Gerald Clayton

At 27 years old and having released his second album Bond: The Paris Sessions (Decca/Emarcy), Gerald Clayton has achieved several milestones.  With two Grammy® nominations already, and having recently received a third nomination for Bond as ‘Best Instrumental Jazz Album of the Year, Gerald is no stranger to recognition and acclaim.

A 2010 Downbeat Magazine’s Critic’s Poll Rising Star, Gerald has been honing his craft steadily since high school.  With the release of Two-Shade in 2009, Gerald began his ascent as a leader in the jazz world.  Combining the age-old sounds of jazz melody with modern takes on old favorites as well as inspired original compositions, Gerald makes his mark once again with Bond.

“Tradition and innovation can peacefully coexist,” says Gerald.  And exist they do with pieces crafted not only by Gerald, but also by his father, Grammy®-winning bassist John Clayton as well as Gerald’s band mates  bassist Joe Sanders and drummer Justin Brown.

Bond is more than a merging of musical styles- it is a fusion of young and old, combining time-honored melodies with hip rhythms… the new sound of jazz.  Gerald’s own trio provides him with the vehicle to explore and expand on his own vision of the music. He has been praised for presenting a “deconstructivist aesthetic” with “a stronghold on the swing factor”.   

The album was recorded in Paris at Studio de Meudon, and engineered by Grammy®-winner Joel Moss.  “I'm very excited to share this project with everyone, as it exhibits a new level of chemistry that has developed between the three of us. Since each of the compositions is dedicated to various personal bonds in my life, listening back conjures up specific memories and emotions for me. I hope the listener will enjoy the musical conversations taking place as much as I value the opportunity to bond with the trio.” says Gerald.
 
His dynamic and award-winning sound has been praised in print many times over by publications such as the Jazz Times and the Los Angeles Times. The New York Times has saluted his “huge, authoritative presence” and Down Beat Magazine’s 2008 Readers’ Poll named him one of the top up-and-coming pianists to watch.  As a composer, his work has been commissioned by the Jazz Gallery in New York City and performed overseas with the BBC Orchestra.  He has been honored with grants from the National Endowment of the Arts and the Western Jazz Presenters Network as well as a Level 1 award by the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts (NFAA), the title “Presidential Scholar in the Arts,” and second place in the Thelonious Monk Institute Jazz Piano Competition.  He recently won the Edison Award for best international jazz album as well.

Born in the Netherlands in 1984, Gerald grew up mainly in Los Angeles with a musical family that includes his father, bassist/composer John Clayton, and uncle, saxophonist Jeff Clayton.  At the age of six Gerald began eleven years study of classical piano with Linda Buck before enrolling in the Jazz Studies program at the University of Southern California.  In college in Los Angeles and a year at the Manhattan School of Music, Gerald studied piano and composition under Shelly Berg, Billy Childs, and Kenny Barron.    

Professionally, Gerald has had the honor of performing nationally and internationally with some of the most established names in Jazz such as Lewis Nash, Al Foster, Terrell Stafford and Clark Terry. Duo piano concerts with Gerald have featured artists as celebrated and diverse as Hank Jones, Benny Green, Kenny Barron, Mulgrew Miller and Tamir Hendelman.  Gerald also relishes playing with Jazz’s next generation of innovators: Ambrose Akinmusire, Dayna Stephens, Kendrick Scott, Sachal Vasandani and many others.

From 2006-2008, Gerald toured extensively with Roy Hargrove in his quintet, big band, and funk group before breaking out on his own with the Gerald Clayton Trio [featuring Sanders and Brown].  Gerald is still a member of the Clayton Brothers Quintet and also performs not only duos with his dad but also ‘Father, Son, and Godfather’ concerts with longtime Clayton family friend, drummer Jeff Hamilton.  

Gerald relishes a method of open-mindedness: “I have listened to lots of different musical styles as long as I can remember. I continue to absorb all these influences and in doing so create my own voice—by combining their forces into a harmonic whole…I seek to blend the various styles and sounds I love into a balanced, tasteful musical language.”  

http://www.geraldclayton.com/

"That's Gerald Clayton on piano on the title track, he's an amazing piano player and I think he played the hell out of that tune." - Diana Krall

"The New York Times hails him for having a "huge, authoritative presence, an Oscar Peterson like style, and highly controlled touch."

