Updated: February 8, 2024
Born: August 20, 1952
John Clayton is a natural born multitasker. The multiple roles in which he excels—composer, arranger, conductor, producer, educator, and yes, extraordinary bassist—garner him a number of challenging assignments and commissions. With a Grammy on his shelf and eight additional nominations, artists such as Diana Krall, Paul McCartney, McCoy Tyner, Milt Jackson, Regina Carter, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Gladys Knight, Dr. John, Queen Latifah, and Charles Aznevour vie for a spot on his crowded calendar.
He began his bass career in elementary school playing in strings class, junior orchestra, high school jazz band, orchestra, and soul/R&B groups. In 1969, at the age of 16, he enrolled in bassist Ray Brown's jazz class at UCLA, beginning a close relationship that lasted more than three decades. After graduating from Indiana University's School of Music with a degree in bass performance in 1975, he toured with the Monty Alexander Trio (1975-77), the Count Basie Orchestra (1977-79), and settled in as principal bassist with the Amsterdam Philharmonic Orchestra in Amsterdam, Netherlands (1980-85). He was also a bass instructor at The Royal Conservatory, The Hague, Holland from 1980-83.
In 1985 he returned to California, co-founded the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, rekindled the The Clayton Brothers quintet, and taught part-time bass at Cal State Long Beach, UCLA and USC. In 1988 he joined he faculty of the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, where he taught until 2009. Now, in addition to individual clinics, workshops, and private students as schedule permits, John also directs the educational components associated with the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival, Centrum Festival, and Vail Jazz Party.
Career highlights include arranging the 'Star Spangled Banner" for Whitney Houston's performance at Super Bowl 1990 (the recording went platinum), playing bass on Paul McCartney's CD “Kisses On The Bottom,” arranging and playing bass with Yo-Yo Ma and Friends on "Songs of Joy and Peace," arranging playing and conducting the 2009 CD "Charles Aznavour With the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra," and numerous recordings with Diana Krall, the Clayton Brothers, Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, Milt Jackson, Monty Alexander, et al.
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Paul Kuhn: The LA Session
by Richard J Salvucci
Paul Kuhn (1928-2013) was a German jazz pianist who was well known in his own country, but much less so in the United States. All things considered, given that he spent the formative year of his adolescence in Nazi Germany, he was probably lucky to have survived at all. The Nazis, like most authoritarians, frowned on swing and jazz. They considered it the product of a degraded race and gateway drug of sorts to all sorts of perversions of which ...
read moreJack Jones Featuring Joey DeFrancesco: ArtWork
by Nicholas F. Mondello
"Those who know, know" happens to be a soon-to-be-overused phrase to describe the hip, the “In," and “the very elite of aware." Now in his Mid-80s, Jack Jones has maintained a stellar, cross-media career, all on a foundation of a once-in-a-lifetime voice. Mel Torme, one not easily prone to hyperbole, called Jones, “the best pure singer in the business." Torme and others in the Vocal Pantheon knew. With ArtWork, Jones joins forces with the late multi-instrumentalist and ...
read moreJack Jones Featuring Joey DeFrancesco: ArtWork
by Jack Bowers
If a singer's reputation is so impressive that he or she is able to enlist a full orchestra (with bassist John Clayton conducting) and the late organ maestro Joey DeFrancesco as featured soloist, that is certainly enough to warrant attention. The singer in this instance is two-time Grammy winner Jack Jones, the orchestra an assemblage of some of the Los Angeles area's finest musicians, enlarged by a thirty-member string section. On one hand, Jones remains a smooth ...
read moreRoberta Gambarini: Easy To Love
by Richard J Salvucci
In 2007, All About Jazz reviewer Michael Caratti wrote: “This debut outing from Roberta Gambarini sees the Italian-born jazz vocalist pair up with two star-studded rhythm sections and legendary tenor saxophonist James Moody, to present what has to be one of the best vocal jazz albums of the decade. Opening with Cole Porter's classic title track Gambarini's exquisite tone and masterful rhythmic phrasing are immediately on display in the first a capella section. The gradual addition of bass and brushes ...
