Jazz trumpet great Clark Terry dies at 94

Trumpeter Clark Terry, one of the most recorded musicians in jazz history, died Saturday at age 94. Terry's wife, Gwen, announced the musician's death late Saturday but did not provide additional details.

Born in St. Louis in 1920, Terry played in the big bands of both Count Basie and Duke Ellington and later was a prominent figure in The Tonight Show band. He recorded alongside Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk and many jazz greats in additional to leading his own groups.

Terry was considered an influence on many of the jazz trumpeters that followed him, among them Miles Davis and Wynton Marsalis, and he was deeply involved in jazz education. He is one of five trumpet players to have received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, along with Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis and Benny Carter.

Terry also played in the big band of one of his students, Quincy Jones.

"The world has lost one of the greatest trumpeters to ever grace the planet," Jones said in a statement Sunday. "Clark Terry was my first trumpet teacher as a teen in Seattle, my idol and my brother. When he left the Basie and Ellington bands, also two of my idols, to join mine in it was one of the most humbling moments in my life. I hope the world will remember and celebrate the enormous contributions that Clark has made to America's musical lexicon. I will miss my mentor and friend terribly."