Terry Pollard

Terry Pollard was quite active in jazz of the 1950s, although not too much was heard from her in subsequent years. She was part of the very fertile Detroit jazz scene in the late '40s and early '50s, playing piano with many of the major up-and-coming players and recording with Billy Mitchell in 1948. Pollard — who worked with Johnny Hill from 1948-1949, Emmitt Slay from 1950-1952, and regularly with Billy Mitchell from 1952-1953 — had her greatest visibility from 1953-1957, when she played piano and second vibes with Terry Gibbs' quartet. Pollard recorded with Gibbs and Dick Garcia and was gaining a strong reputation; in 1957, however, she chose to return to Detroit and raise a family. She recorded with Yusef Lateef from 1958-1959 and Dorothy Ashby in 1961 but eventually slipped away into obscurity, despite her talents. Pollard led just one record date: an album for Bethlehem in 1955. She died in the New York City borough of the Bronx on December 16, 2009 at the age of 78.