read moreThe Optimal Evolution of Amersfoort World Jazz
by Phillip Woolever
A multitude of festivals recently returned from the pandemic wasteland as the world of live music played catch-up from over two years of interruptions, but few comebacks in the busy summer of 2022 were as uniformly strong as the full reopening of the Amersfoort World Jazz Festival. During what is likely now a permanent switch from the previous spring time frame to an early August edition, Amersfoort elevated its status as a multi-venue concert program, showcase-type exhibition series, and marketing ...
read moreDoug MacDonald: I'll See You in My Dreams
by Jack Bowers
There is at least one constant in guitarist Doug MacDonald's long and rewarding career: he likes to stay busy, whether hosting live gigs or inhabiting a recording studio. MacDonald's latest quartet session, I'll See You in My Dreams, is at least his twenty- ninth as leader of groups of various sizes and shapes. It is also a homecoming of sorts, as MacDonald is reunited here with the co-leaders of one of his earlier employers, the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, namely bassist ...
read moreCraig Davis: Tone Paintings
by Jack Bowers
The subtitle of pianist Craig Davis' second album, Tone Paintings, is “The Music of Dodo Marmarosa." For those who may be inclined to ask, “Dodo who?" the album offers a mini-biography of Pittsburgh-born Michael (Dodo) Marmarosa, an exceptionally talented pianist whose promising early career was cut short by the crushing weight of mental and emotional problems that proved too unbearable for him to overcome. At his peak, in the decade from 1940-50, Marmarosa was a member of big bands led ...
read moreChristian McBride, John Clayton Highlight Virtual Tri-C JazzFest
Source:
All About Jazz
Two of the jazz world’s preeminent bassists—Christian McBride and John Clayton—will share stories via live chats during the virtual edition of the 41st annual Tri-C JazzFest Cleveland, presented by KeyBank. Each Grammy Award winner highlights a night of music during the three-day online event Friday, Aug. 21, to Sunday, Aug. 23. Listen for McBride on the festival’s first day; Clayton is set to call in Saturday, Aug. 22. The free virtual festival begins at 7 p.m. each night and will ...
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Jazz at sea with healthy doses of Latin flavor
Source:
Ken Franckling's Jazz Notes
Anybody who didn’t hear enough music aboard the 2019 edition of The Jazz Cruise only has themselves to blame. The offerings were plentiful and varied, with music running from 11:30 a.m. to after 1 a.m., with staggered programming in five different performance spaces. There were more than 100 jazz musicians in the lineup, and about 2,000 passengers aboard the m/s Celebrity Infinity. The cruise departed Fort Lauderdale FL on Saturday, January 19 and returned a week later after brief stops ...
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John Clayton Launches Fan-funded Parlor Series On Artistshare
Source:
Brian Camelio
John Clayton has just launched his new Parlor Series Project on ArtistShare. This Fan-Funded project will feature a series of duet recordings with John Clayton and special guests. here is what John Clayton has to say about this project:: “I am very excited to announce a new series of recordings that I will be sharing with you through ArtistShare: The John Clayton Parlor Series. This project has been an ongoing dream of mine. For years, I have had an ever-growing ...
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Jazz This Week: Dan Hicks, John Clayton and Gerald Clayton, Lotte Anker Trio, Danny Fox, and More
Source:
St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
With a bit of spring in the air this week in St. Louis, there's also plenty of live jazz and creative music happening around town to get out and enjoy over the next few days. Let's go to the highlights... Tonight, singer-guitarist Dan Hicks returns to the St. Louis area for a performance at the Wildey Theatre in Edwardsville. Hicks' mix of Gyspy jazz, swing, country, blues and folk has been entertaining audiences for nearly fifty years now, and continue ...
