John Clayton (bassist)

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John Clayton (right) with Jiggs Whigham in 1989 . Courtesy of the Fraser MacPherson Estate

John Lee Clayton junior (* 20th August 1952 in Venice , Los Angeles ) is an American jazz - bassist , arranger and big band leader.

music

John Clayton took double bass lessons from the age of 16, among others with Ray Brown . Just three years later he played with Henry Mancini in his television series The Mancini Generation . He celebrated his first successes with the Monty Alexander Trio and the Count Basie Orchestra before he was accepted as a double bass player in the Amsterdam Philharmonic Orchestra . During this time he also worked on Joe van Enkhuizen's album Back on the Scene . After five years he returned to the United States to study jazz and composition. A little later he founded the Clayton Hamilton Orchestra and the Clayton Brothers Jazz Quintet together with his brother, the saxophone player Jeff Clayton , and the drummer Jeff Hamilton . From 1999 to 2001 he was artistic director for the jazz program of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. Most recently he has been the artistic director of the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival . He also teaches jazz at the University of Southern California and is president of the 1,500-member International Bassist Association.

Clayton composed and arranged music for artists such as Diana Krall , Whitney Houston , Carmen McRae , Nancy Wilson , Ernestine Anderson , Michael Bublé , Quincy Jones , Dee Dee Bridgewater , Natalie Cole , the Tonight Show Band and the WDR Big Band . He caused a stir in 2009 with the joint production with Charles Aznavour , for which he created new big band arrangements for his chansons.

He is the father of jazz pianist Gerald Clayton .

literature

  • Kunzler Jazz Lexicon 2002

Footnotes

  1. ↑ AllAboutJazz.com: Artist portrait ( Memento of the original from April 6, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Accessed: May 23, 2009) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.allaboutjazz.com

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Clayton, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Clayton, John Lee Junior (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz bassist, arranger and big band leader
DATE OF BIRTH 20th August 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH Venice , California