Clark Terry: Color Changes (1960) Candid

Gallery

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Selection: Nahstye Blues (Terry)

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Artists

Clark Terry, trumpet, flugelhorn; Jimmy Knepper, trombone; Julius Watkins, french horn; Seldon Powell, tenor saxophone, flute; Yusef Lateef, tenor saxophone, flute, oboe, eh; Tommy Flanagan, piano; Joe Benjamin, bass; Ed Shaughnessy, drums;  recorded Nola’s Penthouse Sound Studios, NYC, November 19, 1960

Music

Emerging in the Fifties from the Basie and Ellington big bands, trumpet/ flugelhorn player Clark Terry enjoyed a nearly seventy year musical career, though the lions share of that was in the musicians safe harbour of jazz education rather than front-line performance. He was still standing in his nineties when I last checked – one of the hazards of writing about musicians from the jazz age is you miss the obit’.

This is surprisingly my first Clark Terry album, another delight on the short-lived Candid label. The most attractive part of this recording is the  variety of stellar sidesmen – Lateef, Flanagan, and Knepper, not to miss Seldon Powell as alternate tenor, a new name to me. The quality of playing shines out from every track with a changing roster that ensures continued interest. I sat and enjoyed every track of both sides.

Scott Yanow  (Allmusic) offers  a more informed critical review

This is one of  Clark Terry’s finest albums. Terry had complete control over the music and, rather than have the usual jam session, he utilized an octet and arrangements by Yusef Lateef, Budd Johnson, and Al Cohn. The lineup (lists artists to pad review)  lives up to its potential, and the charts make good use of the sounds of these very individual stylists. The material, which consists of originals by Terry, Duke Jordan, Lateef, and Bob Wilber, is both rare and fresh, and the interpretations always swing. Highly recommended.

Good to know we arrive independently at the same conclusions.

Vinyl: Candid CJM 8009 US original 1960 deep groove mono

Candid are more commonly seen as lightweight 80’s German Phonoco reissues. In contrast, this is a rich-sounding genuine deep groove 1960 New York press, everything as it should be, in glorious mono.(though I am told the stereo is quite good too)

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Collector’s Corner

Source: Ebay

Sellers Description:

“CLARK TERRY QUARTET:COLOR CHANGES. CANDID 8009 MONO RELEASED 1960 DEEP GROOVE FIRST PRESSING. W/YUSEF LATEEF/JIMMY KNEPPER/TOMMY FLANAGAN, LOVELY LP. EX- COUPLE LIGHT SCUFFS PLAYS FINE/EX I DO NOT SELL TO ITALY THIS ITEM HAS BEEN RELISTED AS THE BUYER CANCELLED THE PURCHASE”

I was a bidder on the initial auction, but pushed out by two other bidders, so not even the price-setter. I licked my wounds, resigned in the opinion that the winning bid was at least double what it was worth (set by second bidder), but the market is never wrong – even when it is.

What was a surprise was to see it re-listed a few weeks later. The seller decided not to run with a second chance offer, or second chance bidder declined. So he decided a fresh auction would maximise his return. Bad call. I went back in with a reasonable bid on the relisting, only to discover the lack of competition second time around meant it came in at half my reasonable bid, and a third of the price the defaulting buyer won at first time around. There are days you almost feel sorry for sellers. Almost, not actually. The market is never wrong – even when it is – for once, in your favour

25 thoughts on “Clark Terry: Color Changes (1960) Candid”

  1. I wouldn’t mind betting that 2013 marked the last time I played this until pulling it from the shelves yesterday.

    What a fine sounding record it is and what a delight of fine detail and textures and colours. Cook and Morton (in there Penguin Guide to Jazz) note that it is “expertly recorded” and that the octet offer almost “infinite horn textures”. As ever, right on both counts. I enjoyed every moment of it.

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  4. Hello,

    I thought you and your readers might want to know that the much loved trumpeter and flugelhornist ,Clark Terry, is ailing and his health care expenses have increased significantly in recent times.

    There is an online donation site here http://clarkterry.com/#/donate/ where contributions can be made directly to assist Clark and his family in a time of need.

    With thanks,

    Ted Hodgetts

    JazzFirst Books

    http://www.jazzfirstbooks.com

    ted@jazzfirstbooks.com

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  5. Another exquisite selection by LJC. Color Changes, in my humble view, is BY FAR the greatest Clark Terry session ever, without even a nanosecond of subpar or uninspired playing on it. It is far preferable to anything Terry recorded earlier (Emarcy) or later (Columbia, Impulse). In fact, I yet have to meet a Candid release (in any genre) I do not like.

    Sadly, Clark Terry has been in awful condition health-wise lately and has been soliciting public donations to cover his health bills.

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  6. Aha – now this is a n original I *do* have — and a lovely record it is, too. I think mine is a contemporaneous stereo version (even a ‘glorious stereo’ version, I reckon). The flugelhorn — what you need when trumpets seem too shrill… I love ‘Brother Terry’ — it strikes me as incredibly Gil Evans-ish: economy of means nonetheless producing marvellous textures and ensemble playing. A delightful record with few weak spots.

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    • You have the stereo original Candid? I am consumed with jealousy. Candid are rare enough in any form – this is a grave injustice, vinyl inequalities.

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        • In all those years I never came across a stereo copy of Candid. The label was a very valid mix of the best jazz played on the East Coast.
          Dottore: When I was in L.A. in the late seventies, Leon was kind enough to come to my hotel to deliver a package with the records I had bought from his last sales list. There was no candid discussion, nothing at all: he handed over the parcel, and, without a word, off he was. I stood flabbergasted in the opening of my hotel room, but gone he was. Later on, business as usual!