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Columbus Jazz Orchestra Pays Tribute To Rosa Parks In Suite Rosa - Jan. 25-26 At Lincoln Theatre
Source:
Scott Vezdos
Columbus, OH – Under the direction of Byron Stripling, the Columbus Jazz Orchestra (CJO) is proud to celebrate the courage, dignity, and legacy of “the mother of the modern Civil Rights Movement," Rosa Parks in “Suite Rosa" (January 25-26, 2013 at the Lincoln Theatre). In connection with the 100th anniversary of her birth, this multi-disciplinary concert will recall the day in 1955 when Rosa Parks courageously refused to give up her seat on the bus, and, through modern and historical ...
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Singer Jackie Ryan Returns; "Listen Here" Also Features John Clayton & Friends
Source:
Michael Bloom Media Relations
Jackie Ryan teams with Grammy Award winner John Clayton to deliver a tour de force through a myriad of jazz idioms ─ from blues & gospel flavored jazz gems, to luscious love songs, a soaring Spanish ballad, a Gershwin classic, pulsating samba rhythms ─ and culminates with the title track: a duet with three-time Grammy nominee Gerald Clayton. Listen Here is at once both a testimony and a tribute ─ a testimony to this artist’s love of exploration, and a ...
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A Free Bass Lesson from John Clayton
Source:
Michael Ricci
ArtistShare pays tribute to John Clayton, a stellar bassist and a valued part of the ArtistShare family. We invite you to experience his musical world by accessing an exclusive free online bass lesson at artistshare.com. John, along with his brother Jeff, are working on a new ArtistShare fan-funded project, entitled The New Song and Dance. Watch as The Clayton Brothers write, perform and record compositions and arrangements inspired by dance.
About John Clayton The sheer wizardry of his ...
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John Clayton and Jeff Hamilton - Rhythm is Their Business
Source:
Michael Ricci
Rhythm is their business John Clayton and Jeff Hamilton keep the heart of the big band beating.
October 23, 2009 By Bill Meredith Jazz & Blues Florida For 25 years, bassist John Clayton and drummer Jeff Hamilton have formed the back line of the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra. Founded in 1985 and co-led by Clayton's saxophone-playing brother Jeff Clayton, the big band has recorded a handful of stellar CDs and served as the in-residence ensemble ...
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2008 University of Michigan Jazz Festival Featuring the John Clayton Quintet
Source:
JazzStage Productions
Ann Arbor, MI - The University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance presents the 2008 Jazz Festival Feature Concert in honor of Ray Brown Day, with guest artist The John Clayton Quintet on Saturday, February 9, 2008 at the Power Center in Ann Arbor at 8:00 p.m. The concert will also feature the University of Michigan Jazz Ensemble under the direction of Ellen Rowe. Highlights of the concert will include John Clayton conducting the Jazz Ensemble in his ...
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KJO Featuring: Donald Brown, John Clayton, Stefon Harris and Gregory Tardy
Source:
All About Jazz
Knoxville Jazz Orchestra - Blues Man from Memphis
More from the Musical Mind of Donald Brown
Featuring John Clayton, Stefon Harris, and Gregory Tardy
The Knoxville Jazz Orchestra's debut cd for Blue Canoe Records, “Blues Man from Memphis", is a most adventurous big band effort featuring the work of Donald Brown. The recording also highlights the prodigious talents of three other world renowned artists: bassist John Clayton, vibraphonist Stefon Harris, and saxophonist Greg Tardy.
Pianist Donald Brown (who also produced ...
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Buddy Rich
drums
Bix Beiderbecke
cornet
Ray Brown
bass, acoustic
Dave Carpenter
bass
Oscar Pettiford
bass
Henry Grimes
bass, acoustic
Billy Taylor
piano
Frank Foster
saxophone
Rufus Reid
bass, acoustic
Henri Texier
bass
Sam Jones
bass, acoustic
Don Menza
saxophone
Billy Higgins
drums
Milt Hinton
bass, acoustic
Curtis Counce
bass, acoustic
Leroy Vinnegar
bass, acousticArtists who share similar musical characteristics to John Clayton.
Ray Brown
bass, acoustic
Reuel Lubag
piano
Knoxville Jazz Orchestra
band / ensemble / orchestra
Amy Shook
bass, acoustic
Ross Kratter
bass
Ben Hedquist
bass, acoustic
Domi Edson
bass
