Jazz Monthly.com Interview with john clayton

“Jazz Monthly Feature Interview” John Clayton
Interview by Baldwin "Smitty" Smith

Jazz Monthly: It is my wonderful pleasure to finally welcome to JazzMonthly.com one of the premiere bass players on the planet. His music is something of iconic value and he is totally attached to the word Grammy. You cannot disassociate this cat with the Grammys. He has performed and worked with some of the most legendary musicians of all time. You can hear his music in any corner of the world. His latest project is Brother to Brother, Clayton Brothers Jazz Orchestra. Please welcome the totally iconic John Clayton. John, how you doing, my friend?

John Clayton (JC): Great. Good to be here, Smitty. Thank you.

Jazz Monthly: Yes indeed, and it’s just such a pleasure and an honor to talk with you. Now when I first heard your music, I just wanted to be in the same room, in the same studio, because we hear so much music in life and we come across music that just creates such a vibe and such a groove, and that was my feeling when I first heard your music, and I said to myself, if there was ever a description of real music, this is it. I must say that you have stayed so true to making great music and real music and it is just a pleasure to listen to your orchestra, to everyone that you’ve been associated with, and to see how you put your flavor so neatly blended into the music of other icons that are making music out there.

JC: Wow, well, thank you. You kind of hit the nail on the head when you talked about the groove and the vibe because that’s really what we talk about and what we actually focus on. We talk about the mood of the music, we talk about the vibe of the music, and that pretty much determines everything we do. It determines our presentation, it determines our compositions, it determines our arrangements. We’re always thinking about the mood. Okay, what is the mood of this song? What is the mood we’re trying to convey here? And once you have that clearly in your sights, everything else for me falls into place.

Jazz Monthly: Yes, those are such key elements, and I think when you put that kind of passion and that kind of dedication into music, you’re really making real music because what you just described is what real music is all about.

JC: I agree. That’s what I was taught by all of the masters directly and indirectly. I mean, hanging around and taking lessons with people like Ray Brown and hearing him play with everybody from Milt Jackson and Oscar Peterson and Ella Fitzgerald and Monty Alexander and you name it. I mean, on and on and on. Watching him play with all these people, it was always about some kind of mood, some kind of expression that allowed you to be a part of the joy, and when I would watch Ray especially—but everybody—when I’d watch all musicians play, they were serious. However, they were serious in a way that didn’t hide their joy and that, to me, the bandstand, the stage, is a sacred place for expression of joy, and I mean it could be a sad song, it could be a deep song, it could be anything, but if you don’t express that joy that all of musicians experience when we’re really in it, then you’ve missed the boat. So that’s always my focus, expressing the joy of the music.

Jazz Monthly: Yes, and what you just said there really comes out in your music. You have very accurately and precisely conveyed that through your music, so you have hit all the buttons spot on. (Both laugh.)

JC: Good. That’s good to hear. Thank you.

Jazz Monthly: Absolutely. Now I just want to ask you, you and your brother Jeff.

JC: Mm-hmm.

Jazz Monthly:: You cats, you’re like twins in that you can feel the vibe, the synergy of the vibe, when you’re playing, and when you talk about expression and joy, those are all feelings. Yet when most people think about music, they think about what they hear, but invariably they are feeling it.

JC: Yeah, that’s, you know, I think all of us are listeners. So all of us look for that whenever we’re listening. I mean, every professional musician is a listener. And we are all looking for the same thing. We want to feel someone express themselves when we go to a concert and when we’re on the bandstand with somebody. We want to feel people sharing the depth of whatever it is that’s inside of them with us.

Jazz Monthly: Right.

JC: And if you don’t understand that as a musician, then you can find yourself getting caught up in other things. Sometimes the technical aspects of the music or some nice looking person walking in front of the bandstand. It’s all stuff that you can kind of allow yourself to get into that’ll take you away from what your true purpose is of the moment.

Jazz Monthly: Right.

JC: And that is to be in the music. And frankly, the way I do that is, we talked about the vibe. The other thing is for me as an artist is to never really focus on myself. Most professional musicians that I’ve worked with and admired don’t focus on themselves. It’s almost as if you don’t listen to yourself. For me as a bass player, by only listening to the piano player and only listening to the drummer and only listening to the saxophone player and only listening to the trumpet player, everything I do takes care of itself because it is being driven and directed by the things that I’m allowing myself to take in that other people are contributing.

