Buck Clayton
Encyclopedia
Buck Clayton was an American jazz
trumpet
player who was a leading member of Count Basie’s
"Old Testament" orchestra and a leader of mainstream-oriented jam session recordings in the 1950s. His principal influence was Louis Armstrong
. The Penguin Guide to Jazz
says that he “synthesi[zed] much of the history of jazz trumpet up to his own time, with a bright brassy tone and an apparently limitless facility for melodic improvisation”. Clayton worked closely with Li Jinhui
, father of Chinese popular music in Shanghai
. His contributions helped change musical history in China
, Hong Kong
and Taiwan
.
. He later formed a band named “14 Gentlemen from Harlem” in which he was the leader of the 14-member orchestra.
From there, there are multiple sources claiming different ways in which Clayton ended up in Shanghai. Some claimed that Clayton was picked by Teddy Weatherford
for a job at the Canidrome
ballroom in the French Concession in Shanghai. Others claimed he escaped the US temporarily to avoid racism
.
From 1934 or 1935, depending on the sources, he was a leader of the "Harlem Gentlemen" in Shanghai. His experience in the east was unique, since Clayton was discriminated against by fellow American marines who were stationed in Shanghai. On numerous accounts, he was attacked by soldiers, including an instance where bricks were thrown at him. On the contrary he was treated like an elite by the Chinese. Some of the bureaucratic social groups he was with included Chiang Kai-shek
's wife Soong Mei-ling and her sister Ai-ling, who were regulars at the Canidrome. Clayton would play a number of songs that were composed by Li Jinhui
, while adopting the Chinese music scale into the American scale. Li learned a great deal from the American jazz influence brought over by Clayton. A 1935 guidebook in Shanghai listed Clayton and Teddy Weatherford
as the main jazz attraction at the Canidrome. He would eventually leave Shanghai before the 1937 Second Sino-Japanese War
. Clayton is credited for helping to close the gap between traditional Chinese music and shidaiqu
/mandopop
. Li is mostly remembered in China as a casualty of the Cultural Revolution
.
in New York
, but while moving east he stopped off in Kansas City
and was persuaded to stay by Count Basie
, whose orchestra had a residency at the Reno Club, and took the trumpet chair recently vacated by Hot Lips Page. From 1937, the Count Basie orchestra was based in New York, giving Clayton the opportunity to freelance in the recordings studios, and he participated in recordings sessions featuring Billie Holiday
and was also present on Commodore
(and later Keynote Records
) sessions with Lester Young
. Clayton remained with Basie until he was drafted for war service in November 1943. Based at Camp Kilmer
near New York, Clayton was able to participate in various all-star sessions, some of which were led by Sy Oliver
.
, Benny Goodman
and Harry James
and became a member of Norman Granz’s
'Jazz at the Philharmonic
' package, appearing in April in a concert with Young, Coleman Hawkins
and Charlie Parker
, and in October participated in JATPs first national tour of the United States. He also recorded at this time for the H.R.S. label. In 1947 he was back in New York, and had a residency at the Café Society
, Downtown, and the following year had a reunion with Jimmy Rushing
, his fellow Basie alumni, at the Savoy Ballroom
. Clayton and Rushing worked together occasionally in to the 1960s.
From September 1949 he was in Europe
for nine months, leading his own band in France
. Clayton recorded intermittently over the next few tears for the French Vogue
label, under his own name, that of clarinetist Mezz Mezzrow
and for one session, with pianist Earl Hines
. In 1953, he was again in Europe, touring with Mezzrow; in Italy
; the group was joined (improbably) by Frank Sinatra
.
coined the term "mainstream" in the 1950s to describe the style of those swing era players who fell between the revivalist and modernist camps. Clayton was precisely one of the players to whom this appellation most applied. In December 1953 Clayton embarked on a series of jam session albums for Columbia
, which had been the idea of John Hammond
, though George Avakian
was the principal producer. The recording sessions for these albums lasted until 1956. The tracks could last the length of a LP side, and it had been the new format that had given Hammond the idea, but sometimes this led to unfortunate anomalies. The title track the Jumping at the Woodside album was compiled from two takes recorded four months apart, each with a completely different rhythm section. His Jazz Spectacular
album from this series (with Kai Winding
, J. J. Johnson and vocals by Frankie Laine
) is loved by jazz and pop fans alike. Clayton also recorded at this time for Vanguard
, with Hammond producing, under his own name and on dates led by Ruby Braff
, Mel Powell
and Sir Charles Thompson.
