"Sweet" Sue Terry: REVIEWS

"Performing at the Kennedy Center's Theater Lab on Monday night, saxophonist Sue Terry meshed so gracefully with the Billy Taylor Trio that she seemed like a seasoned member of the band instead of a guest artist with only a brief rehearsal under her belt.
During a concert taped for NPR's "Billy Taylor's Jazz at the Kennedy Center," Terry displayed well-honed gifts for playing both alto and soprano in a variety of familiar but attractive settings. Her performances on alto, initially distinguished by a cool tone and fluid phrasing, quickly recharged the bop standards "Hot House" and "Star Eyes." She used the same horn to elegantly recast "All The Things You Are" in 3/4 time, to swing effortlessly through Frank Foster's "Shiny Stockings," and to underscore the bluesy swagger that was key to her interpretation of Horace Silver's "Sister Sadie."

When she picked up the soprano on "Lullaby of the Leaves," it quickly became clear that she was drawn to a soulful, rather than strident, sound on the temperamental horn.

Since the arrangements allowed plenty of solo space for Taylor and his trio mates -- bassist Chip Jackson and drummer Winard Harper -- Terry's contributions gave way to crisply executed and colorfully designed improvisations."

Versatile Sue Terry Promises Sweet Night Of Jazz

"Sweet" Sue Terry, the noted, New York-based saxophonist, singer, composer, lyricist and band leader with deep ties to Hartford, returns to her old stomping grounds with her quintet Friday night at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art.

Presented by the Hartford Jazz Society, the 1981 Hartt School graduate and protégé of Hartford jazz great Jackie McLean is making her first appearance in the capital city as a band leader in seven years. As a young player, she honed her skills by jamming regularly in clubs on the heated Hartford jazz scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s.

As the next installment of the society's prestigious "Jazz at the Atheneum" series, Terry leads her working band featuring guitarist Saul Rubin, bassist Leon Lee Dorsey, drummer Vincent Ector and percussionist T. Ice.

Terry, a Wilton native, has been enjoying a solid year, thanks especially to the release of her two new albums, "Gilly's Caper" and "The Blue.Seum Project. "

The two radically different yet equally distinguished releases add to her discography of more than 30 albums as leader, co-leader and side player. Her playing and writing have been featured on recordings by Charli Persip, Bobby Sanabria, Jaki Byard, Fred Ho and Diva, an all-woman jazz band. The nickname Sweet Sue was bestowed upon her by her famous mentors, McLean, Barry Harris, Clifford Jordan and Junior Cook.

Terry's two latest discs are excellent showcases for her all-embracing taste. Her ecumenical range makes her much at home with jazz, classical and the multiple types of ethnic music she has been playing regularly for two decades in New York City.

"Gilly's Caper," which features the same quintet she's bringing to Hartford, was the product of six months' labor, a meticulously planned, polished project. The bright solos on "Gilly's Caper" are, of course, improvised. But everything else - including even the CD's offbeat, highly original liner notes - was carefully planned, yet retains a crisp sense of freshness, immediacy and instant accessibility.

In dramatic contrast, "The Blue.Seum Project" is a spontaneous work laced with pure, on-the-spot, risk-taking adventures in improvisation. Terry and fellow multi-instrumentalist Tim Price play an array of woodwinds before an audience in an intimate art-gallery setting in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood.

For "Gilly's Caper," Terry, who's a lyricist and a witty, amusing blogger on her website (www.sueterry.net), wrote the liner notes as a short adventure story - a kind of film noir mini-script - about a heroic character named Gilly ("loosely based" on her husband, writer/philosopher Gilbert Barretto.)

Phrases such as "Terra Incognita," "Toothless Soothsayer" and "Seal of Solomon" pop up in the story line and later show up on the CD as its song titles.

With cinematic impact, the 10 pieces - all written and arranged by Terry - sweep across a wide variety of moods from the magical, mystery tour of "Waterwheel" to the celebratory title tune, "Gilly's Caper," an up-tempo caprice.

Besides Terry's solid playing on alto and soprano saxophones, she sings on a couple of tracks in a silken, breathy voice, to especially good effect on her own composition, "The Feel of the Blues."

