Jacky Terrasson
Web Site
February 2001

"Playing with Betty (Carter) was a dream come true. She was more than a singer; she was like part of the quartet. It’s great to be a leader, but it’s also great to be in a band like hers. Most of those types of gigs are gone today."

Á Paris
Blue Note
2001

Á Paris
Reviewed By
Don Williamson

Photo Credit
Mephisto©Mephisto

By Don Williamson

ALLABOUTJAZZ: You just returned from a tour of Europe (early September, 2000).

Jacky Terrasson: I was over there for two months. During the first week, I recorded a record for Stefano Di Battista. He is a French saxophone player who had signed on with EMI France. It was a great experience. Not only did Stefano play great, but also Elvin Jones is on the record. After that, I did a three-week tour with Stefon Harris.

AAJ: Who was in the group?

JT: It was Stefon, Reid Anderson, and Terreon Gully. Then I did my own recording for a new release. It’s a record of all French melodies called Á Paris. It includes everything from folk songs to classical music to the national anthem. Stefon, Stefano, Rémi Vignolo Terreon, Leon Parker, Ugonna Okegwo, Minino Garay, Gregoire Maret and Biréli LagrÚne are on it.

AAJ: Was the idea to record French tunes yours?

JT: Yes, I’ve been wanting to do this record for a long time because I grew up in France. I took a collection of melodies I’ve heard since I was a kid.

AAJ: You don’t hear many French tunes in America.

JT: Right. This record doesn’t consist of jazz standards at all. However, we re-created the tunes like jazz standards. We took two of Edith Piaf’s tunes that most people will know: “La Vie en Rose” and a very pretty tune called “Plaisir d’amour.” I included two of my compositions. Also, we included some songs by Barbara. She passed away about three years ago, but she was considered the next Edith Piaf. She wrote all of her songs, and she played piano. I saw her live once in Paris, and her performance blew me away. I included the tune from an old movie, “Forbidden Games,” and a melody from Francis Poulenc, “Les Chemins de L’amour.”

The National Anthem, “La Marseillaise,” is a march, and the lyrics are very aggressive and oppressive. But I treated the piece like a child’s version of it--a pretty little waltz. I’m very happy about how that track turned out. If you take away the march and the lyrics, it’s a beautiful little melody.

AAJ: And you personalize the tunes, as you did with “I Love Paris.”

JT: Exactly. All of the tunes are revisited. I arranged all of them at home with all of my toys there. (Laughs) I’ve been working on the album for about a year, although I’ve been thinking about it for eight years. I’m happy with the work. Listeners can relate to a lot of the melodies. Then the group took the melodies somewhere else, which is what I like to do anyway.

AAJ: Are you playing any of those tunes live before the album comes out?

JT: We’re waiting a little bit. I’m playing at the Vanguard this week, but I won’t do the songs from the record there. Ugonna Okegwo, Leon Parker and Tim Ries are performing there with me.

AAJ: Is any touring planned?

JT: I go back to France for a week in October, and then Stefon Harris and I plan to record as part of a collaboration by the end of the year. We wanted to record together, and then Blue Note loved the idea. We decided to go for it. I really like playing with Stefon. I love his spontaneous and creative interaction.

AAJ: Do you stay with family when you go to France?

JT: Not really. My parents live in Clermont-Ferrand. They used to live in Paris. I visit them, but I don’t usually see them when I’m working.

AAJ: I wanted to clear up two things. I looked up your birth date. It’s listed as November 27, 1966 in The All-Music Guide To Jazz, but Jazz Profiles: The Spirit Of The Nineties lists it as 1965.

JT: Yes, 1965.

AAJ: Another discrepancy I found is that Down Beat wrote that your father was born in France and that your mother was born in North Carolina. But The All Music Guide To Jazz wrote that you have a French mother and an American father.

JT: Down Beat is right.

AAJ: How did your parents happen to meet?

JT: My father was studying at Columbia University when he met my mom. After that, they moved to France. My mom has lived there for thirty-five years.

AAJ: But you were born in Berlin.

JT: My father had to do his military service there, but he was already married. As a result, they moved them to a French base in Berlin, where they stayed for a year or eighteen months. That’s when I was born. The family moved to Hamburg for two years after that before coming back to France. I don’t remember much about Germany at all, except that we had a little car.

