerland; 2nd Solo – Zdenek Pulec, Czechoslovakia
Muted Trumpet & Flugelhorn- Clark Terry
Drums - Franco Manzecchi, France
All Too Soon
Tenor Saxophone - Ernie Wilkins
Mumbling In The Alps
Vocal - Clark Terry
Tenor Saxophone - Ernie Wilkins
Stardust
Fluegelhorn - Clark Terry
Broadway Joe
Trumpet with plunger - Clark Terry
Piano - George Vulkan, Hungary
Tenor Saxophone - Bruno Spoerri, Switzerland
Trombone - Zdenek Pulec – Czechoslovakia
Alto Saxophone - Eero Koivistoinen, Finland
Trombone - Frode Thingnes, Norway
Alto Saxophone - Erik Andersen, Norway
Trumpets - (1) Richard Rousselet, Belgium; (2) Rudolf Tomisits, Hungary; (3) Fanja Jenc, Yugoslavia; (4) Hans Kennel, Switzerland
Levee Camp Blues
Pocket Trumpet and Plunger, Trumpet Mouthpiece - Clark Terry (voice)