Stylistically, the CD's repertoire ranges over rhythmic pieces, hybrid mixes that Terry describes as "world jazz," mainstream ventures and even a contemporary jazz selection. For all their variety, the pieces flow coherently and collectively into a natural sounding suite form.

Terry explains that she composed the music for "Gilly's Caper" as "a soundtrack" for the waggish tale she wrote about her Dashiell Hammett-like anti-hero, Gilly, and his last dangerous mission. Gilly's caper comes complete with a pulp fiction femme fatale, a snub-nosed .38, a gun-running Toothless Soothsayer, a Maltese Falcon-like Seal of Solomon and a late night den of iniquity called Terra Incognita.

"I'm a big fan of people really listening to music and kind of seeing pictures in their mind and having the music take them somewhere," Terry says by phone from her apartment in Brooklyn.

"So I try to compose and play in a way that will suggest images and ideas to a listener because I think that's what music does. Music takes you somewhere because it's an art form that unfolds in time," she says.

While Terry thrives on the discipline of composing and arranging and has mastered a worldwide range of styles - everything from Caribbean to African rhythms and harmonies - she also loves the challenge of playing completely free. That means starting with no set chord changes - utterly without even the familiar "I Got Rhythm" and blues changes - and without modal scales or anything whatsoever to hang your hat on harmonically, melodically or rhythmically.

Totally free improvisers create on the razor's edge, a hazardous, even frequently lethal starting point. Open-ended freedom is, at best, a dicey venture that only true masters of their instruments, like Terry, can transform into an art form.

Terry and Price, her collaborator on "Blue.Seum," are old friends who had been talking for years about recording a totally free-form collaboration. Kindred spirits aesthetically and with a common musical background, each started out under the tutelage of a master jazz saxophonist. Price, who came up in Philadelphia, began with the great Charlie Mariano. Terry, while at Hartt, studied with McLean, who was not only a master saxophonist/composer but also an influential, empathetic jazz educator.

Terry, who was named Hartt School's Alumna of the Year in 2001, was the first graduate of the jazz studies program that McLean founded at Hartt. Today the program is known as the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz.

Price and Terry, both of whom are from white, middle-class backgrounds, also share a similar multicultural experience, since, from their teens, they have worked extensively with racially diverse bands. And both share a heightened awareness of and passion for ethnic music from around the world, knowledge they've honed by playing prolifically in bands of every ethnic style.

As a wunderkind alto player, Terry quickly became a featured regular on the bustling music circuit in Haiti, a country she loves and where she has performed innumerable times.

Jamming in Haiti, while absorbing its music and culture, was merely a first step in Terry's worldwide travels and absorption of virtually everything she saw and heard. Her globetrotting experiences have not only broadened her open-ended view of music, but also, in a deep, philosophical sense, taught her much about how people of different colors, diverse beliefs and cultural backgrounds relate to one another.

Her career has taken her from appearances at leading jazz clubs and festivals from Tokyo and London to Berlin and Bern, and to plum stateside gigs at such prestigious venues as the Kennedy Center in Washington and Lincoln Center in New York City.

Besides making music, Terry loves to write lyrics and short stories; has written popular instructional, "how to play" manuals; and has a lifelong fascination with art, including drawing, printmaking and mixed-media works. Like her late, good friend and fellow Connecticut native, Thomas Chapin, the brilliant, cutting-edge saxophonist/composer from Manchester, Terry has long been interested in the creative process, not just for musicians but also for painters and writers as well.

All of which puts her very much in tune with her dual alliance with Price on their free-form woodwind ventures on "Blue.Seum"

Graced with a tight, empathetic sense of interplay and inspired by the New York art gallery's creative ambience, the album's 10 "spontaneous compositions" light up with shifting tonal colors, kaleidoscopic moods and flowing lines and shapes drenched in blues and the abstract truth.

Before each number, whether it's an extemporaneous homage to Igor Stravinsky or blues-drenched, free-form expressionism, neither musician knows beforehand which instrument he or she will even start with. Price comes armed with tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, B-flat clarinet, stone flute and bassoon. Terry's arsenal includes alto saxophone, B-flat clarinet, flute, ceramic flute, harmonica and an exotic sounding, odd-looking bean-pod percussion instrument she picked up in Port Au Prince.