And that’s something I’ve really admired about great jazz musicians all along. It’s just how they become sort of these little conduits of kind of expressive activity, if you will. When I would hear—well, again, we’ll go back to Ray Brown—when I hear Ray Brown play in a duo or play in a trio, so many times I heard him, for instance, playing with his trio, and when the piano player’s taking a solo, he’s there at that piano player’s left hand and the drummer’s right there to the right of Ray Brown. I mean, it’s a close knit trio community, and Ray never focused on himself. His eyes were always focused on the piano player, focused on the drummer, and there was my lesson. If I do that, then I too can experience what it feels like to let the music that’s in me be driven by these external forces and the bass playing takes care of itself.

Jazz Monthly: Yes, yes, and it becomes such a wonderful combination of great music because of that approach. Yeah, I love that. You and your brother have been around music most of your life.

JC: Mm-hmm.

Jazz Monthly: At what point did you two decide “Hey, let’s form a band and do our thing”?

JC: You know, I don’t think there was—it’s funny. We really never discussed it. (Both laugh.) It just sort of happened, just fell into place, sort of “Hey, should we do a record? Yeah, sure, why not?” It was kind of like that. I remember it was in the 70s and I had already graduated from Indiana University and my brother was already working or out a lot around Los Angeles and performing live and playing in studios and all that. We’d do some gigs together and have some fun together and said “Hey, should we do a record? Yeah.” And Ray Brown—again we go back to him—he was very close to the president of Concord Records, who then offered us a chance to record.

Jazz Monthly: Nice.

JC: And we did so, and that’s really how the Clayton Brothers were born.

Jazz Monthly: Wow.

JC: Playing a bit before but then the record date on Concord Records was the thing that solidified “Hey, yeah, this is fun. We should continue this.” And it grew from those days. We had a quintet on that record. It was saxophone, piano, bass, drums, and guitar, and it sort of then for some years remained a quartet, and then, I don’t know, the last however many years—six, seven years, not sure—we’ve added a trumpet, which is Terrell Stafford, and that’s one of the best moves that we’ve ever made because my brother and Terrell are like one.

Jazz Monthly: Yes, they are. Now, before I forget, I must make mention of one particular project because you’ve been involved with so many great projects from Diana Krall to Natalie Cole, Nina Simone, Queen Latifah. I could go on and on. We’d be here all day. But there’s one in particular that I just fell in love with and talk to people about all the time, and that is the great Gladys Knight record Before Me.

JC: Oh yeah.

Jazz Monthly: And I had a conversation with her and when we got on the subject of you, it was just on!

JC: Oh, that’s sweet. Well, I’ve been a fan of hers since I was a kid growing up, singing all of her songs with the recordings. So I was a huge Gladys Knight fan, and when Tommy LiPuma asked me to be a part of the project, my response was basically “How much will it cost me? You don’t have to pay me for this one, oh my Gosh.” But I did get paid. (Both laugh.) And she is, as you know, since you talked to her, she’s just an amazing sweetheart.

Jazz Monthly: Oh my goodness, yes.

JC: She’s just one of the kindest human beings on this planet.

Jazz Monthly: Yes, and before my conversation with her, she and I had never talked before. And it’s funny you just made that statement because whenever her name comes up in a conversation, I tell people that I had not talked to her before that and it was as though we had been friends for years and we were just sitting around reminiscing. It was just the most delightful conversation.

JC: Wow, that’s great.

Jazz Monthly: Yes, and you’re right. She’s so true blue.

JC: Yeah, and she’s so down home.

Jazz Monthly: Yeah! I couldn’t have said it better.

JC: I flew to Las Vegas to go to her home and discuss the project with her and pick songs and keys and all that, and it was like an older sister who just said “Welcome home,” you know? “Put you feet up.” It was wonderful and that’s the way she was the whole time.

Jazz Monthly: Yes, well, she just dotes over you and says having you on that project, she said she was just blown away.

JC: Oh, that’s sweet, that’s sweet.

Jazz Monthly: Well, that’s so true and I just wanted to make mention of that.

JC: I appreciate that.

