It was 1958 when Seiler, a young clarinet player on his way to the University of Wisconsin, first heard a live performance by Duke Ellington's band. Seiler remembers his first encounter with Terry as if it had happened only yesterday. "They played the Interstate Fair in LaCrosse. This was one of Ellington's great bands, with Louie Bellson on drums," he says with a smile. "But what I really remember was this incredible trumpet player . . . Clark."

Fast forward to 1974. Seiler had been teaching at the University of Idaho, where he cofounded the Inland Empire Jazz Festival (since renamed in honor of Lionel Hampton). But now he is at UNH, and he wants to start another festival. He's looking for a headliner. "What do I do? I call Clark," he says, laughing heartily at his boldness. "You have to know that everybody calls Clark, everybody wants him."

To Seiler's amazement, Terry came to Durham that first year, and he has been coming back ever since. Over the years, Terry has performed and recorded with scores of UNH students and faculty members. He has led student tours of Europe and, in 1976, fronted the UNH Jazz Band that became the first college ensemble ever to play on an evening bill at the famed Montreaux Jazz Festival in Switzerland.

"Montreaux really put us on the map," says Seiler. "It also opened the door for others. The next year, Montreaux began inviting college groups to perform in the evenings along with the big names."

UNH awarded Terry an honorary degree in 1978, the first of nine such honors he has received from various institutions. In 1988, he was named adjunct professor of music at UNH. Now, as he approaches his 80th birthday, slowed by diabetes and back problems, one might think he would be ready to rest a bit on his laurels. After all, he's played with the most influential and brilliant musicians of jazz and been a part of many of the seminal recordings of our time, including Ellington at Newport and Monk's Brilliant Corners. But no, "I just keep going and going and going," Terry says with a chuckle, mimicking the popular Energizer bunny commercial.