"We start in the silence and see where the moment leads us," Terry says. "Each moment engenders the next moment. You feel freedom to create not limited by a given song structure that you have to adhere to."

Tickets for the concert: $30 in advance, $35 at the door; $25 in advance for society members, $30 at the door. Students: $5. Obtain tickets at the society office, 116 Cottage Grove Road, Bloomfield, or call 860-242-6688. A cash bar runs the night of the concert from 6 to 10 in the museum's Aetna Theater lobby, where there will be seating at tables.

Copyright 2006, Hartford Courant

Jazz at Lincoln Center’s July “Latin In Manhattan” mini-festival opened up with a weeklong tribute to Tito Puente by the Hilton Ruiz Latin Jazz Ensemble featuring conguero Chembo Corniel, bassist Leon Dorsey, drummer Sylvia Cuenca and the distinctive horn section of trumpeter Lew Soloff, altoist “Sweet” Sue Terry and tenor saxophonist/flutist Lew Tabackin. The group began the week’s final set on Sunday, July 17th with the powerfully melodic “New Arrival”, a composition by the leader dating back to his ‘70s debut album. The horns wailed over the smoking rhythm section, soloing with inspired abandon, with Terry in particular impressing her veteran colleagues. Ruiz’ solo was a model of measured construction, beginning tranquilly and gradually building in intensity until the pianist’s incredible virtuosity had the audience screaming in amazement before the horns returned to the melody to introduce a Chembo conga solo that ended the piece. Terry was featured on a bluesy original that began with her recitation “Red Haired Kid” and included a lengthy acappella passage showcasing her formidable technique. Tabackin stepped into the spotlight for an impassioned reading of “You Don’t Know What Love Is”, strutting from one end of the stage to the other, from playing for the bar to finishing at Ruiz’ side near the piano. The set concluded with the full ensemble returning for the soulful Ruiz original, “Sweet Cherry Pie”.

"I don't believe there is anyone playing better alto saxophone today than Sue Terry."
--radio announcer & author Bob Bernotas

"Sue Terry is a forward voice in modern music. . .She has been universally recognized among her musician peers for decades as one of the most articulate players of the alto saxophone."
Tim Price, Saxophone Journal

“She plays like Charlie Parker reincarnated! She smokes!”
Jazz Central Station

“Terry is one of the very few female horn players to achieve acceptance on the tough New York hard bop scene in the '80s.”
Russ Musto, All About Jazz--New York

”This incredible artist wails out her soul to any and all who would hear -- as in, you know, really listen. This is playing where the music breathes as alive with breath as any vocalist can give you, even the best of them.”
Michael Redmond (former award-winning critic for Newhouse News Service)

“. . . Sue Terry was the crowd pleaser with a fiery expressiveness that got the crowd cheering and urging her on. Her style had some of the angular inventiveness of Wayne Shorter, undercut by a bluesy edge that kept things down to earth.”
Michael Hotter, Greenville Press

“. . . has a pure, burnished sound on each instrument . . .Technically, nothing seems beyond her reach, and her improvisations are consistently sharp and persuasive. . .”
Jack Bowers, All About Jazz

“Sue Terry’s ‘The Troubadours,’ a polyrhythmic feast for the ears, is the most ambitious and impressive tune of the set.”
David R. Adler, All Music Guide

“Terry performed in the contemporary, progressive role that the new woman in jazz is demanding.”
Amsterdam News, New York

“Sue Terry’s work on the Billie Holiday medley ‘Strange Crazy Heartache’ suggests that she has a formidable musical intelligence; her solo statement catches something of Lady’s voice.”
Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD

“Sue Terry possesses a truly individual voice . . . she is especially compelling.”
Cadence Magazine

“Sue Terry . . . Superwoman of Jazz”
Hartford Courant

“The roaring Charli Persip Superband . . . closed the weekend with highlight after highlight, including the debut of superb alto saxophonist Sue Terry’s suite on Billie Holiday tunes.”
Len Dobbin, Montreal Gazette

