MUSIC - "Sweet" Sue Terry is an alto and soprano saxophonist, songwriter and writer.
Sue grew up listening to Jazz from her father's jazz album collection. She later pursued the study of music while in High School, studying under pianist and educator John Mehegan. Her first big band music arrangement, for her high scool jazz ensemble, was written on a dare and a bet that she won with John Mehegan. The prize was an ice cream cone. Sue began her musical career performing at church functions and in musical theater at the age of 16.
Sue attended and graduated from the University of Hartford where she was a protégée' of the late great saxophonist Jackie McLean at the Hartt School of Music, and the first graduate of the jazz studies program he founded. She began playing jazz gigs while attending Hartt.
On the advice of Jackie McLean, Sue moved to New York City where she was a featured soloist with many bands. She performed with Charli Persip, Clifford Jordan, Walter Bishop, Jr and Jaki Byard. She also worked with music greats such as Dr. Billy Taylor, Clark Terry, Al Jarreau, Chaka Kahn, George Duke, Barry Harris and many other Jazz VIP's like Art Blakey, Camen McRae and Wynton Marsalis to name a few.
Sue has appeared as a Jazz soloist with the National Symphony at the Kennedy
Center, with the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall and with the Brooklyn
Philharmonic at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. She has performed at numerous
jazz festivals, at Montreux Jazz Festival, the Nice Jazz Festival, the Pori Jazz Festival, the Northsea Jazz Festival and the Blue Note in Tokyo
and many more.
Some questions Sue...
DCB: Probably a stupid question, but are you in any way related to
Clark Terry? Just to get that one out of the way. With the last name
of James, I know of a lot of James' but none are relatives to my
knowledge.
ST: Clark calls me "Sis." I call him "Brother Clark."!
DCB: I have been reading over a number of pages about you but there
are still some things I don't see written. Like when you first
started studying music? Was this before high school? If so, when and
what instrument did you first learn to play? Since the first teacher
mentioned was pianist John Mehegan, was the piano the first or one of
the wind instruments?
ST: I started playing accordion at age 5. We lived in Ohio at the
time. The music school said I was too young but my mother made them
take me. When we left Ohio four years later, the school said I was
the best student they ever had--according to my mother.
DCB: I read that you began doing Jazz gigs while at Hartt. Where
were you performing and who were you performing with at the time. Are
there any special performances during that time you remember. Did you
ever perform with Jackie McLean during this time?
ST: I played with a lot of the excellent local players like Paul
Brown, Norman Gage, Mattie Emirzian, Donny DePalma, Mike Duquette,
Larry DiNatalie and Eddie Jones (former bassist with Count Basie.) I
began playing with guitarist Saul Rubin, a classmate of mine at Hartt,
at this time, and we still work together. I played with the late
Thomas Chapin, another classmate and close friend. Tom Murray was
another classmate who is active in NY. Antoine Roney, Mark Berman,
Mark Templeton. There are so many, I can't mention everyone. Other
musicians I used to play with, who were not students but lived nearby--
Nat Reeves, Cindy Blackman, Wallace Roney. And yes, I played with
Jackie McLean many times while at Hartt.
DCB: I see that you have written several music related books and are
a noted educator. When did you decide to begin writing about music.
Did this come out of your decision to also teach it?
ST: I've been teaching since I was in high school, so my books have
been a logical extension of that. The books, and my videos that I'm
working on (see
YouTube) help me to help many more players and
students. I also enjoy teaching Master Classes, especially on the
college level. I'll be doing a clinic for the New York State Band
Directors Association in August in Albany, and that will
let my teaching concepts multiply exponentially, as the band directors
pass them on to their own students. This is how music takes over the
world!
Also, I am the U.S. Jazz Consultant for the Associated Board of the
Royal Schools of Music, the world leader in music assessments, based
in London. They have a terrific Jazz Program that I'm recommending to
students and teachers. A promotional DVD about it will be coming out
this year.
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