John Clayton (bassist)
Encyclopedia
John Travis Clayton Jr. is an American
jazz
and classical double bassist.
. By age 19, he had become a bassist on Henry Mancini's
television series The Mancini Generation and later graduated in 1975 from Indiana University's
Jacobs School of Music
with a degree in bass performance.
He went on to tour with the Monty Alexander Trio
and the Count Basie Orchestra
before taking the position of principal bass in the Amsterdam Philharmonic Orchestra in Amsterdam
, Netherlands
. However, after five years he returned to the U.S. for a break in the classical genre to work more towards jazz and jazz composition. He soon founded the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra
with his saxophonist
brother Jeff Clayton
and drummer Jeff Hamilton
. He and his brother also founded The Clayton Brothers which has featured noted instrumentalists such as Bill Cunliffe
and Terell Stafford
.
From 1999 to 2001 he served as Artistic Director of the Jazz for the Los Angeles Philharmonic
program at the Hollywood Bowl
and has also conducted the All-Alaska Jazz Band.
He currently serves as Artistic Director for the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival
, Sarasota Jazz Festival, Santa Fe Jazz Party, Jazz Port Townsend Summer Workshop, and Vail Jazz Workshop. He also teaches at the University of Southern California
Thornton School of Music
and presides as president over the 1,500 member International Bassist Association.
He has composed and/or arranged for such notable artists as The Count Basie Orchestra, Diana Krall
, Whitney Houston
, Carmen McRae
, Nancy Wilson
, Joe Williams
, Ernestine Anderson
, Quincy Jones
, Dee Dee Bridgewater
, Natalie Cole
, and the Tonight Show Band.
His son, Gerald Clayton
, is an accomplished jazz pianist, placing second in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition in 2006.
In December 2009 Brother To Brother by The Clayton Brothers received a Grammy nomination in the Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group category.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and classical double bassist.
Music
John Travis Clayton Jr. began seriously undertaking the study of double bass at age 16, studying with bass legend Ray BrownRay Brown (musician)
Raymond Matthews Brown was an American jazz double bassist.-Biography:Ray Brown was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and had piano lessons from the age of eight. After noticing how many pianists attended his high school, he thought of taking up the trombone, but was unable to afford one...
. By age 19, he had become a bassist on Henry Mancini's
Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini was an American composer, conductor and arranger, best remembered for his film and television scores. He won a record number of Grammy Awards , plus a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously in 1995...
television series The Mancini Generation and later graduated in 1975 from Indiana University's
Indiana University
Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...
Jacobs School of Music
Jacobs School of Music
The Jacobs School of Music of Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, is a music conservatory established in 1921. Until 2005, it was known as the Indiana University School of Music...
with a degree in bass performance.
He went on to tour with the Monty Alexander Trio
Monty Alexander
Monty Alexander is a jazz pianist and melodica player. His playing has a strong Caribbean influence and swinging feeling, but he has also been influenced by Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Wynton Kelly, and Ahmad Jamal.-Biography:Alexander discovered the piano at the age of 4, taking classical music...
and the Count Basie Orchestra
Count Basie
William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...
before taking the position of principal bass in the Amsterdam Philharmonic Orchestra in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
, Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
. However, after five years he returned to the U.S. for a break in the classical genre to work more towards jazz and jazz composition. He soon founded the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra
Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra
John Clayton, Jeff Hamilton, and Jeff Clayton brought together a group of Los Angeles-based musicians in 1985 and formed the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra . Reviewers and fans loved the big band, and the orchestra's first recording, Groove Shop , earned a Grammy Award nomination. CD Review named...
with his saxophonist
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
brother Jeff Clayton
Jeff Clayton
Jeff Clayton is an American jazz alto saxophonist and flautist.Clayton studied oboe at California State University and undertook a tour with Stevie Wonder. Following this he recorded with Gladys Knight, Kenny Rogers, Michael Jackson, Patti Labelle, and Madonna...
and drummer Jeff Hamilton
Jeff Hamilton (drummer)
Jeff Hamilton is an American jazz drummer. He is co-director of the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra and leader of his own trio.-Career:...
