There is the old adage, “Practice makes perfect.” And having been road tested for 68 years, Terry Gibbs is in effect perfect. Jazz vocabulary is contingent on experience, and Gibbs has plenty of stories to tell. He narrates an account of the “golden age of jazz” with 52nd & Broadway: Songs of the Bebop Era and it is a fascinating tale indeed.



Vibraphonist and percussionist Terry Gibbs brings energy and excitement to a stage, whether he’s playing swing, bebop, or a ballad. Despite his musical talent, Gibbs once aspired to be a boxer. But through music he combines the same speed and manual dexterity with his keen sense of melody and harmony. Armed with these abilities, Gibbs has become a premiere performer, composer, and band leader. He delivers another “knock out” performance on this program, before a live audience at the Kennedy Center’s Theatre Lab.



Gibbs hits the stage with a spirited rendition of Dizzy Gillespie’s “Groovin’ High”. He reminds Dr. Taylor that he’s no stranger to bebop—he was one of the earliest bebop vibists along with Milt Jackson. Billy asks Gibbs how he chose the vibraphone as his primary instrument, and together they discuss pioneers of the jazz vibraphone, including Lionel Hampton, Red Norvo, and Jackson.



Born Julius Gubenko in Brooklyn, New York in 1924, Gibbs grew up in a musical family. Terry's older brother, Sol, taught him to play the drums and xylophone. The boys' father, Abe, an accomplished violinist and bandleader, gave Terry his first musical break when he hired the young drummer. Gibbs:

"I used to fool with them when he wasn't around. And I've been on the road now going on 68 years. I've been on the road since I was 12 years old. There was a show called Major Bowes' Original Amateur Hour in New York. It was like American Idol, but bigger. I won the contest and since then, I've been on the road."

Growing up, Gibbs demonstrated musical ability by the age of two, and began studying the xylophone by age seven. He played with his father’s group at weddings and bar mitzvahs, and even won the Major Boles Amateur Hour on the radio at age twelve. But because he preferred jazz to classical, he turned down a scholarship to Julliard to study as a timpanist. He continued playing drums while in the army, but was more enthusiastic about competing as a boxer, fighting in twenty-two matches.



"When I was about 16 1/2 years old, I went with a bandleader named Judy Kayne. The billing was 'featuring Terry Gubenko on drums and xylophone.' Music Corporation of America (MCA), which was the biggest agency at the time, didn't like my name. Without telling me, the publicity came back saying 'featuring Terry Gibbs on drums and xylophone.' I thought I got fired - thought they'd got another drummer - because I never heard that name; nobody'd asked me. So I became Terry Gibbs." Gibbs' mother was pretty upset by the name change. "My mother got bugged - 'Who's going to know it's my son?' I was starting to make a little noise, get publicity, and I finally got my name on something and it's not even Gubenko."



During World War II, Terry turned 18 and joined the Army. He was trained as a tank driver but never got overseas. Gibbs recalls: "We did our three months of training, I got my shots, I'm ready to go overseas, and all of a sudden I get sent to Dallas, Texas." Dallas was the home of the 8th Service Command whose job it was to make Army movies and produce radio programs for bond drives. They needed a percussionist. Gibbs ended up fulfilling his commitment to Uncle Sam as a stateside musician, playing drums and writing arrangements.



During his stint in the Army, Terry discovered bebop. Gibbs says the bebop scene rejuvenated his interest in playing jazz professionally, as he extols the founders of bebop, Dizzie Gillespie and Charlie Parker. Bebop had sprung up in New York while Gibbs was away with the army. Once, he came home on furlough and a friend took him to 52nd Street to hear this revolutionary new sound. It was love from the start for Gibbs, who spent the whole two-week leave at the clubs. He recalls his reaction to the rapid rhythms and harmonies of this breakthrough in jazz, “I didn’t believe what I heard…I was knocked out with the double time figures they played.”



Before bebop, Gibbs was into swing. While growing up in New York, he recalls going to the Paramount Theater to hear Benny Goodman play. He says, “I never thought in my born days I’d ever play with him.” But like a dream come true, Goodman hired Gibbs into his band for a two and a half year stint in the early 1950’s. Gibbs recalls, “musically [it] was one of the greatest thrills of my life”, though he did feel that Goodman was somewhat aloof as a person.



Billy also asks Gibbs about some of the other bands he has played with, including those of Woody Herman and Tommy Dorsey. In fact, Gibbs says he quit Tommy Dorsey’s band after one day because he felt Dorsey was ignoring the bebop influences that Gibbs found so revolutionary. More recently, Gibbs says he has been more at home as a leader of his own bands, and co-leader of groups with his close friend, clarinetist Buddy DeFranco.



As Billy notes, Gibbs is a prolific composer, with hundreds of songs published. Among his milestones are tunes written for Nat King Cole and George Shearing. At Billy’s request, he does a beautiful rendition of a tune he wrote for his wife, called “Rebekah”. In response to a question from the audience, Gibbs discusses the process of composing a song. He and Billy elaborate with a discussion about jazz improvisation as a form of composing.



When asked whether vibes players are “frustrated drummers or vice versa”, Gibbs says that a piano player is likely to have an advantage over a drummer in learning to play the vibes. He notes the similarity between the keyboards of the piano and the vibraphone, and the need to understand more harmony and theory than a drummer might.



On that note, Gibbs joins Dr. Taylor at the piano for a for a double-time duet of Dizzy Gillespie’s “Wee”. Gibbs plays a dazzling rapid fire solo using only his index fingers, almost as if they were mallets on the vibes. During the program, Gibbs and Billy’s trio also perform “Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise” by Romberg & Hammerstein, “What’s New” by Bobby Haggard, and another rhythmic Gibbs composition, “Penthouse Groove”.



Gibbs played a lot with his friend and pioneering be-bop jazz drummer Stan Levey.



(main source: www.npr.org)