Jazz Monthly: Yes indeed. So now, brother to brother. You cats had once again thought through this whole concept, which I think is great. You really carried a theme of, you know, a lot of brothers who have done some great things with their music, respectively and you cats wanted to recognize that. And you did that so well.

JC: Yes. Well, again, you’re right and it was my brother’s idea and I’m glad that he had a good idea for once. (Both laugh.) And it was just one that we both took to. There was so much material and so many brother groups that we could look to that there’s frankly a bunch of material that we didn’t end up recording because there just wasn’t enough time on the record.

Jazz Monthly: I can just imagine.

JC: So my brother’s talking about a Brother to Brother II. I don’t know if we’ll do it because I like moving on, but frankly, we’re not done with the brother project. There are just too many people to recognize and to honor that we love and whose music has influenced us. Now this was a very special and dear project to our hearts.

Jazz Monthly: Yes, so when I heard Track 4, “Big Daddy Adderleys,” it’s like wow, this is like going back in time and reliving some memories and also the growth of more appreciation for the Adderleys that you cats infused in this song. I think this is just beautiful, but we also recognize the wonderful hearts of you and Jeff in doing this as well, and the band is just so on time with this project. It’s almost like doing a movie and everyone getting into the true character and essence of the movie and having that same line of thought and reasoning, and that’s what I felt in listening to not just “Big Daddy Adderleys” but all of the tracks carried that.

JC: Mm-hmm.

Jazz Monthly: You carefully composed these songs and arranged them…..such great arrangements with it to where the audience, the listening audience, can certainly feel it and get the message, you know?

JC: Well, that’s really great. That’s so reassuring because we were talking about expression before. When you set out to express yourself, you don’t know if you’re going to touch people, you really don’t know. All you can do is pour yourself into it and keep your fingers crossed that somebody out there is going to be able to relate to your expression. And you can’t think beyond that. You can’t judge yourself, you can’t judge the music. It just has to be honest.

Jazz Monthly: Yes. Talk about the time and conversations that went into putting this together because like we’ve talked about already, there had to be a lot of forethought and preparation and conversation not just before even striking a note, but even during the project, I’m sure.

JC: There is a lot of talk. Originally there’s the talk about the concept, my brother coming to me and saying “This is what I’d like to do. What do you think?” And so we discuss that and then you start in on writing the music and the larger discussions, frankly, happen in our rehearsals. Because my brother and I, we’re perfectionists. (Both laugh.) We never achieve it but we keep striving, and by perfection I mean clarity. Okay, we know that there’s no such thing as perfection but we want our music to be as clear in expression as possible, and that gets discussed.

We talk a lot about that and when we’re done rehearsing we both go back to the drawing board. I mean, there are things that we go to a lot of trouble to write and think about and work on and we rehearse and we throw it in the trash. And as frustrating as that is, it’s the other pieces that do flow the way we want them to that keep us inspired and keep us going.

Jazz Monthly: Yes, and you know when you’ve hit that right note and when you’ve hit that right song because you’ve gone through so much and you’re going somewhere, and sometimes, I know when I’m involved in something like this, I’m not sure exactly where it will end up, but I know where I’m going, you know? It’s sort of a complicated thing, but it’s sort of like recognizing something. When you see it, you know it. When you’re looking for a pair of shoes, you may look at 10 pair, but when you see that 11th pair, you know that’s the one.

JC: That’s right, that’s right. And that makes it worth going through all those 10 pair. And I can only relate to that in theory because I hate shopping. (Both laugh.) I will not go through 10 pair of shoes to find the one that works.

Jazz Monthly: You and me both.

JC: I’ll go through 10 arrangements to find the one that works.

Jazz Monthly: But not shopping.

JC: Yeah, not shopping. No, no, no.

Jazz Monthly: Most guys are that way, aren’t we?

JC: I guess so.

Jazz Monthly: Absolutely. Well, let’s walk forward and talk to me about “Walking Bass.”

JC: Oh, “Walking Bass.” That song was actually, as you probably know, we recorded it the first time on the first Clayton Brothers record we did called The Clayton Brothers, but how that came to be was I was on tour with Count Basie and we would often do concerts with Ella Fitzgerald, so it would be Ella and her group and the Basie band on the same concert, and at the end of the concert Ella would join the Basie band and they’d play together, but her bass player was Keter Betts and Keter was a good, good friend, and I remember one day he said “Hey, come on in here.