In 1955 he appeared in the Benny Goodman Story, also working with Goodman in New York at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
two years later. In 1958 he was at the World Fair
in Brussels for concerts with Sidney Bechet
, and toured Europe the following year and annually through the 1960s. For the Swingville label (a subsidiary of Prestige Records
) he co-led two albums with former Basie colleague Buddy Tate and supported Pee Wee Russell
on his own outing for the label.
In 1964 he performed in Japan
, Australia
and New Zealand
with Eddie Condon
, with whom he had already occasionally worked for several years. In the early ‘sixties he guested with the band of British
trumpeter Humphrey Lyttelton
in public performances and on several record albums. In order to hoodwink the musicians' union
in the UK, it was necessary to claim that these albums were recorded in Switzerland.
, but had to permanently stop playing in 1979, though he still worked as an arranger. He began to teach at Hunter College
, CUNY
from 1975–80 and again in the early eighties.
The semi-autobiography, Buck Clayton’s Jazz World, co-authored by Nancy Miller Elliott, first appeared in 1986. In the same year, his new Big Band debuted at the Brooklyn Museum
in New York, and Clayton toured internationally with it, contributing 100 compositions to the band book.
Buck Clayton died quietly in his sleep in 1991.
band. In his early twenties he was based in California
, and was briefly a member of Duke Ellington’s Orchestra and worked with other leaders. Clayton was also taught at this time by trumpeter Mutt Carey
, who later emerged as a prominent west-coast revivalist in the 1940s.
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...
trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
player who was a leading member of Count Basie’s
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...
"Old Testament" orchestra and a leader of mainstream-oriented jam session recordings in the 1950s. His principal influence was Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
. The Penguin Guide to Jazz
The Penguin Guide to Jazz
The Penguin Guide to Jazz is a reference work containing an encyclopedic directory of jazz recordings on CD which are currently available in Europe or the United States...
says that he “synthesi[zed] much of the history of jazz trumpet up to his own time, with a bright brassy tone and an apparently limitless facility for melodic improvisation”. Clayton worked closely with Li Jinhui
Li Jinhui
Li Jinhui was a composer and songwriter born in Xiangtan, Hunan, China. He is the "Father of Chinese popular music". He created a new musical form with shidaiqu after the fall of the Qing Dynasty-- moving away from established musical forms. Li was a very controversial figure in China...
, father of Chinese popular music in Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
. His contributions helped change musical history in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
and Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
.
Early years
Clayton played piano when he was six years old and switched to trumpet when he was a teenager. After high school, he moved to Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. He later formed a band named “14 Gentlemen from Harlem” in which he was the leader of the 14-member orchestra.
From there, there are multiple sources claiming different ways in which Clayton ended up in Shanghai. Some claimed that Clayton was picked by Teddy Weatherford
Teddy Weatherford
Teddy Weatherford was a jazz pianist, an accomplished stride pianist.Weatherford was born in Pocahontas, Virginia and was raised in neighboring Bluefield, West Virginia. From 1915 through 1920 he lived in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he learned to play jazz piano...
for a job at the Canidrome
Canidrome (Shanghai)
The Shanghai Cultural Plaza precinct is an area in Shanghai's Luwan District, in the former French Concession of Shanghai, China. The area began as the Canidrome , a stadium structure originally built for greyhound racing in 1928....
ballroom in the French Concession in Shanghai. Others claimed he escaped the US temporarily to avoid racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
.
From 1934 or 1935, depending on the sources, he was a leader of the "Harlem Gentlemen" in Shanghai. His experience in the east was unique, since Clayton was discriminated against by fellow American marines who were stationed in Shanghai. On numerous accounts, he was attacked by soldiers, including an instance where bricks were thrown at him. On the contrary he was treated like an elite by the Chinese. Some of the bureaucratic social groups he was with included Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He is known as Jiǎng Jièshí or Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng in Mandarin....