“The most eloquent and elegant solo of the double-header, though, was played by Sue Terry. . .her chorus on a Jordan composition filled the park with a remarkably big, billowing, bitter-sweet tone poem that was the emotional high point of the night.”
Owen McNally, Hartford Courant

“Sue Terry, who crafted the stunning arrangement, offers a statement on alto that reaches into one’s soul.”
W. Royal Stokes, JazzTimes

“I’m presenting some very talented young musicians who in my estimation are budding superstars, especially Sue.”
Charli Persip in JazzTimes

“. . .nor can too much be said about the youngish and loving way in which Sweet Sue Terry saluted Charlie Parker, playing with the passion that sent some of the band’s reed players back to the shed when they realized they would have to work next to someone so intent on firing from the heart every chance she got.”
Stanley Crouch

“Sue nailed it!”
Paquito D’Rivera

“She’s been compared to the great alto players like Charlie Parker and Phil Woods. . .Sue Terry exemplifies excellence with a commanding sense of swing and a burnished tone.”
National Public Radio

"All my life, my background has been Classical music which I love. 'Sweet' Sue Terry's musical performance has opened a whole new world to me. Her high standard, her virtuosity, imagination and sensitivity have me ask for more. Thank you!"

Reviewer: Bob Bernotas, "Just Jazz," WNTI-FM & www.wnti.org

"A CD should have a purpose. It should tell a story, reveal something about the artist, or unveil some deeper, hidden truth. Gilly's Caper does all of these, and does them in the most entertaining and engaging way. I don't believe there is anyone playing better alto saxophone today than Sue Terry."

An Instant Classic
Reviewer: John Leporati

" 'Sweet' Sue Terry is that rarest of jazz performers: an artist whose technical accomplishment is so ingrained that it becomes the white canvas upon which she paints vivid and varied works. And what a gallery! In her latest, "Gilly's Caper," Terry's sax work is at its best. From the rapid, intricate chord changes of "Terra Incognita" and "Toothless Soothsayer," to the sultry exotically haunting "Desert Moon," the arrangements are challenging without being distancing, making it an album you'll want to play again and again. Terry's vocal turns on "New Year" and "The Feel of the Blues," invite comparisons to Astrud Gilberto, yet are edged with an even subtler emotional complexity. Few can keep up with the range and power of Terry's sax (consider the title track in this regard) but she has chosen her fellow musicians well. An incredible selection of players rounds out this instant classic. All in all, the jazz album of the year."

Hot, Haunting, Sultry and Cool!
Reviewer: J. H. Hannen

This amazing sax virtuoso hits her stride in this showcase of styles. Evocative vocals and sax solos that pay tribute to past masters and assure "Sweet Sue Terry" a special place among their ranks. The material and choice of collaborators is perfect! "Gilly's Caper" will be on my CD carousel for a long time to come and will be played long into the coolest and hottest nights.

Outrageously Enjoyable!
Reviewer: DAL, NYC

Wow, there's such a high level of finesse and thoughtfulness and energy to Sue Terry's music, and everything she does, that's it's really hard to know where to begin praising her... First off, according to Sue's website, she spent about 6 months or more in post-production -- mixing, editing, and mastering this CD -- and that effort paid off big-time! Sonically, this is perfection, surpassed only by hearing Sue live. Musically, Sue and bandmates acheive the highest order; creating more than a collection of great tunes, or hip musical passages, but a complete and yes, I have to say it, "magical" journey. If it is the goal of music to entertain and enrich and enlighten then, in the words of the great Jazz composer and musician Paquito D'Rivera, "Sue nailed it!" Equal applause for Sue's bandmates: Michael Rabinowitz, bassoon; Saul Rubin, guitar; Leon Lee Dorsey, bass; Vincent Ector, drums; T. Ice, percussion. ;-)

"It is a rare and exciting pleasure to stumble across music that is as fresh and as well-realized as this. Sue Terry has new and interesting things to say, and a warm eloquence. This is music that’s alive and inspired, as much by the emotions as by the intellect; music that springs from the heart, brought to glorious fruition by Sue Terry’s gorgeous tone and polished improvisational technique." --Anthony George, Tokyo, Japan

"I've always been blown away by Sue's sax playing. Her sound just lifts me into the air and rocks me. Now after listening to this cd, I am equally moved by her compositional ability. I just love it! These pieces are original, spirited, moving, and just thoroughly enjoyable in every way. Sue Terry is a monster of the jazz saxophone and a treasure in the world of music."

