Gerald Clayton

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Gerald Clayton (born May 11, 1984 in Utrecht ) is an American jazz pianist and composer of mainstream jazz .

Gerald Clayton 2005

Live and act

Clayton is the son of bassist John Clayton and nephew of alto saxophonist and flautist Jeff Clayton . He grew up in California and studied from the age of seven classical piano and later jazz piano with Donald Vega, Billy Childs, Shelly Berg and Kenny Barron at the Manhattan School of Music . He graduated from Los Angeles County High School for the Arts in 2002 (with Honors, receiving the school's Presidential Scholar of the Arts ) and the same year he received the Shelly Manne Award for Young Artist from the Los Angeles Jazz Society. In 2006 he received his bachelor's degree in jazz from the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California(where his father was one of the teachers). In the same year he was runner-up in the Thelonious Monk Institute's Jazz Piano Competition (first was Tigran Hamasyan ) and moved to New York City.

Clayton names among his influences, in addition to his father, Oscar Peterson , Ray Brown , Monty Alexander and Benny Green (he has also played in a duo with Green and Barron). He played with the Clayton Brothers and the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra (both with Jeff Clayton), played with his father John Clayton and has his own Gerald Clayton Trio (with Joe Sanders , bass, Justin Brown , drums). He toured with the Roy Hargrove Quintet and its big band in 2006 and 2007 and performs regularly at the Jazz Gallery in New York with his own compositions (some of which were commissioned by the Jazz Gallery). His compositions have also been played by the BBC Orchestra. In 2009 he performed at the Ruhr Piano Festival in Bochum and in 2008 at the Umbria Jazz Festival.

He accompanied Diana Krall (albums From This Moment on , Christmas Songs ), Michael Bublé ( Call me irresponsible ) and Roberta Gambarini (album Easy to Love ).

Prizes and awards

In 2011 he received the Edison Jazz Award for best international jazz musician (for his album Bond: The Paris Sessions , EmArcy, with trio) and played with his trio at the North Sea Jazz Festival . In 2010 his composition Battle Circle was nominated for a Grammy and in 2009 his solo on All of You ( Cole Porter ) on his debut album Two Shade (EmArcy, with his trio) in the category Best Improvised Jazz Solo . In 2008, he was included in the list of promising young talents in the Down Beat Reader Polls . His tributary tales with their theming of connections, transitions and mouths became the “album of the week” in 2016 on NDR .

Discographic notes

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Album of the week NDR, July 6, 2017
personal data
SURNAME Clayton, Gerald
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz pianist and composer
DATE OF BIRTH May 11, 1984
PLACE OF BIRTH Utrecht