"His style synthesizes economy, variety and harmonic ideas from players like Cedar Walton and Kenny Barron, as well as some flourishes and grandstanding energy from Oscar Peterson and Art Tatum."  - New YorkTimes

"Individually and collectively, (the Gerald Clayton Trio's) performance was at a stunningly high professional level--enhanced by the enthusiastic feeling of exhilaration in everything they played." - Don Heckman, Los Angeles Times, March 20, 2002

"At a time when jazz piano prodigies are moving into the spotlight around the world, Clayton is showing all the signs of becoming one of the most significant young jazz artists to emerge in the Southland in recent years." - Don Heckman, Los Angeles Times, November 26, 2003

"It seems certain that we will soon know more of the pianist [in the Roy Hargrove Big Band] Gerald Clayton, who precision-carved his accompaniments and then exploded the band's palette during Chucho Valdes's "Mambo for Roy ," turning a mambo-rhythm solo into a fantasia of classical Romanticism." - Ben Ratliff, The New York Times, December 31, 2005

"At the youthful end, the gifted 21-year-old Gerald Clayton offered a mini-history of styles in his rendering of "Days of Wine and Roses." - Don Heckman, Los Angeles Times, February, 2006

"As John Clayton, the father, watched from the wings, Gerald Clayton, the son, opened the 12th annual Vail Jazz Festival on Friday with a single note. Quietly and confidently, a repeated "F" began Charlie Parker's "Au Privave" and signaled the start to the best opening night in recent festival history." - Mark Ball, Vail Daily News, September 2, 2006

"And Gerald Clayton from California , also 22 and the son of the bassist John Clayton, came to destroy: his playing had huge, authoritative presence, an Oscar Peterson-like style, highly controlled touch and dynamics and rhapsodic, episodic soloing. (The audience broke into applause durng his solo.)" - Ben Ratliff, The New York Times, September 18, 2006

• Ben Williams: State of Art
• The Gerald Clayton Trio: Bond: The Paris Sessions, Decca/Universal 2011
• Ambrose Akimusire: When the Heart Emerges Glistening, Bluenote Records, 2011
• Matthew Rybicki: Driven, Accession Records, 2011
• Clayton Brothers Quintet: The New Song and Dance, ArtistShare 2010 [Grammy Nominee]
• "Battle Circle" Grammy nominee 2010
• Don Braden-Mark Rapp: The Strayhorn Project, Premium Music Solutions 2009
• Sadao Watanabe: Into Tomorrow: Victor 2009
• The Gerald Clayton Trio : Two-Shade, Artistshare, 2009
• 'All of You' from Two-Shade, Grammy nominee 2009
• Frank Weiss: Once is Not Enough, La Beth 2009
• Roy Hargrove Big Band: Emergence, Groovin' High 2009
• Melissa Morgan: Until I Met You, Telarc 2009
• Kendrick Scott: Reverence, Criss Cross Jazz 2009
• Maya Hatch: My Foolish Heart, 2009 Clayton Brothers Quintet-Brother to Brother, Artistshare, 2008 [Grammy Nominee]
• Roy Hargrove: Earfood, Emarcy 2008
• Roberta Gambarini - Easy to Love, Groovin' High/Kindred Rhythm 2006
• [Grammy nominee] Diana Krall - From This Moment On, Verve 2006 -- Piano (tracks 1, 5, 8, 10)
• [Grammy nominee] Laura Welland - Dissertation on the State of Bliss, OA2 Records, 2005
• Diana Krall: Christmas Songs, Verve 2005
• Clayton Brothers - Back In The Swing Of Things, Sin-Drome Records 2005
• Teedra Moses - Complex Simplicity, TVT 2004
• Bobby Rodriguez - Trumpet Talk, LatinJazz Productions, 2003

• Biography (PDF format)
• HI - Resolution Photo #1
• HI - Resolution Photo #2
• HI - Resolution Photo #3
• Press 1
• Press 2
• Press 3
  
  
• Combined Press Kit