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        • dottore: you throw in the name of Leon Leavitt as being a household name and known by the average LJC reader. I fear that over 90% of LJC does not have the faintest idea who Leon was and what his role was for outlandish collectors in Japan and Europe.

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          • For context on Leavitt, I came across this interesting anecdote on a Hoffman thread:

            Posted 28 November 2004 – 07:07 PM

            “In 1995 I was lucky enough, through the good graces of a West Coast intermediary, to be invited to visit Leon’s air-controlled mini-warehouse to see his collection. I had made occasional purchases from him in the past, but I was even then growing weary with the prices for quality used vinyl. (I also had a lot of “stuff”). I was not prepared in any way with what I encountered. I am not sure exactly how many LPs were in that specially built facility, but I would venture somewhere in excess of 75,000 LPs (almost all jazz) were neatly arranged on industrial-strength metal shelving. The filing system was pretty basic, mostly by artist’s name. I was overwhelmed, literally. (My friend told me a story of a Japanese visitor who had a heart seizure while wandering among Leon’s holdings, and had to be removed my ambulance .. he swore it was true.) I had several “test” records in mind that I wanted check to see the extent of his holdings. One of these was a very elusive copy of Hal McKusick’s “Cross-Section Saxes” (Decca 79209) … I looked for it, found it, and he had FOUR copies!! Another was Lars Gullin’s “Modern Sounds:Sweden” (Contemporary 2505 … a 10″) … he had 3 copies! ….. and so it went for everything I searched for. I stayed for about two hours, and left deflated. I was depressed (I could understand that heart siezure), because there was no way that I, or anyone else for that matter, could ever manage to even get close to that collection. As Jim and I settled in to our dinner drinks that evening, I expressed to him my feeling that somewhow, for me, much of the fun had been removed from the joy of “the search.” I now knew that whatever I ‘really’ wanted was available merely by contacting Leon, and paying a large enough price.”

            (ends)

            Leavitt’s activities largely predate the Internet and Ebay, and he performed a service to collectors it is difficult to imagine any other way. Any other stories on Leavitt welcomed.
            LJC

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            • LJC: interesting quote. I don’t know whether I would have survived a visit to his warehouse.
              I had a similar, but less shocking, experience when visiting the stockroom of Raffe Simonian near Chicago. Also many rare items in double or triple, stacked on steel structures. The general condition of the albums being below my standard, I could squeeze out without buying anything.

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          • ok Rudolf, our direct knowledge is strictly wound up with age. in the 70’s I used to receive Leon’s auction lists I still keep. they are treasures of rare records. Leon gave me HIS personal want list, maybe we’ll talk about it in the future, just to understand which records were, and are, really rare. this man had almost everything a collector could desire and I remember him telling me that Japanese and Italians were the people who “ruined” the market, being able to let the prices grow up, much higher than Americans.

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            • Let’s exchange notes, with Kees de Kat, on a number of these characters: Leon, Raffe, Barr, Setlik. Would be fun. For this purpose, my house in Savoia will be yours.
              I will have a look in my cellar whether I still have old stuff from Leon.

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              • Gentlemen, if you are able to scan or photo any of this fascinating (and coronary – inducing) material from these super-collectors I will gladly showcase it here with its own dedicated section.
                LJC

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                • as a matter of fact, I did find old correspondance with Leon et al. Leon gave me “kind and friendly advise” on the level of the bids, to make certain i would win.

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                  • Does anyone know how his collection was dispersed from his estate? I recall when the “best ever” copy of Mobley 1568 was sold on eBay from his estate (along with other records), and the story behind that, but I never found any story relating how his records were finally sold, and by who. A few years ago I saw one or two records for sale in a record shop that were marked (by the store) as being “from the estate of Leon Leavitt,” but no one could tell me how they (the store) knew, nor could remember who sold them (the store) those records in the first place.

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      • At ease, LJC. I’ve just checked and it’s quite clearly 8009, the mono. The front cover clearly states it to be 8009 but oddly the partly concealed back wrapper has ‘Stereo’ in big letters… But it is mono.

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  7. today’s Candid surprise.
    this mornin’, while listening to an odd compilation I did in the past, 6 cd’s comprising one song only, I ‘ve been locked by an interpretation I didn’t recognize.
    the song is All the things you are.
    checked the info and, surprise, Don Ellis.
    I was totally unaware of this interpretation, didn’t remember which record it came from but, above all, I thought to know this trumpeter well.
    some brief research and found this: in 1960-1961, Don Ellis recorded two sessions for Candid, one was published as How time passes, Candid CJM 8004, the other has laid unreleased until 1988.
    published as Out of nowhere, it comprised standards only, maybe the only Ellis record with no originals.
    found this review:
    Review by Scott Yanow
    This formerly unknown date was released for the first time on this 1988 CD; chances are that the short-lived Candid label died before the music could be put out. Don Ellis, one of the most original trumpeters to emerge in the early 1960’s, performs ten standards on a trio session with pianist Paul Bley and bassist Steve Swallow (who was making his recording debut) but the music is far from routine or predictable. Ellis takes an unaccompanied trumpet solo on “Just One Of Those Things,” “All The Things You Are” is a trumpet-bass duet and Ellis interacts with Bley on a moody “My Funny Valentine.” The players constantly take chances with time but there are few slipups or hesitant moments. A fascinating and long-lost session.

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