AAJ: But you had a big family.

JT: Yes. Six children altogether. I’m number four.

AAJ: Your father enjoyed classical music?

JT: Yes. He used to play Mozart and Beethoven sonatas every weekend. I’m a big classical music fan.

AAJ: You don’t bring many classical references into your music.

JT: No. These days, we’re playing Ravel’s “Bolero.” We make it funky. And I’m going to do a jazz record with a flutist in early 2001. He’s the first flutist of the Berlin Philharmonic, and his name is Emmanuel Pahud. I’ll love to work with him because I like to try different things. His manager has asked me to write two or three pieces. It’s great to be able to write something and know it will be played properly.

I started on piano with classical music when I was five. Around the age of twelve, I started to study jazz. My mom had a lot of jazz records in the house, and that’s how I got into the music. Even though she was born in North Carolina, she basically grew up in New York. She was working for an interior designer who at some point re-did an apartment of Miles Davis’. She told me that she had hung out there for six months. Every once in a while, she would see Miles or Paul Chambers. She got to see them rehearse and was kind of fascinated by it.

AAJ: Did she have any stories about that experience?

JT: All that she told me was that Paul Chambers was trying to flirt with her. (Laughs)

AAJ: Did you want to study piano, or was that your parents’ idea?

JT: Wow. That’s a good question. There was always a piano at home. I remember that I used to play around on it. I’m sure that at some point, they introduced me to a teacher who came to the house every Wednesday. I studied with Jeff Gardner when I was twelve. He was teaching and studying in Paris at that time, although he’s back in New York now. He basically taught me the A, B, C’s of piano: II-V-I, how to approach a standard, and the scales. He could have overloaded me with information because music gets pretty complicated, the deeper you get into it. But he gave me a good place to start my learning from. After that, I got to study with Bobby Few, who was living in Paris. But my schooling really consisted of listening to records.

AAJ: Didn’t you get a scholarship to Berklee?

JT: I got two scholarships—one from Berklee and the other from the Duke Ellington Foundation. My mom arranged the Berklee scholarship for me. I filled out an application and made a tape. The scholarship ended up paying for eighty percent of the tuition. I couldn’t have afforded it if that wasn’t the case.

AAJ: Who did you study with at Berklee?

JT: Ray Santisi for the whole time I was there. Danilo Perez, Javon Jackson and Mark Whitfield were there. More than anything else, I really dug the environment there. I didn’t know many people in Paris at the time who had heard about Bud Powell, Bill Evans or Thelonious Monk. The people in Paris were more interested in the top rock groups. When I was in Berklee, I was around people who loved the same things I loved, who were serious about it, and who studied it.

AAJ: Didn’t you play B-3 organ then too?

JT: Yeah, at Wally’s. The group usually consisted of a trio with drums and saxophone. Sometimes I played with Arturo Tappin; he’s a good alto player who lives in Barbados now. That was a way to make a living. Twenty bucks a night.

Then, I moved to Chicago because I had a gig five nights a week for as long as I wanted at a place called Blondie’s on Rush Street. Dennis Carroll, the bass player, was the reason I went to Chicago. We were roommates at Berklee, and after a while he said, “Man, Jacky. You’re not going to the classes, and neither am I. I could get us a gig in Chicago for five nights a week. Do you want to do it?” “Yeah, man.” I called my parents and told them I was packing. That was a great experience because it was my first opportunity to really play all the time. I built a repertoire and worked out arrangements. I backed up singer, Bill Acosta.

But I went back to France after that because I didn’t want to give up my French citizenship. I had a military obligation that was mandatory.

AAJ: You were in the military?

JT: Yeah. (Laughs) For one year. Actually, that’s the real reason I had to go back to France. The authorities were looking for me. They found my grandparents, and then they found my parents. The authorities told my parents, “If he doesn’t come back, we’ll have to put him in with the parachutists.” That kind of scared me because they have idiots in that group.

AAJ: Where did you serve?

JT: I made a few phone calls, and I ended up being a bartender near Paris.

AAJ: A bartender in the military?

JT: After the classes, yes. It was a total waste of time. But I was stuck, and I had to do it. The only good thing related to the military service was that I was in charge of the music box. By the end of the year, five people who didn’t know anything about jazz got hip to it.