's wife Soong Mei-ling and her sister Ai-ling, who were regulars at the Canidrome. Clayton would play a number of songs that were composed by Li Jinhui
Li Jinhui
Li Jinhui was a composer and songwriter born in Xiangtan, Hunan, China. He is the "Father of Chinese popular music". He created a new musical form with shidaiqu after the fall of the Qing Dynasty-- moving away from established musical forms. Li was a very controversial figure in China...
, while adopting the Chinese music scale into the American scale. Li learned a great deal from the American jazz influence brought over by Clayton. A 1935 guidebook in Shanghai listed Clayton and Teddy Weatherford
Teddy Weatherford
Teddy Weatherford was a jazz pianist, an accomplished stride pianist.Weatherford was born in Pocahontas, Virginia and was raised in neighboring Bluefield, West Virginia. From 1915 through 1920 he lived in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he learned to play jazz piano...
as the main jazz attraction at the Canidrome. He would eventually leave Shanghai before the 1937 Second Sino-Japanese War
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. From 1937 to 1941, China fought Japan with some economic help from Germany , the Soviet Union and the United States...
. Clayton is credited for helping to close the gap between traditional Chinese music and shidaiqu
Shidaiqu
Shidaiqu is a type of Chinese folk/European jazz fusion music that originated in Shanghai, China, in the 1920s.-Terminology:The term literally means "songs of the era" in Mandarin...
/mandopop
Mandopop
Mandopop is a colloquial abbreviation for "Mandarin popular music." It is categorized as a subgenre of commercial Chinese-language music within C-pop. Mandopop was the first variety of popular music in Chinese to establish itself as a viable industry. As the name implies, Mandopop features songs...
. Li is mostly remembered in China as a casualty of the Cultural Revolution
Cultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...
.
US career
Later that year he accepted an offer from bandleader Willie BryantWillie Bryant
Willie Bryant was an American jazz bandleader, vocalist, and disc jockey.Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, Bryant grew up in Chicago and took trumpet lessons to little success. His first job in entertainment was dancing in the Whitman Sisters Show in 1926...
in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, but while moving east he stopped off in Kansas City
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
and was persuaded to stay by Count Basie
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...
, whose orchestra had a residency at the Reno Club, and took the trumpet chair recently vacated by Hot Lips Page. From 1937, the Count Basie orchestra was based in New York, giving Clayton the opportunity to freelance in the recordings studios, and he participated in recordings sessions featuring Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing...
and was also present on Commodore
Commodore Records
Commodore Records was a United States-based independent record label known for issuing many well regarded recordings of jazz and swing music....
(and later Keynote Records
Keynote Records
Keynote Records was a record label founded by record store owner Eric Bernay in 1940. The label's initial releases were folk and protest songs from the Soviet Union and the Spanish Civil War, and several anti-war releases from American musicians followed...
) sessions with Lester Young
Lester Young
Lester Willis Young , nicknamed "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and clarinetist. He also played trumpet, violin, and drums....
. Clayton remained with Basie until he was drafted for war service in November 1943. Based at Camp Kilmer
Camp Kilmer
Camp Kilmer, New Jersey is a former United States Army camp that was activated in June 1942 as a staging area and part of an installation of the New York Port of Embarkation. The camp was organized as part of the Army Service Forces Transportation Corps. Troops were quartered at Camp Kilmer in...
near New York, Clayton was able to participate in various all-star sessions, some of which were led by Sy Oliver
Sy Oliver
Melvin "Sy" Oliver was a jazz arranger, trumpeter, composer, singer and bandleader...
.
Post-war
After his honorable discharge in 1946 he prepared arrangements for Count BasieCount Basie
William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...