I got something I wanna play for you.” And we went into a dressing room and he took his bass and played and sang—it’s not really singing, it’s more of a dictation—so he just kind of sang this walking bass song and I just stood there with a big grin on my face and at the end of it I said “Would you mind if I recorded that on my cassette and learn it?” And he said “No,” so he played it again for me and I recorded it, and I asked him if he would mind if I would record it on our album, and he said “Please, go ahead,” so that’s how that came to be and I got so many requests for that through the years we decided to just breathe some new life into it and I did another arrangement which was a little peppier, but I didn’t mess with Keter’s text. I left all that the same. So a lot of my delivery is reminiscent of what he did when he played it for me the first time.

Jazz Monthly: Absolutely, and it’s funny how the birth of a song starts in so many unusual places, you know?

JC: Oh yeah, you got that right.

Jazz Monthly: And that’s the beauty of it. Well, this project Brother to Brother, what I really like about it too, and we don’t see enough of this— Every track you have a few words of description and wisdom and reasoning behind the song, which I find just fascinating, and it’s reminiscent of the old LP days when we’d pull out an LP, we’re listening and feeling the music but we’re reading. Because the artists were looking for every opportunity—and I think they did it instinctively—they wanted to express themselves in every way possible and so we found verbiage and that kind of things with the album itself, and I think this is just a wonderful way of doing it and it’s just a beautiful arrangement all around. When I was reading about “Bass Face,” I thought that was kind of interesting when you were talking about Kenny Burrell, and what a great track. That’s one you can just repeat over and over and over.

JC: Oh wow, thanks.

Jazz Monthly: It’s a beautiful song.

JC: Thank you.

Jazz Monthly: So now when you’ve got the other musicians that you’ve added to Brother to Brother— And we certainly want to recognize their great contributions, you mentioned Terell and then your son, (Gerald Clayton), and I know after listening to him playing piano and seeing him on a regular basis, you must not have any buttons left on any shirt that you have because I know your chest is out. (Both laugh.)

JC: Thank you. Well, of course, like every parent, I love my kids and I’m proud of both of them, and the cool thing, of course, is to have Gerald play in the group.

Jazz Monthly: Yes.

JC: But frankly, I’m more proud as a parent that both of my kids have their heads on straight, that they are pursuing healthy things in life, that they’ve found things that they can commit themselves to that are healthy and productive. That’s the stuff that really makes me proud. I mean, I hope that he’ll continue in music and I assume he will, but if he changes his mind, I’m still gonna be proud.

Jazz Monthly: Absolutely.

JC: But I must say it is fun to realize at some point in the evening, “Hey, that’s my son!” When we’re playing together, to be honest, even though people say “I can see by the look on your face you’re so proud when you play with him,” I don’t want to disappoint them, but that’s not what’s going on with my facial expression. I tell you what’s going on is I’m involved in the music that we’re playing at that moment and yes, he’s my son, but at that moment he is just the piano player.

Jazz Monthly: He’s a great piano player out there.

JC: And that’s all. I’m not thinking beyond that. And when we’re finished, then I can kind of realize it, come back down to earth and understand that. Same thing with my brother, you know?

Jazz Monthly: Yes.

JC: I’m close to him and we talk almost every day and we’re really close, but when we’re playing music, he’s not my brother anymore. We’re both working on creating some music together and expressing ourselves.

Jazz Monthly: Yes, well, that’s how you put your whole mind and soul and heart into something and really feel it.

JC: Mm-hmm.

Jazz Monthly: And then like you say, coming out of that and coming down to earth, then you feel those great personal expressions of feelings and that kind of thing.

JC: Mm-hmm, that’s right.

Jazz Monthly: You mentioned the great Terell Stafford, talk about what his addition has meant for the band.

JC: Well, Terell Stafford is one of the most amazing trumpet players on the planet and we’re so lucky to get him and find this brotherhood that he and my brother have in terms of playing their instruments. I remember Ray Brown saying to me “I wish you could’ve heard our band with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker.” He said “When you heard them play, if you can imagine a trumpet welded to an alto saxophone being played by one person, that’s what it was like.”