--MARGOT LEVERETT, clarinetist & bandleader

Sue Terry's music is a unique blend of clear, elegant, lyrical feminity; delivered with the one-two punch of a heavyweight prize fighter.

--KEN BICHEL, pianist & composer

"Listening to Sue Terry's sounds, one has to stop and beginning to guess: who is this player?
I've been at gigs and in concerts given by this talented, original and creative sax player and always leave the places singing her last tune with a rose in my heart! Her new CD Gilly's Caper is one of the finest works I have lately heard.”

THIAGO DE MELLO, composer & bandleader

"This is my first time experiencing a Sue Terry recording (shame on me!), so I didn't know what to expect. I decided to listen to this in my car without looking at the liner notes first (I believe you listen more carefully when you're not looking at the CD case itself like we all tend to do), so I just dove right in.

A old fashioned blowing record, smooth jazz, fusion, modern jazz?

Well, the answer is none of the above.

What it is: an extremely well thought-out, composed, arranged, performed, and recorded collection of tunes that have an underlying theme.
A jazz "Sgt. Peppers" if you will.

The very unusual front line of alto and bassoon (without the liner notes it took me a minute to even figure out what that was!) are complimented by some fine guitar work, as well as a solid rhythm section aided by various percussion instruments in all the right places. The lack of a keyboard player also adds to the exotic sound, and I don't "miss" it at all.

I really enjoyed this both for the fact that it's different, and because it's so well done. I'm going to have to get some more "Sweet Sue" records real soon.

It sounds like this band is well rehearsed, and I was very surprised to see in the liner notes (when I finally looked at them) that it was recorded in only two days! Amazing. . ."

--BILL HOLLOMAN, saxophonist & arranger

ABOUT PINK SLIMY WORM/Compositions and Improvisations for Solo Saxophone
Sweet Sue Terry/ 2003 Qi Note Records 8726

"Listen, if you're ready for 63 minutes of solo saxophone, you're not going to find any CD better than this. Sue Terry does everything with the solo sax (alto and soprano) that can be done, and then some. This incredible artist wails out her soul to any and all who would hear -- as in, you know, really listen. This is playing where the music breathes as alive with breath as any vocalist can give you, even the best of them. And you get the privilege of writing the lyrics for yourself.
OK, so Sue Terry is one of the best sax players on earth. What's likewise drop-dead impressive is that Terry is the composer of all this music, so rich and wild, yet built like a truck, and just as formidable. You could call this CD the prelude and fugue of sax.
Dues paid. Send in the agents."

(Michael Redmond is a former award winning reviewer for the Star- Ledger and Newhouse News Service)

"This is a very engrossing CD. I play it over and over in my basement while editing poetry manuscripts for Exit 13 magazine. It doesn't make the bad poems better, but it sure adds dimension when the poems are good. I certainly want to hear more from Sweet Sue. Thank you."

"A remarkable and important musical achievement."

"The solo saxophone recital has seldom been the medium of choice for mainstream players, but then again Sue Terry has never been your typical jazz saxophonist. A protege of Jackie McLean who was subsequently mentored by the late great tenor sax giants Clifford Jordan and Junior Cook and living legend Barry Harris, Terry is one of the very few female horn players to achieve acceptance on the tough New York hard bop scene in the '80s. Sweet Sue, as she's been dubbed by her mentors, does bring a certain special sensibility to her instrument, but is more attributable to her philosophy of life than her gender. A practitioner of the ancient arts of Qigong and Taiji Quan, Terry's adherence to the Taoist principles of life so permeates her holistic approach to creating music that her solo performances can be heard more as duets between her horn and the sounds of silence.
Pink Slimy Worm (the title comes from a famous classical composer's derogatory description of the saxophone) combines composed and improvised pieces for alto and soprano that manage to be musical in a variety of ways, at times recalling the solo works of Lee Konitz, Oliver Lake, Bobby Watson and Paul Horn. Terry's tone, personal and classic at the same time, is at the heart of the date's attractiveness; her broad sound can be both smooth and sweet or dark and gritty and she fluidly modulates her tonality, often in call and response patterns, to avoid monotony. Drawing from a wealth of experience--jazz, classical, new age, avant garde, rhythm and blues, Eastern, Afro-Cuban and new music--the date's fifteen tracks, variably programmatic and impressionistic, come together as a thoroughly honest vision of the world she lives in--one in which music exists as a powerful healing force, from the ancient to the future."