. He and his brother also founded The Clayton Brothers which has featured noted instrumentalists such as Bill Cunliffe
Bill Cunliffe
Bill Cunliffe is an American jazz pianist and composer based in Los Angeles He has been described by The New York Times as being in the "modern jazz mainstream" and as an "accomplished pianist and composer." Ernie Rideout of Keyboard Magazine described Cunliffe's playing as "inventive, melodic,...
and Terell Stafford
Terell Stafford
Terell Stafford is a professional jazz trumpet player and current Director of Jazz Studies at Temple University.Terell Stafford born in Miami, Florida and raised in both Chicago, Illinois and Silver Spring, Maryland. He went on to get a degree in music education from University of Maryland in 1988...
.
From 1999 to 2001 he served as Artistic Director of the Jazz for the Los Angeles Philharmonic
Los Angeles Philharmonic
The Los Angeles Philharmonic is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California, United States. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at the Hollywood Bowl from July through September...
program at the Hollywood Bowl
Hollywood Bowl
The Hollywood Bowl is a modern amphitheater in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles, California, United States that is used primarily for music performances...
and has also conducted the All-Alaska Jazz Band.
He currently serves as Artistic Director for the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival
Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival
The Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival is an annual jazz festival, the largest west of the Mississippi, that takes place on the campus of the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho in the month of February...
, Sarasota Jazz Festival, Santa Fe Jazz Party, Jazz Port Townsend Summer Workshop, and Vail Jazz Workshop. He also teaches at the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
Thornton School of Music
USC Thornton School of Music
The University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, founded in 1884 and dedicated in 1999, is one of the premier music schools in the United States...
and presides as president over the 1,500 member International Bassist Association.
He has composed and/or arranged for such notable artists as The Count Basie Orchestra, Diana Krall
Diana Krall
Diana Jean Krall, OC, OBC is a Canadian jazz pianist and singer, known for her contralto vocals. She has sold more than 6 million albums in the US and over 15 million worldwide; altogether, she has sold more albums than any other female jazz artist during the 1990s and 2000s...
, Whitney Houston
Whitney Houston
Whitney Elizabeth Houston is an American singer, actress, producer and a former model. Houston is the most awarded female act of all time, according to Guinness World Records, and her list of awards include 1 Emmy Award, 6 Grammy Awards, 30 Billboard Music Awards, 22 American Music Awards, among...
, Carmen McRae
Carmen McRae
Carmen Mercedes McRae was an American jazz singer, composer, pianist, and actress. Considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th century, it was her behind-the-beat phrasing and her ironic interpretations of song lyrics that made her memorable...
, Nancy Wilson
Nancy Wilson (singer)
Nancy Wilson is an American singer with more than 70 albums, and three Grammy Awards. She has been labeled a singer of blues, jazz, cabaret and pop; a "consummate actress"; and "the complete entertainer." The title she prefers, however, is song stylist...
, Joe Williams
Joe Williams (jazz singer)
Joe Williams was a well-known jazz vocalist, a baritone singing a mixture of blues, ballads, popular songs, and jazz standards.-Early life:...
, Ernestine Anderson
Ernestine Anderson
Ernestine Anderson is an American jazz and blues singer. In a career spanning more than five decades, she has recorded over 30 albums. She was nominated four times for a Grammy Award. She has sung at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Monterey Jazz Festival , as well as at jazz festivals all...
, Quincy Jones
Quincy Jones
Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...
, Dee Dee Bridgewater
Dee Dee Bridgewater
Dee Dee Bridgewater is an American Jazz singer. She is a three-time Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter, as well as a Tony Award - winning stage actress and host of National Public Radio's syndicated radio show JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater...
, Natalie Cole
Natalie Cole
Natalie Maria Cole , is an American singer, songwriter and performer. The daughter of jazz legend Nat King Cole, Cole rode to musical success in the mid-1970s as an R&B artist with the hits "This Will Be ", "Inseparable" and "Our Love"...
, and the Tonight Show Band.
His son, Gerald Clayton
Gerald Clayton
Gerald William Clayton is a jazz pianist and composer born in Utrecht, Netherlands, and raised in Southern California. He is the son of bassist/bandleader John Clayton and the nephew of multi-instrumentalist wind player Jeff Clayton.-Biography:...
, is an accomplished jazz pianist, placing second in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition in 2006.
Grammys
In 2007, John Clayton won a Grammy for Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s): "I'm Gonna Live Till I Die,"(Queen Latifah) John Clayton, arranger.In December 2009 Brother To Brother by The Clayton Brothers received a Grammy nomination in the Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group category.