Jazz Note #24 – Have Fun

It was a quick recording session (Aug 17, 1964) for a quick release (Sept, 1964).  It was so quick The Oscar Peterson Trio had plenty of time left in the session to record some more.  So guest musician Clark Terry asked Oscar for a favor. He asked if they could record a couple of personal songs for Clark to play at parties to keep the party lively because that was the type of person Clark Terry was – he was fun.   

Oscar asked what song Clark wanted to record.  Clark told Oscar and his group of Ray Brown on bass and Ed Thigpen on drums to lay down an upbeat vibe and he would sing along….  Well, sort of sing. 

Clark always saw himself as an entertainer as well as a musician. He played the trumpet and flugelhorn, sometimes together.  When he was with the Duke Ellington Orchestra, he taught himself to play the instruments left-handed and upside down.  Technically brilliant, he was still a ham.  And when he started to sing, what should have been words were instead indecipherable ramblings, not scat, but it was as if Clark forgot how to speak but still decided to push ahead.  

Oscar burst out laughing.  “Wait at minute,” he said.  “Let’s start it over again. I’m gonna put this in the album.” 

What they recorded was “Mumbles,” a song that states jazz can be more than a dusty, academic exercise. 

In an interview with the National Jazz Archive, Clark was asked the origin of his hit song.  He said it was based on his time growing up in St. Louis, visiting establishments that served beer and played music.  Usually the instrument was an upright piano that was laminated to withstand the spillage of beer and the weight of heavy steins.  He said that if you bought a beer for the piano player, he would let you sing.  And since most of the “singers” were non-singers who had consumed a few heavy steins of beer, any words to any lyrics were a blurry afterthought.  But Clark said nobody cared: