Life-changing recordings: Mark Kavuma on ‘Clark Terry with Thelonious Monk’

When I knew that I was going to do this [interview], I thought ‘There can only be one!’ The record has been one of the biggest albums in my development and who I am as a musician: In Orbit by Clark Terry and Thelonious Monk. It’s funny, it’s an album that not many people know about it. There’s not that many albums with a trumpet leading a quartet – there are some, of course, but it tends to be quintets. For me, it put things into perspective of what’s possible.

I stumbled upon it almost by accident – a friend of mine gave me a hard drive with a lot of Thelonious Monk albums to check out, and I came across In Orbit when I was going through that. I was around 19. It resonated with me the first time I heard it; and I kept on coming back to it because it combines all the musical things that I’m about. There’s a lot of gospel influence in there – for example, ‘Trust In Me’ – or shall we say spiritual, because I don’t know if they were particularly church–based musicians. There is that feeling in the music, and that is a big part of my childhood and my musical identity.

I’m a sucker for melody, and this album is strong on that too. I’m a big fan of Clark Terry – he’s one of my top five trumpet players; and he is almost the ultimate melody weaver. The way he approaches it is great. His sound, his phrasing, his articulation, wasn’t like anything I had ever heard before.

My main influences when I started the trumpet – or when I got into jazz, shall we say, at around 15 – were Miles Davis and Clifford Brown. Clifford Brown’s got a very distinct double-tongue and triple-tongue technique, and an amazing range. Miles’ range is not maybe as big, but his sound is crystal clear. And lesson one in trumpet playing is, ‘It’s all about sound’. I couldn’t sit down and get anywhere near imitating Clark Terry! I thought, ‘What’s going on?!’ And that drew me in. It’s because he uses the doodle–tonguing system, to be technical. When I heard it , that was the first thing I noticed. Because that’s not the way that most people from a classical background train. So this album resonated for me because of all that

Having encountered it, I went into a deep dive of Clark Terry, and came to understand his whole system, and it blew my mind – it’s so personalised. I’m a big fan of Thelonious Monk, too – one of my all–time favourite musicians. I really took on how he approaches composition. How Monk accompanies Clark Terry has really influenced me a lot too. When you hear it, you go: ‘That’s Monk!’. I wanted that for myself – people to recognise something as me. Those things immediately hit me when I first put it on. Clark Terry is a very happy, joyful uplifting spirit. Monk is quite serious, maybe somewhat misunderstood, full of contrasts.

Anyway, the two personalities come through. They’re very different and there’s beauty in there; and that resonated for me.

This all happened when I was just applying for Trinity College Of Music and it was a pivotal moment in my life where I thought trumpet – or music – was the direction I was going. It was, ‘Right, I’m going to get serious about this, I’m going to pursue this’. So for me, particularly at that time, this album reinforced the importance of personality, which was a big thing: ‘Whatever I do, it has to have my personality’. When I was approaching my first album, and everything I’ve done since, has been trying to get across through the music what’s inside me. This was the album that set me on that path.

I bought it on iTunes so that I could have it on all my devices. I’d listen to the album pretty much every day at one stage; and I’ve always come back to it. However I’m feeling, I can put on this album and it makes me go: ‘Yes – that’s why I’m doing it!’

Mark Kavuma plays at the QEH as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival on 17 November, presenting his new album with The Banger Factory, 'Magnum Opus': efglondonjazzfestival.org.uk

This article originally appeared in the November 2024 issue of Jazzwise. Never miss an issue – subscribe today