After leaving the service, he moved to Los Angeles to lead the Hollywood Teenagers Band before returning to New York in 1948 to play with Sonny Dunham for eight months.
During the same year, he appeared in the Universal film short Birth of a Band with Connie Haines and Don Gordon.
Terry and his band performed at Carnegie Hall for the Charlie Parker Memorial Concert with Dinah Washington and other jazz celebrities.
He toured with the Birdland All Stars at Boston Arena and Carnegie Hall as a featured artist with the Count Basie Band.
Terry owned and operated Big Daddy's Nightclub at the Travel and Transportation Building at the 1964 New York World's Fair.
He was musical director at the Basin Street East club in New York from 1962 to 1965 and conductor for Sammy Davis Jr. with the Will Mastin Trio, Frances Langford, Noonan and Marshall, and Yma Sumac.