Jazz Monthly: Whoo!

JC: And I never forgot that. I must say that my brother and Terell have that same kind of thing. When they play, they talk about phrasing and dynamics and articulation and everything to the tee. It’s amazing. They don’t let anything go by. Sure, they’re gonna make human error here and there, but I mean, I’m telling you, they work hard on that stuff, so that’s a joy. And this other young kid, I just love him like a son. He’s like an adopted kid, is our drummer, Obed Calvaire, and Obed I’ve seen since his high school days and watched him grow and play with professional musicians and go back to school after playing with professional musicians and decide to get a masters degree. He blows my mind, so I just wanted to make sure that you understood that tightness in our group.

Jazz Monthly: Oh yes. And for anyone that has witnessed you and this band, they will second your description of “tightness” Well, talk to me about how Mr. Jeff Hamilton came into the picture, how you guys came together.

JC: I met Jeff Hamilton when I was going to school at Indiana University. Even though I’m from Los Angeles, I finished school at Indiana University. And he kind of came to me one day, because we were playing a gig together, and he said “Okay, you’re a big city rat, you’ve been around Ray Brown and all these people already, how does somebody like me get ahead?” And I basically said “Well, I don’t know. Who do you want to play with?” And he said “Well, I want to play with Woody Herman and Oscar Peterson.” And I said “Do you have any of their records?” And he said “Yeah.” I said “So how many?” He said “I think I’ve got about three Oscar Peterson records.” I said “You need to get three hundred and the same thing with Woody Herman, and you need to learn everything that they do, and then make sure to allow the doors to be opened.” And that’s exactly what he did. And I told him “You’ll play with them,” and sure enough, he understood that and pursued it all and achieved it all.

Jazz Monthly: How cool is that?.

JC: So it’s something that people passed on to me and I was just passing it on to him. And that’s exactly how I continue to teach. It’s this whole idea of goal setting, figuring out who it is that you would like to be a part of and whose music you’d like to be a part of, studying that music; really, really, I mean, over-studying that music; going to support these musicians and letting them know you exist; and what happens is your level rises to the point that eventually you’re able to play with them, but in doing so you now have opened the doors to be able to play with a lot of other artists on that same level.

So in preparing to play with Oscar Peterson like I was when I was a kid, little did I know I was actually allowing myself to be on the level to be able to play with Monty Alexander and all the rest. Of course, he went on to play with Woody Herman and I went on to play with Count Basie and the Amsterdam Philharmonic, and then he then followed up Woody Herman with Ray Brown.

Jazz Monthly: Oh wow.

JC: And he played, ooh, I’m guessing, but I think it might’ve been 17 years or something like that with Ray Brown. He played longer with Ray Brown than any other drummer.

Jazz Monthly: That’s beyond impressive.

JC: And so he did that, then right around I’d say early ’85 is when we put together the Clayton Hamilton Jazz Orchestra.

Jazz Monthly: Nice. Yeah, I really miss Ray Brown, I tell ya.

JC: Yeah, me too.

Jazz Monthly: Wow, but like you mentioned earlier about Hamp, Ray left us a legacy of music, you know?

JC: He sure did, oh my goodness.

Jazz Monthly: And can’t we appreciate that?

JC: Absolutely.

Jazz Monthly: He didn’t waste his life.

JC: No, uh-uh, not a minute.

Jazz Monthly: And that’s a beautiful example for us as well.

JC: Yeah, that’s right.

Jazz Monthly: Absolutely. Now you mentioned just a few minutes ago something about teaching. And I know that you are very involved in teaching and helping others to really understand not just music itself and how to play an instrument, but the quality of music, and I think that’s so important. Talk a little about how important it is for you as far as teaching music.

JC: Well, I believe, and not everybody has to believe this, but I believe that we don’t have a choice that you have to teach because as it was explained to me when I was thanking Ray Brown so much for doing so many things for me, he said “Listen, I’m doing this for you because somebody did it for me and you’re gonna do it for somebody else further down the line,” and that’s really, I think, the credo that we musicians live by. You almost don’t have a choice. If you choose to stop that process then, of course, theoretically the music would stop with you. It would not be a continuum.

Jazz Monthly: Profoundly put, my friend.

