Oscar Peterson

Watching Clark Terry "mumble" is guaranteed to put you in a good mood. This is his trademark variant of scatting which lets his sense of humor shine through:

Clark Terry is 90 now. He's been doing this for a long time:

Some showmanship aboard the S/S Norway. Love how he plays the flugelhorn upside-down and looks at it like he's trying to figure out what's wrong with it. (And he is a true genius on the flugelhorn — please do take a YouTube excursion through his other videos!)

Here's a great interview that explains the back story. He's got the interviewer in stiches:

That great interview was posted by National Visionary Leadership Project who's mission is to "Ensure that the wisdom of our country's extraordinary African American elders is preserved by and passed on to the young people who will lead us tomorrow." They have 1575 videos posted on their YouTube channel. Incredible work!

And finally, an interesting spinoff featuring master jazz vocalists Jon Hendricks and Gege Telesforo:

I bought some DVDs of live jazz concerts and TV performances, of the type that until recently was archival footage, seen only at the time and place of original transmission. In America such performances, say Miles Davis with Gil Evans at CBS in 1959, or Dave Brubeck's appearance on Ralph J. Gleason's Jazz Casual in 1961, might occasionally be glimpsed on some PBS documentary, but rarely would such things be released on VHS or (now) DVD. Maybe it was certain copyrights and such that kept films from being sold to the general public until now.

The appearance of these DVDs, plus postings on YouTube of rare footage makes me very excited; in fact I might not be able to overstate it. As I was growing up and getting into jazz in the '80s, right around the beginning of the CD era, the recordings that I loved were only twenty or thirty years old, but the images with them were precious few. I was always curious to see for myself what these performers were like when they worked: the way they carried themselves, how they interacted with their bands and with audiences. Subsequently having watched some of my favorite pianists on video: Brubeck, Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, Keith Jarrett (whom I can't watch anymore, quite frankly; looks too painful), I still haven't lost the thrill, the feeling of excitement and expectation at seeing them in action.Read more