, Benny Goodman
Benny Goodman
Benjamin David “Benny” Goodman was an American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and bandleader; widely known as the "King of Swing".In the mid-1930s, Benny Goodman led one of the most popular musical groups in America...
and Harry James
Harry James
Henry Haag “Harry” James was a trumpeter who led a jazz swing band during the Big Band Era of the 1930s and 1940s. He was especially known among musicians for his astonishing technical proficiency as well as his superior tone.-Biography:He was born in Albany, Georgia, the son of a bandleader of a...
and became a member of Norman Granz’s
Norman Granz
Norman Granz was an American jazz music impresario and producer.Granz was a fundamental figure in American jazz, especially from about 1947 to 1960...
'Jazz at the Philharmonic
Jazz at the Philharmonic
Jazz at the Philharmonic, or JATP, was the title of a series of jazz concerts, tours and recordings produced by Norman Granz....
' package, appearing in April in a concert with Young, Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Randolph Hawkins was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Hawkins was one of the first prominent jazz musicians on his instrument. As Joachim E. Berendt explained, "there were some tenor players before him, but the instrument was not an acknowledged jazz horn"...
and Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....
, and in October participated in JATPs first national tour of the United States. He also recorded at this time for the H.R.S. label. In 1947 he was back in New York, and had a residency at the Café Society
Café Society
Café society was the collective description for the so-called "Beautiful People" and "Bright Young Things" who gathered in fashionable cafes and restaurants in New York, Paris, and London beginning in the late 19th century...
, Downtown, and the following year had a reunion with Jimmy Rushing
Jimmy Rushing
James Andrew Rushing , known as Jimmy Rushing, was an American blues shouter and swing jazz singer from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, best known as the featured vocalist of Count Basie's Orchestra from 1935 to 1948.Rushing was known as "Mr...
, his fellow Basie alumni, at the Savoy Ballroom
Savoy Ballroom
The Savoy Ballroom, located in Harlem, New York City, was a medium sized ballroom for music and public dancing that was in operation from March 12, 1926 to July 10, 1958. It was located between 140th and 141st Streets on Lenox Avenue....
. Clayton and Rushing worked together occasionally in to the 1960s.
From September 1949 he was in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
for nine months, leading his own band in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. Clayton recorded intermittently over the next few tears for the French Vogue
Vogue Records
Vogue Records was a short-lived United States based record label of the 1940s, noted for the artwork embedded in the records themselves. Founded in 1946 as part of Sav-Way Industries of Detroit, Michigan, the discs were initially a hit, because of the novelty of the colorful artwork, and the...
label, under his own name, that of clarinetist Mezz Mezzrow
Mezz Mezzrow
Milton Mesirow, better known as Mezz Mezzrow was an American jazz clarinetist and saxophonist from Chicago, Illinois. Mezzrow is well known for organizing and financing historic recording sessions with Tommy Ladnier and Sidney Bechet. Mezzrow also recorded a number of times with Bechet and...
and for one session, with pianist Earl Hines
Earl Hines
Earl Kenneth Hines, universally known as Earl "Fatha" Hines, was an American jazz pianist. Hines was one of the most influential figures in the development of modern jazz piano and, according to one source, is "one of a small number of pianists whose playing shaped the history of jazz".-Early...
. In 1953, he was again in Europe, touring with Mezzrow; in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
; the group was joined (improbably) by Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
.
Mainstreamer
The English critic Stanley DanceStanley Dance
Stanley Dance was a jazz writer and oral historian of the swing era.He began writing about the jazz scene for the French magazine Jazz Hot in 1935...
coined the term "mainstream" in the 1950s to describe the style of those swing era players who fell between the revivalist and modernist camps. Clayton was precisely one of the players to whom this appellation most applied. In December 1953 Clayton embarked on a series of jam session albums for Columbia
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
, which had been the idea of John Hammond
John H. Hammond
John Henry Hammond II was an American record producer, musician and music critic from the 1930s to the early 1980s...
