So What?

Happy 91st birthday to jazz legend Clark Terry, who not only is a trumpet virtuoso who taught a young Miles Davis, but played with both Basie and Ellington, introduced the fluegelhorn to jazz, appeared on over 900 recordings, and was decreed the greatest trumpeter on earth by no less than Dizzy Gillespie. Play on, Clark, play on.

“It’s taken me all my life to learn what not to play.” —Dizzy Gillespie

Happy birthday, Diz.

What do you know about Louis Armstrong? “What A Wonderful World,” yes. The bugged-out eyes, the wide grin. You may be aware that he played the trumpet, and was a major player in the early days of jazz. Make no mistake, Louis Armstrong was no novelty act, not just a shucker and jiver with a gravelly voice and a comic sensibility. Armstrong was an innovator, a tremendous trumpeter who was just as important (if not more so) than Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis. He’s been gone 40 years now, but his importance hasn’t waned. Happy 110th birthday, Satchmo.

Miles Davis would have been 85 today. Listen to “In A Silent Way.”