AAJ: Did you perform while you were in the military?

JT: I tried doing that, but it was too hard. I did some gigs in Paris and then stayed up until two or three in the morning. I had to be back at the base at six, and I just couldn’t hang.

AAJ: Was it full-time military service?

JT: It was compulsory, but one week out of three, I could go home after six o’clock.

After my military service, I settled in Paris for three years. I met Dee Dee Bridgewater at that time, as well as Barney Wilen and Guy LaFitte. That was a great time. Other than Chicago, where I played five nights a week, the work in Paris was the beginning of my professional life, I would say.

After a while, I missed the musical scene in New York. I was doing some work with Ray Brown at that time. A lot of musicians who came through Paris heard me and played with me. They all said, “You should come to New York.”

However, another reason I returned to New York was culture: I wanted to know where my mom was from. I wanted to know where she lived in New York. My mom still had some family here, and my oldest sister, Pamela, always lived here. Before moving back to the States that time, I never really felt as if I were an American. So returning at that time was important to me.

I moved to New York on September 14, 1990. Pamela put up with me and got me a room. Life was kind of tough for me in the beginning because I felt that things were finally starting to pick up in France. It was like starting from scratch again. I was trying to build up a little career and make a living out of it.

AAJ: Did any musicians call when you came to New York?

JT: Not really. But there was a jazz scene in New York. Blue Note had a jam session every night. I was living all night! I tried to play and fit in. After a while, I met Tyler Mitchell. Another bass player from Chicago helped me. He hooked me up with A.T.—Arthur Taylor. I also met Jesse Davis and Antoine Roney and Tex Allen. Step by step, things started to fall in place.

AAJ: Isn’t that when you met Leon Parker?

JT: Right. Ugonna Okegwo introduced me to Leon, actually.

AAJ: Where did you meet Ugonna?

JT: At a place called Paradise that’s shut down now. It was Midtown on the east side. He was playing with Tex Allen. After I sat in, Ugonna and I stayed in touch.

AAJ: Is that when you formed your trio?

JT: At the beginning, I played in a number of groups with Leon. They were mostly quartets. I told Ugonna and Leon that, “Hey, I could get some trio gigs. Do you want to do that?” They said, “Of course.” Things started to take off when we had some gigs at Bradley’s because that was the hippest jazz club. Peter Watrous and some other journalists started to write about us.

At that time, some good friends who are not musicians encouraged me to enter the Monk competition. My friend Richard said, “Jacky, you have to do this. You’re going to win it.” I’m not into competitions. I studied classical music for fifteen years. But Richard said, “Do it. You have nothing to lose.” I played “Donna Lee” and “In Your Own Sweet Way” with the house rhythm section consisting of Chris McBride and Kenny Washington. The competition ended up being a great media opportunity. It put me in the spotlight. It’s hard being a jazz musician. You need all the help you can get.

AAJ: How did you prepare for the competition?

JT: I sent in the tape, and then I played the first day of the finals. I thought those performances went great. I didn’t think I played very well on the next day of the finals. I guess I was judged on my performances during both days.

I joined Betty Carter the day after I won the Monk competition. I had already met Betty through Javon Jackson before I entered the competition. She had been producing a record for Javon. At the end of the second day, she asked me to join her band. I remember that I didn’t know what to say because I had planned some things for myself at that time, even though accompanying Betty was a great opportunity. Nevertheless, I joined her group because it was too great a chance not to acknowledge. She was working all the time, and that’s what a musician who’s starting out wants to do, you know. Playing with Betty was a dream come true. She was more than a singer; she was like part of the quartet. It’s great to be a leader, but it’s also great to be in a band like hers. Most of those types of gigs are gone today.

AAJ: Her death was sudden, wasn’t it?

JT: Yes. I think she was in Israel. Her manager told me that Betty said, “I don’t feel right. I want to go home.” When she came home, she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Three weeks later--boom!--she was gone. Every musician in town went to her memorial service. All of us musicians played something in her honor there.

AAJ: You signed with Blue Note after you left her?

