The young Frenchmen astounded by playing four contemporary trumpet ensemble pieces, three by French composers and one by an American composer, which involved between nine and eleven players. The tunes were indeed contemporary - one included such trumpet percussion as slamming the valves, popping the mouthpiece, ringing the bell by tapping the rim with the mouthpiece, and so forth - but the pieces were lively, essentially tonal, and captivating. The director promised there was something essentially American in one piece, and to the audience's delight, the opening lick from The Star Spangled Banner leapt out from the multi-layered background. The intonation and articulation were flawless, and difficult and transparent passages were all played with ease. In the penultimate tune, Mr. Dutot moved to the performance line and flawlessly executed a difficult melodic passage up to a gentle but solid A flat above high C, perfectly in tune with his students playing one and two octaves below him. The ensemble, almost without precedent, received a standing ovation for its performance, ten minutes into the evening's concert.

In keeping with the more traditional nature of its roots, the Blues continued with another new arrangement of an older classic, Stompin' at the Savoy, which introduced new tonal colors by giving the melody to the flute, flugel and trombones in bucket mutes. The band was very tight and featured pianist SFC Tony Nalker and long-time Blues member MSG Roger Rossi on trumpet.

The next tune, a Tom Kubis chart, featured the virtuosity of two of the band's trombone players. The highlight, probably not heard anywhere other than at an ITG convention, was the highly syncopated rendition of a stretch of the third movement of the Hummel Trumpet Concerto at the beginning of one of the trombonists' extended solo. It solidified the high degree of good will and good humor that was and would remain the hallmark of the evening.

After a brief intermission, Clark Terry joined the band onstage, dressed in a black suit and white tie. Clark required some assistance walking to his stool on the stage and getting his mikes positioned correctly, but required no assistance in maneuvering around his horns. All that makes Clark Terry the national treasure that he is was present Thursday evening. As usual, he rarely played open trumpet (a dark blue Martin with gold trim), switching instead between harmon mute and plunger. He played more flugelhorn Thursday evening than he might have in earlier years, but all of the familiar elements were there: the familiar charts, the huge sense of fun and self-deprecating sense of humor, the lightning fast cascading arpeggios accompanied by the corresponding eye brow movement, the sliding bluesy quarter tone scales, the upside-down flugel horn, still a bit of circular breathing, and of course, the unerring sense of time and swing. The last scheduled number featured Terry doing a hilarious extended version of his "mumbles" routine, engaging the poor Blues director as straight man.

We felt that not only had we been entertained by Clark Terry, as many of us have been in the past, but that we had had an opportunity to pay homage to his greatness.