, though George Avakian
George Avakian
George Avakian is an American record producer and executive known particularly for his work with Columbia Records, and his production of albums by Miles Davis and other notable jazz musicians....
was the principal producer. The recording sessions for these albums lasted until 1956. The tracks could last the length of a LP side, and it had been the new format that had given Hammond the idea, but sometimes this led to unfortunate anomalies. The title track the Jumping at the Woodside album was compiled from two takes recorded four months apart, each with a completely different rhythm section. His Jazz Spectacular
Jazz Spectacular
Jazz Spectacular was Frankie Laine's 15th 12" long-play album, recorded and originally released in 1955. This is a Franke Laine theme album, the theme being Jazz, recorded with Jazz trumpeter Buck Clayton, pianist Sir Charles Thompson, tenor-saxophonist Budd Johnson, trombonist Urbie Green and...
album from this series (with Kai Winding
Kai Winding
Kai Chresten Winding was a popular Danish-born American trombonist and jazz composer. He is well known for a successful collaboration with fellow trombonist J. J. Johnson.-Biography:...
, J. J. Johnson and vocals by Frankie Laine
Frankie Laine
Frankie Laine, born Francesco Paolo LoVecchio , was a successful American singer, songwriter, and actor whose career spanned 75 years, from his first concerts in 1930 with a marathon dance company to his final performance of "That's My Desire" in 2005...
) is loved by jazz and pop fans alike. Clayton also recorded at this time for Vanguard
Vanguard Records
Vanguard Records is a record label set up in 1950 by brothers Maynard and Seymour Solomon in New York. It started as a classical label, but is perhaps best known for its catalogue of recordings by a number of pivotal folk and blues artists from the 1960s; the Bach Guild was a subsidiary...
, with Hammond producing, under his own name and on dates led by Ruby Braff
Ruby Braff
Reuben "Ruby" Braff was an American jazz trumpeter and cornetist. Jack Teagarden was once asked about him on the Gary Moore TV show and described Ruby as "The Ivy League Louis Armstrong."Braff was born in Boston...
, Mel Powell
Mel Powell
Mel Powell was a jazz pianist and composer of classical music.Mel Epstein was born to Russian Jewish parents, Milton Epstein and Mildred Mark Epstein, and began playing piano as a child. He performed jazz professionally in New York City as a teenager...
and Sir Charles Thompson.
In 1955 he appeared in the Benny Goodman Story, also working with Goodman in New York at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
The Waldorf-Astoria is a luxury hotel in New York. It has been housed in two historic landmark buildings in New York City. The first, designed by architect Henry J. Hardenbergh, was on the Fifth Avenue site of the Empire State Building. The present building at 301 Park Avenue in Manhattan is a...
two years later. In 1958 he was at the World Fair
Expo '58
Expo 58, also known as the Brussels World’s Fair, Brusselse Wereldtentoonstelling or Exposition Universelle et Internationale de Bruxelles, was held from 17 April to 19 October 1958...
in Brussels for concerts with Sidney Bechet
Sidney Bechet
Sidney Bechet was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer.He was one of the first important soloists in jazz , and was perhaps the first notable jazz saxophonist...
, and toured Europe the following year and annually through the 1960s. For the Swingville label (a subsidiary of Prestige Records
Prestige Records
Prestige Records was a jazz record label founded in 1949 by Bob Weinstock. The company was located at 203 South Washington Avenue in Bergenfield, New Jersey, and recorded hundreds of albums by many of the leading jazz musicians of the day, sometimes issuing them under the names of several...
) he co-led two albums with former Basie colleague Buddy Tate and supported Pee Wee Russell
Pee Wee Russell
Charles Ellsworth Russell, much better known by his nickname Pee Wee Russell, was a jazz musician. Early in his career he played clarinet and saxophones, but eventually focused solely on clarinet....
on his own outing for the label.
In 1964 he performed in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
with Eddie Condon
Eddie Condon
Albert Edwin Condon , better known as Eddie Condon, was a jazz banjoist, guitarist, and bandleader. A leading figure in the so-called "Chicago school" of early Dixieland, he also played piano and sang on occasion....