JC: So we really don’t have a choice. And everybody teaches in a different way. Some people prefer a more ordered way of doing things so they fit best in, say, a school system. Other people work best privately one-on-one out of their home or out of a studio. Other people tend to not be able to find the words to explain what they need to but work best if a student looks over their shoulder or if a student buys their records or comes to their concerts. No matter what you choose, somehow you offer your knowledge to other people as people help you.

Jazz Monthly: Absolutely. Well, I think too, in my case at least, that whenever I’m teaching, I’m strengthening my own knowledge. I’m teaching myself at the same time.

JC: Yeah, that’s true. That’s a big perk. It’s almost sinful to take their money for giving you a lesson.

Jazz Monthly: Yes, exactly. (Both laugh.) So it’s twofold and there’s something beneficial and so priceless. You know, speaking of money, about helping someone and instilling knowledge in someone else. I think it’s just one of those things where when you’re doing that, it becomes the real pay in a way.

JC: Yeah.

Jazz Monthly: When you see someone advance or succeed because of your assistance or your enhancement upon what they’re doing.

JC: Yeah, yeah.

Jazz Monthly: I think that’s just a wonderful thing.

JC: That’s right. I also actually don’t believe that I teach. I don’t believe that there is such thing as a teacher. I believe that that person works as a sort of a coach or guide, an assistant, whatever you want to call it, but we really teach ourselves because, I mean, how many times have people offered us knowledge and we didn’t learn it?

Jazz Monthly: Exactly.

JC: We didn’t absorb it. Was that because they are bad teachers? No, because we weren’t teaching ourselves. People offer up knowledge, but it’s up to us to take that knowledge, take it in, digest it, analyze it, use it in our lives.

Jazz Monthly: Make application, yeah, yeah.

JC: Yeah, so I really think that the individual as a teacher, it’s just that we desperately need coaches and assistants and mentors and those kinds of figures.

Jazz Monthly: Yes indeed. I truly agree. Well, now talk to me about, speaking of teaching, you have been among all of the wonderful things that have happened in your life both on stage and off stage, talk about one in particular and that’s being associated with the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival. That had to be a great honor.

JC: That was an amazing honor. I had no idea it was going to happen. I never dreamed of being in this position. But when Doc Skinner was going to step down as the artistic director, I was on the board and they asked to help them put a search together, who did we think of, and actually it was, I have to say, in that board meeting was Jeff Hamilton that said “Well, looking at all of these qualifications, he’s probably gonna kill me for this, but the only person I can think of is John Clayton,” and I turned to him in my seat and just opened my mouth and I stared at him and then I said “Are you crazy?” (Both laugh.) And that’s really how it all started, then we started discussing and it’s the same sort of thing. It’s like Billy Higgins said, “You don’t choose the instrument. The instrument chooses you.”

I kind of feel the same way about my involvement with the Festival. I saw what needed to be done and I wouldn’t dare say no to the legacy of Lionel Hampton and the legacy of Len Skinner and, moreover, just all that the Festival is about. The Festival is bigger than me and if I can help it, I’m happy to help it.

Jazz Monthly: Yes, well, it’s a great event every year.

JC: Yeah, it is.

Jazz Monthly: And normally I think it’s, what, February—

JC: Yeah, at the end of February.

Jazz Monthly: February every year, yes, and the whole town comes out for that and people from around the world, for that matter.

JC: Yeah, that’s right, that’s right.

Jazz Monthly: So it is a fantastic international event, yes.

JC: Yeah, that’s right. In fact, this time we’re kind of really vamping on that international aspect of it so we’re having musicians from South America, Brazil, from Jamaica. Monty Alexander’s gonna be there with his Jamaican band. We’re gonna have an amazing all-star—the Latin all stars that Jose Rizo puts together and these Latin Jazz all stars are fantastic, so there’s gonna be a lot of salsa, Bobby McFerrin’s gonna be there, we’re having a reunion of the Monty Alexander Trio with Jeff Hamilton and myself.

Jazz Monthly: Wow, sounds like fun.

JC: So we’re really excited. Plus the Lionel Hampton Big Band is gonna be there. And Joe Locke on vibes and some new faces, names that people don’t know and faces people don’t know like Gretchen Parlato, who’s just a wonderful tender but exciting jazz vocalist. Jackie Ryan is another one, a wonderful singer that is known in very small circles but she’s fantastic. So we’re really trying to show some new faces on the scene also.

