Clark Terry: With this system, you sounded the way an auctioneer talks. I was very excited.
Ryan Van Cleave: That’s the wrong approach, folks.
Terry: Oh, I know. [laughs] Horrible.
Van Cleave: But to answer your first question, yes, I very much was thinking of the narrative voice being inclusive of all living things on the planet.
Terry: The music was beautiful.
•••
Van Cleave: I really appreciate all the good questions! Most importantly, kids love them.
Terry: So they just took a picture of my horn on a bus seat and put that on the cover and used the title for the album.
Van Cleave: That’s a disappointing thing to learn.
Terry: It was very, very difficult—both from how the music developed and the emotion you had to bring to what you were playing.
Van Cleave: You have to break it down and put actual language to all the components of plot, and then give examples and context of causality, exposition, narrative summary, etc.
•••
Terry: It’s hard to fathom how I felt.
Van Cleave: I’d just never considered authorship before.
Terry: All the riverboats used to stop there heading up and down the Mississippi River.
Van Cleave: Thank you for the opportunity.
Terry: I have no idea.