Jazz trumpeter Clark Terry, whose seven-decade career as a leader of big bands and sideman spanned a golden era of 20th century jazz, has died at 94, his wife announced on Sunday.
"Our beloved Clark Terry has joined the big band in heaven where he'll be singing and playing with the angels," his wife Gwen said on his Facebook page.
"He left us peacefully, surrounded by his family, students and friends."
Terry, who was honored in 2010 with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, was best known to the broader US public as a soloist on the house band of NBC's "The Tonight Show."
Born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1920, he began playing in clubs in the early 1940s and then with US Navy bands during World War II.
Advertisement
Terry performed with Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington, Stan Getz, Thelonious Monk, Billy Strayhorn, Louis Armstrong, Yusef Lateef, Dizzy Gillespie and many others.
Advertisement
Variety said he led or co-led more than 80 recording dates and played on more than 900 sessions by the time of his last one in 2004.
Advertisement
Named a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts, he toured the Middle East and Africa as a cultural ambassador for the US State Department.
Advertisement
COMMENTS
Advertisement
Senegal's 'Human Treasure' Drummer Doudou Ndiaye Rose Dies Age 85 Legendary Jazz Musician Clark Terry Dies at 94 Toni Braxton to be part of Broadway musical Daughter, 26, Died Of Overwork At EY, No One Attended Funeral: Woman's Letter 9 Dead, 300 Injured As Walkie-Talkies Explode In Hezbollah Units In Lebanon Video Shows Explosion At Funeral Of Hezbollah Member Killed In Pager Blast Live Updates: Walkie-Talkie Explosions Kill 9, Injure Over 300 In Lebanon Pagers, Then Walkie Talkies: How Devices Were Weaponised Against Hezbollah Israel's Unit 8200 In Spotlight After Hezbollah Pager Attacks In Lebanon Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.