, with whom he had already occasionally worked for several years. In the early ‘sixties he guested with the band of British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
trumpeter Humphrey Lyttelton
Humphrey Lyttelton
Humphrey Richard Adeane Lyttelton , also known as Humph, was an English jazz musician and broadcaster, and chairman of the BBC radio comedy programme I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue...
in public performances and on several record albums. In order to hoodwink the musicians' union
Musicians' Union (UK)
-About the MU:The Musicians' Union is an organisation which represents over 30,000 musicians working in all sectors of the UK music business.-Campaigns:The MU stages regular campaigns in relation to relevant musical and industrial issues...
in the UK, it was necessary to claim that these albums were recorded in Switzerland.
Last years
Shortly after appearing at the New Orleans Jazz Festival in 1969, Clayton underwent lip surgery, and had to give up playing the trumpet in 1972. He was able to resume playing in 1977 for a State Department sponsored tour of AfricaAfrica
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, but had to permanently stop playing in 1979, though he still worked as an arranger. He began to teach at Hunter College
Hunter College
Hunter College, established in 1870, is a public university and one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York, located on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Hunter grants undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate degrees in more than one hundred fields of study, and is recognized...
, CUNY
City University of New York
The City University of New York is the public university system of New York City, with its administrative offices in Yorkville in Manhattan. It is the largest urban university in the United States, consisting of 23 institutions: 11 senior colleges, six community colleges, the William E...
from 1975–80 and again in the early eighties.
The semi-autobiography, Buck Clayton’s Jazz World, co-authored by Nancy Miller Elliott, first appeared in 1986. In the same year, his new Big Band debuted at the Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Museum
The Brooklyn Museum is an encyclopedia art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At 560,000 square feet, the museum holds New York City's second largest art collection with roughly 1.5 million works....
in New York, and Clayton toured internationally with it, contributing 100 compositions to the band book.
Buck Clayton died quietly in his sleep in 1991.
Personal
Clayton’s father was an amateur musician associated with the family's local church, who was responsible for teaching his son how to play the trumpet from the age of six. From the age of seventeen, Clayton learned the trumpet, and was taught by Bob Russell, a member of George E. Lee’sGeorge E. Lee
George Ewing Lee was an American jazz bandleader.Born in Boonville, Missouri, Lee was the older brother of pianist/singer Julia Lee. He played in a band while serving in the Army in 1917; following this he sang in a vocal quartet, and in 1920 he formed an ensemble of his own...
band. In his early twenties he was based in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, and was briefly a member of Duke Ellington’s Orchestra and worked with other leaders. Clayton was also taught at this time by trumpeter Mutt Carey
Mutt Carey
Thomas "Papa Mutt" Carey was a New Orleans jazz trumpeter.Carey was born in Hahnville, Louisiana, and moved to New Orleans with his family in his youth. His older brother Jack Carey was a trombone player and bandleader; Mutt was playing cornet in his brother's band by about 1912. Carey toured the...
, who later emerged as a prominent west-coast revivalist in the 1940s.
Discography
- Bird and Pres - The '46 Concerts Jazz at the Philharmonic (Verve, 1946)
- The Classic Swing of Buck Clayton (OJC, 1946)
- Buck Special (Vogue, 1949–53)
- Copenhagen Concert (SteepleChase, 1959)
- Buck & Buddy (Prestige/OJC, 1960)
- Buck Clayton All Stars 1961(Storyville RecordsStoryville RecordsStoryville Records is a large international record label based in Copenhagen, Denmark, specializing in jazz and blues music. Besides its original material, Storyville Records has licensed and reissued many vintage jazz recordings that previously appeared on such labels as Paramount Records,...
, 1961) - Buck Clayton Jam Session 1975 (Chiaroscuro, 1975)
- The Buck Clayton Swing Band Live from Greenvich Village (Nagel-Heyer, 1990)
- Goin' to Kansas City (Riverside RecordsRiverside RecordsRiverside Records was a United States record label specializing in jazz. Founded by Orrin Keepnews and Bill Grauer under his firm Bill Grauer Productions, Inc. in 1953, the label was a major presence in the jazz record industry for a decade...
)
External links
- The Buck Clayton Collection at the Miller Nichols Library of the University of Missouri - Kansas City
- Digitized photographs from the Buck Clayton Collection in the University of Missouri Digital Library