FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, July 2, 2014
CONTACT:
Rebecca Bailey, Publicity Coordinator/Writer
Hopkins Center for the Arts, Dartmouth College
603.646.3991
Jazz from "a force field of veterans and young guns," September 27
Photo: (L-R) Jeff Clayton, Terell Stafford, Obed Calvaire, John Clayton, Gerald Clayton. Courtesy of the artists.
HANOVER, NH—The Clayton Brothers Quintet—two generations of a jazz-rich family plus two outstanding associates—offers tight, swinging, straight-ahead jazz on Saturday, September 27, at 8 pm, in the Hop's Spaulding Auditorium.
Calling the group “a ferocious band [that] plays all the right notes,” The Pittsburgh Examiner wrote, “The Clayton Brothers went where very few dare to tread, into the tricky minefield of straightforward, swinging jazz and bluesy, revolutionary parts in between, pooling together a force field of veterans and young guns. They came out the other end with a new, winning sound for the ages, because they know what they’re doing, and they’re that good.
The concert is part of a Dartmouth Music Department residency that will draw on brothers John and Jeff Clayton's deep background as educators (they were Jazz Times' 2004 jazz educators of the year), as well as world-class musicians.
A Grammy-award winning artist (Queen Latifah's I'm Gonna Live Til I Die), John gained prominence as a bassist in both the jazz and classical fields. Artistic Director of Jazz for the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 1998 through 2001, he held the principal bass chair in the Amsterdam Philharmonic Orchestra for more than five years. He has played with and/or written and arranged music for Milt Jackson, Nancy Wilson, Ray Brown, Regina Carter, McCoy Tyner, Carmen McRae, Quincy Jones, Diana Krall, Kurt Elling, Dee Dee Bridgewater (including her Grammy-award winning CD Dear Ella on Verve), Gladys Knight, Natalie Cole, Michael Bublé and many others. The New York Times described him as "one of the most technically imposing bassists in jazz, and his big tone and swing are paramount."
Reed player Jeff Clayton began his career as both a touring and studio musician. He recorded important albums with, among others, Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight, Kenny Rogers, Michael Jackson, Patti Labelle, Earth Wind and Fire, and played a solo on Madonna's recording Back in Business. As a jazz musician, he has worked with Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Ella Fitzgerald, Woody Harmon, Lionel Hampton, Lena Horne, McCoy Toner, Dee Dee Bridgewater and many others.
The quintet also includes John's 30-year-old son Gerald Clayton, a pianist who has toured widely with Ambrose Akinmusire, Gretchen Parlato, and Roy Hargrove, and with his astounding Grammy-nominated trio with bassist Joe Sanders and drummer Justin Brown. The New York Times saluted Gerald's "Oscar-Peterson like style" and "huge, authoritative presence" and Down Beat Magazine's 2008 Readers' Poll named him one of the top up-and-coming pianists to watch. Gerald also performs in a piano-bass duo with his father.
The quintet is rounded out by Terell Stafford, a highly regarded trumpeter and band-leader in his own right, who has played with the Claytons since 2000; and drummer Obed Calvaire, who has performed and recorded with artists such as Wynton Marsalis, Seal, Eddie Palmieri, Vanessa Williams, Mark Murphy, Mary J. Blige, Stefon Harris, Nellie McKay, Yellow Jackets, Joshua Redman and Lizz Wright, and such large ensembles as the Village Vanguard Orchestra, Metropole Orchestra, the Mingus Big Band, Roy Hargrove Big Band, and the Bob Mintzer Big Band.
At the core of the group's sound and approach is the family bond. Said friend and fellow musician Wycliffe Gordon in a Down Beat Magazine profile of the brothers, “Musically they are together, but even off the bandstand they are in a family relationship. They’re laughing and joking with each other so that you enjoy being in their company. They’re about the music, and they’re also people who love being around each other. All that makes a difference.”
John and Jeff forged those bonds growing up in a musical, church-going family in post-war Venice, CA. John took up bass in junior high school, while Jeff began playing clarinet at nine, switching to saxophone at 14. John joined Monty Alexander's trio after graduating from college in the mid-'70s, and in 1977 moved to Count Basie's band; Jeff also played with Basie. The Claytons began working together as a group in 1978, issuing their debut album, Clayton Brothers, on Concord Records, followed in 1980 by It's All in the Family. After their stints with the Basie Orchestra, extensive dates with a variety of jazz and pop performers and John's five years with the Amsterdam Philharmonic, in 1985, the brothers launched the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, with drummer Jeff Hamilton. They continued to play and record as the Clayton Brothers, earning a Grammy nomination for their 2010 album, The New Song and Dance. They released their ninth album, The Gathering¸in 2012, which All About Jazz described as "good vibes and great sounds…on another strong release from one of the best small bands in the business."
The result, writes The New York Times, is "jazz that does not go toward the darkness. It doesn't displace rhythms, find dissonances or court any sort of obscurity as it uses shuffle beats, Afro-Latin six-eight rhythm and neat funk grooves. It's articulately swung and proud of its clarity. On anything above midtempo, it pushes a little faster than you expect, and it finds its jazz-language virtuosity sometimes in the same places that it's finding a sense of humor."
RELEVANT LINKS
https://hop.dartmouth.edu/Online/the_clayton_brothers_quintet
http://www.theclaytonbrothers.com/
http://geraldclayton.com/
http://www.terellstafford.com/
http://www.sfjazz.org/obed-calvaire
Download high-resolution photos:
https://hop.dartmouth.edu/Online/default.asp?doWork::WScontent::loadArticle=Load&BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::article_id=A14ACB33-679C-469F-9E07-5A08469894E7&sessionlanguage=&SessionSecurity::linkName=
CALENDAR LISTING:
The Clayton Brothers Quintet
Brothers John (bass) and Jeff (alto sax) and John’s son Gerald (piano) have played around the world with an A-list of jazz, pop and classical musicians, but their hearts remain in tight, swinging, bluesy jazz. In the tradition of Cannonball Adderly and Horace Silver, this Grammy-nominated group is “a ferocious band [that] plays all the right notes” (Examiner.com). “Snazzy stewards of a timeless brand of funky hard bop” (Jazz Times).
Saturday, Sept. 27, 8 pm
Spaulding, Hopkins Center for the Arts, Hanover NH
$15/20/25 • Dartmouth students $10 • 18 & under $15/17/19
Information: hop.dartmouth.edu or 603.646.2422
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Founded in 1962, the Hopkins Center for the Arts is a multi-disciplinary academic, visual and performing arts center dedicated to uncovering insights, igniting passions, and nurturing talents to help Dartmouth and the surrounding Upper Valley community engage imaginatively and contribute creatively to our world. Each year the Hop presents more than 300 live events and films by visiting artists as well as Dartmouth students and the Dartmouth community, and reaches more than 22,000 Upper Valley residents and students with outreach and arts education programs. After a celebratory 50th-anniversary season in 2012-13, the Hop enters its second half-century with renewed passion for mentoring young artists, supporting the development of new work, and providing a laboratory for participation and experimentation in the arts.