Jazz Monthly: Well, I want to applaud you for that and everyone involved because I love it when we get something fresh. We love the great players and the great well-known artists that we’ve come to know over the years in maybe just a few years. But when we continue to introduce something new, we continue to toss the salad, you might say. I love that, as it builds the anticipation and the appreciation, I think, when we do that. So thank you so much for that.

JC: Yeah, my pleasure. I’m glad you enjoy it. My pleasure.

Jazz Monthly: Yes indeed. So now how can people get the record? Going back to Brother to Brother.

JC: Oh yes. Well, Brother to Brother, you can get the record by going to two places. The most direct route is going to www.artistshare.com and the other way is to go to my Web site, www.johnclaytonjazz.com. And my Web site will direct you to their Web site, but you can also kind of see what I’m up to.

Jazz Monthly: Yes, and there’s a nice little video about Artist Share on there too, isn’t there?

JC: Yes, there is. It has me sort of introducing what the whole idea is about and what the project is about.

Jazz Monthly: Yeah, very nicely done. Nice video too, by the way.

JC: Oh, thanks.

Jazz Monthly: That’s a nice little approach. Nice touch of introduction too for the record

JC: Yeah, we try to make it as homey as possible.

Jazz Monthly: Yes, and that’s important. I think people want that warm approach because it’s inviting and appealing, much like the music that you guys have produced. It’s got a global groove. So for everybody that was involved with this record, from yourself to Gerald, Jeff, both Jeffs and for Obed and everybody involved. This is just one of the most fantastic records I’ve heard in some time.

JC: Oh, thank you.

Jazz Monthly: And I highly recommend this record and hope that everyone hears it, and I must say that anywhere that the Clayton Brothers are performing, you don’t want to miss it. It is something that you will tell your grandkids about and will want them to be a part of because it is a wonderful experience to see you cats live and really enjoying making great music, and every show is a once-in-a-lifetime show. It really is.

JC: Wow.

Jazz Monthly: So it’s something that I know everyone will walk away with just such a warm appreciation and a smile when they leave one of you guys’ concerts.

JC: Wow, well, I appreciate that. That means a lot to me. Thank you so much.

Jazz Monthly: Yes, you’re so welcome. All right, so what’s coming up besides the Festival? What’s happening? What’s on the horizon?

JC: Oh, gosh, well, I’m here in New York now and we’re excited about this week here. I’ve got a concert honoring Benny Golson at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

Jazz Monthly: Oh, wow I met him once. Met him in Rotterdam at North Sea Jazz Festival. He’s the nicest guy, incredible musician.

JC: Oh, he’s wonderful, very astute. So that’s gonna be with the entire Clayton Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, and I’m doing some touring with Diana Krall. And still working on Clayton Brothers. We’ve got some dates here and there. And I’m still trying to learn how to be a bass player. (Both laugh.) But I have a pretty full plate always. I have a lot of projects that I’m really interested in. I’m gonna do a tribute to Ray Brown, a couple of them, one of them in January at Disney Hall in Los Angeles.

Jazz Monthly: Nice.

JC: And another one at the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival, so I’ve got a few irons in the fire.

Jazz Monthly: Oh, nice. All right, John, thank you so much, first of all, for being such a wonderful human being before you were ever the great musician that you are.

JC: Oh, thank you.

Jazz Monthly: And for your dedication and commitment and love for what you do. We only skimmed the surface of your great career in our conversation, as it would take several “Movements” to cover your entire musical journey. Best of everything to you, your entire staff, your family.

JC: Oh, thanks.

Jazz Monthly: And for everyone involved in this latest project, and I wish you all the best in 2009, and keep making great music, my friend.

JC: Thank you, Smitty, and you just keep doing what you’re doing because we need your support and I’m so happy and lucky to have you enjoying the music.

Jazz Monthly: Oh, absolutely.

JC: It really means a lot to have that there in a place to be able to count on.

Jazz Monthly: Absolutely. Always, my friend.

JC: Thank you.

Baldwin “Smitty” Smith

For More Information Visit www.johnclaytonjazz.com and www.artistshare.com