"Pink Slimy Worm is amazing music. Personal. Powerful. Human. Heartfelt. Real."

PEER REVIEW GALLERY
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"When the saxophone was invented, many scoffed at the instrument. Little did they know that one day Sue Terry would grace the instrument with her consummate musicianship and finest tone this author has ever heard emanate from a saxophone. I have heard her many times. Her approach is truly innovative."
--pianist Wayne V. Smith

"It's extremely difficult to hold a listener captive as the only player on an entire CD. Sue did that for me."
--trumpeter Joe Mosello

"I listened to Pink Slimy Worm on the way home last night--it is great! You rock! And I laughed out loud at the redheaded kid story--that was so hilarious and so perfect! Perfectly written, and perfect delivery. Gonna give Pink Slimy to my husband to listen to now."
--Erin Hill, Gridley Records

"I listenend to your CD last night. . .it was fantastic! Very coherent and thoughtful. It reminded me of Charlie Haden--who is one of my favorites. I'm thinking of the way his solo work--and yours--is so tonal and melodic and very grounded and compelling. No wasted notes--every note is thought through and careful."
--pianist Mikael Elsila

"Your playing is great, and the compositions are intriguing and very enjoyable. I'm also very impressed by an entire CD of solo horn playing. Only someone whose musical resources flow as deep as yours could carry that off!"
--trombonist Erick Storckman

"Your sax playing is one of the wonders of the world. I'm so glad you captured it on disc--pure, without interference of any kind, just barenaked sax playing. And your compositions are daring. It's full of soul."
--clarinetist Margot Leverett

"I've always felt doing a completely solo album was venturing into dangerous territory and not for the faint of heart. I must admit that I was questioning your sanity! Well, I guess you showed me. This is wonderful . . . I want to thank you for your creation. It is a sonic treat. "
--saxophonist Sal Spicola

"Beautiful. And a serious lesson for anyone who plays the saxophone."--bassist Tim Metz

"Your CD is great! It reminds me of why I like your playing. The tunes are really creative as is your playing. Your use of cool melodies, interesting intervals, tonalities, harmonics.....very creative!!!"
--saxophonist Mark Friedman

"Sue's solo CD is pensive, clear, and directed towards a larger horizon. It sounds like a melody line for a big band with muscular rhythm abundant throughout. There is a disciplined freedom that avoids chaos and disorder and stimulates the listener into a creative partnership. I really enjoy the CD. Sue manages to share a wider aspect of her immense talent with this offering."
--pianist Bertha Hope

"Well balanced playing with a lot of poise."
--saxophonist / flutist Andrew Sterman

"I am really enjoying it ... the playing and the comp and improv."
--violinist / composer Mark Feldman

"Beautiful tone, really unparalleled, only approached by very very few -- like Weidoff, Getz, Desmond. A clear center, full metallic roundness (bell like ringing), resonance, clarity and strength.Seldom used and mastered by others, the low register is used beautifully and also the extreme high register. The tone is consistent throughout, and you could have the best low register in saxophone. Lovely compositions with feeling, line and intellectual structure. Always interesting. I love the "Water Wheel" A beautifully consistent CD, one can play it when in the appropriate mood and not be jarred into different emotions. A peaceful, sometimes meditative experience."
-pianist / composer Derwyn Holder

"Your CD is really excellent. The alto and soprano sound great, and the material really keeps me interested-- something that's hard to do on a solo CD!"
--saxophonist Craig Yaremko

"I really like it! I like the melodic approach you took; it works well in the solo context. And I thought the production was great, too."
--saxophonist Sam Newsome

"Your Worm is beyond words--I am stunned."
--saxophonist, woodwind artist and author Tim Price

For more reviews by listeners, log onto CDBABY.com/sweetsueterry.