DC Bebop - Su Terry

MUSIC - Su Terry is an alto and soprano saxophonist,
vocalist, songwriter and writer

LINER NOTES - ARTICLES - REVIEWS - VIDEOS

Su 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.

She 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, She 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.

Su 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.

LINER NOTES:

‘Sweet’ Sue Terry and Friends LIVE at the DEER HEAD INN a Jazz Album

"I wanted the album to start with Little Sunflower. The way we played it that night represents so much of what I want to do in music, vis a vis listening to each other and improvising collectively, letting the tune morph where it may. Tony Marino’s creative and postmodern bass solo will surely become a textbook example of the art of Spontaneous Composition. " ~ vectordisc.com

ARTICLE:

Listening to a Conversation

Lessons in Jazz Improv with Tim Price and Sweet Sue Terry

"Tim Price and "Sweet" Sue Terry are familiar names within the saxophone community. Both are well known for their educational endeavors. Through the years, Tim has penned transcription books, reviewed countless CDs in various publications, had a long running association with The Saxophone Journal, and is an often-requested clinician, educator, teacher, with a wonderful set of lessons available right here on Sax On The Web. Sue has written four saxophone books including the most recent "Practice Like The Pros" and is an in-demand clinician and educator. But to limit their talents to solely educational pursuits and books would be short changing the indisputable fact that they are both monster players.

Special moments are bound to happen when two talented people like Tim Price and "Sweet" Sue Terry get together to make spontaneous music. A stream of consciousness-free form interplay of ideas that flow between idioms, and ideas like converging tides, are on display on The Blue.Seum Project. The interplay of these two musicians was recorded live at the Blue Mountain Gallery in New York." ~ Read article by Ed Svoboda - SaxOnTheWeb.net

'Sweet' Musician Sue Terry Shows Literate Side

"Having something to say on saxophones, clarinet and flute and saying it as expressively and concisely as possible has been the Wilton native's chosen profession since she graduated cum laude from The Hartt School in 1982. Since leaving Hartford in the early 1980s, the prolific protégé of jazz great Jackie McLean has expressed her thoughts with premier jazz artists around the world at top festivals, on more than 40 recordings and at famous venues ranging from New York's Carnegie Hall to the Hollywood Bowl.

But who, except for true Terry fans, friends and family, would have suspected that this articulate jazz player — a special favorite on the Hartford jazz scene since she was a wunderkind alto saxophonist dazzling the in-crowd at the legendary 880 Club — has always been an aspiring writer who's every bit as passionate about words and writing as she was, is and always will be about notes and making music.

But, as is now made plain for all the world to see beyond the ardent cult of readers of her blog, Terry has long been inspired by two Parkers." ~ Read article by OWEN McNALLY, Special to The Courant, The Hartford Courant

REVIEW

Su Terry: Gilly's Caper (2006)

"Saxophonist Su Terry's second self-released album is a soundtrack of sorts for the accompanying short story from which the date takes its title. The music, a tale of international intrigue, is similarly worldly. The opening "Terra Incognita (titled after a bar in the story) is a curious samba with Michael Rabinowitz's bassoon and T. Ice's percussion augmenting a first-rate New York quartet with guitarist Saul Rubin, bassist Leon Dorsey and drummer Vincent Ector. " ~ Read review by RUSS MUSTO on AllAboutJazz.com