JT: Yes, that happened the next year--in ’94. I remember that when I was playing at Bradley’s, the Blue Note people were there. I talked to them before the Monk competition and told them, “I want to wait to see what happens with this competition.” But it was a good thing to win it because then the other labels solicited me. It created a little competition among the record companies, I guess. I ended up getting a better deal than I would have gotten before the competition.

AAJ: Your first album has become a classic. Everyone imitates your arrangements of “Bye Bye Blackbird” and “I Love Paris.”

JT: That’s a good sign, I guess. But I like the Reach album better myself because I think there’s more playing in Reach. Well, there was more honest work in Reach anyway. I have this thing about honesty. I like the Alive album too. I think it captured the moment that night. I always felt that the trio was not documented properly until Alive was recorded. That’s why I wanted to record it live.

AAJ: The impressive element of Alive is the contrast. From slow to fast. From quiet to loud. Did you have an influence in developing that style?

JT: Ahmad Jamal’s dynamics definitely were important to me. For just exploring on the piano, I would say that Betty had a great influence. I learned the rest from just getting out there and playing.

AAJ: Was Leon developing his own career at that time too?

JT: He was mostly a part of my group at that time. At one point, he became busy doing his own thing. As a result, we had to separate and go out own ways.

AAJ: Was that after the Alive album?

JT: Actually, it was before that. We got back together again for one week to record the album. Also, there were some ego things to clear up.

AAJ: You mean, about leadership?

JT: Yeah. You can’t have two leaders in one trio. It’s not a good ratio. (Laughs)

AAJ: And you recorded with Cassandra Wilson on Rendezvous.

JT: That was a situation where she didn’t have a record ready to go, and neither did I. So Blue Note said, “Why don’t you do something together?” I thought that was a good idea. We met almost for the first time in the studio. Previously, I had seen her at a venue where we shared the same stage. For Rendezvous, we just had a list of tunes with no arrangements. Everything was done in the studio.

AAJ: Was it all improvised?

JT: Not really. We talked about the tunes and tried to come up with a groove or a nice mood. I knew her voice before we recorded together, and so we went for those dark tones. When everyone took a break for two hours, I sat down at the piano and tried to come up with some different chords and changes for “Tea For Two.” We tried them, and she said, “That’s right. But can you do something else here?” Then everyone took a break for a half hour. We recorded over a week. Nothing was pre-arranged. Actually, we didn’t have time to meet previously. I think the album could have been better.

AAJ: You recorded with Jimmy Scott.

JT: That was a treat--a lesson in humility and life experiences. When the producer for the CD called me to play in it, I was thrilled right away. Jimmy is such a generous person. He relates everything to music. That record in particular [Heaven] is great because all of the tunes are spiritual and had pretty melodies. I remember that during one take, “There’s No Disappointment In Heaven,” I almost couldn’t finish the track as I watched him. He just had me weeping.

AAJ: How do you approach arranging?

JT: Some of it is prepared, but a lot of it involved live arranging in clubs. Then I remember those ideas and use them again.

AAJ: How did you come up with the idea behind Cumba’s Dance?

JT: Basically, that tune just gets faster and louder. (Laughs) Leon, Ugonna and I have been playing together for a long time. We love what we’re doing. We take our music seriously. I think that when a musician has a chance to work with excellent musicians like them, the music will come out in a good way.

AAJ: Where do you find your inspiration when you write?

JT: From other musicians and from life. I’m a big Herbie Hancock fan. I’m a big Keith Jarrett fan. I’m a big Wayne Shorter fan.

AAJ: Have you met any of those people?

JT: I met Herbie a few times, and I saw him again last summer. I went to his concert, and it was great. Then we did an interview together for someone who is producing a documentary about me. It will be a 26-minute TV show covering my life as a musician and about Á Paris, my next release.

AAJ: Who is producing the documentary?

JT: Possibly EMI-France. We don’t know where it will appear. Right now, we’re working on releasing it only in France. The documentary will include live footage of some of my performances as well as interviews with other musicians. The shooter also was present when we recorded Á Paris. She shot a lot of scenes showing the music being played.

AAJ: You had mentioned that you’re trying to find your own language on piano. Do you think you found it?

JT: I think I found it. Now I need to develop it; that’s the hard part. That may take me my whole life. Now I need to make it a whole vocabulary. Music is great. It’s what makes me want to get up in the morning.