The Bass Chose Him: John Clayton’s Jazz Legacy Comes to Eastman

By Jonathan Heath

 

Listening to John Clayton talk is like attending storytime at the library—only instead of picture books, he’s flipping through the pages of music history. As he reaches back into the past, he opens doorways to moments that excite and enthrall. He has so many memories to share. His career as a bassist, jazz artist, session musician, composer, arranger, and orchestra player spans decades. Over the years, he has slipped into the orbit of some of the most iconic names in music, from Ray Brown to Count Basie, Gladys Knight to Diana Krall, Whitney Houston to Paul McCartney.

Take McCartney, for example. Clayton recalls the secrecy surrounding their 2012 recording session for the album Kisses on the Bottom. “I was told there’s a special guest, but we can’t tell you who it is. I was thinking, who am I working with—the king?” he says with a chuckle.

The former Beatle was eager to record an album of old big band American standards—the kind his father, a drummer, had played when McCartney was young. Clayton thought that was cool, but what really made an impression was what happened at the end of the session. “It was an awesome feeling to walk into the studio and have Paul McCartney come up to me and initiate a hug. That really stuck out.”

Clayton can also recount his first meeting with a young, timid pianist out of Canada by the name of Diana Krall. They were introduced by his longtime friend and collaborator Jeff Hamilton (who called Clayton to say, “I met a girl up there in Port Townsend, WA, who wants to study with us, and I think she’s got it.”) Again, Clayton thought that was cool. At that time, Krall wasn’t singing much—just listening, learning. But as she grew into a star, their relationship deepened. “She babysat my kids,” Clayton says with a smile. “It was that kind of friendship. And then of course, years later, she was hiring me!”

And then, there’s Whitney. In 1990, Clayton was asked to write an arrangement of the ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ for Whitney Houston to perform at Super Bowl XXV. The words, “Whitney wants you to do your thing and write for her” are ones he’ll never forget.

From jazz clubs to the grandest stages in the world, John Clayton’s life has been a symphony of unforgettable encounters. And if these stories are any indication, he’s far from running out of them. But all stories must have a beginning, and for Clayton, that’s where the real magic starts.

Clayton was just 13 when he picked up the double bass, though it almost wasn’t his instrument at all. Walking into his junior high school band room, he scanned the array of instruments spread out before him, each one a possible future. The band director nudged him to choose. Clayton, unfamiliar with most of them, pointed his finger toward a hulking, brass, seashell-shaped thing in the corner and asked, “How about that big thing over there?” The director wrote down tuba and moved on.

But as Clayton turned to leave, something else caught his eye—something even more commanding than the tuba. “I saw these four gorgeous brown things and I said, ‘Ooh, can I play one of those instead?’” Again, the director nodded his approval, then crossed out tuba, and wrote double bass instead. “I like to say he wrote down my destiny,” Clayton says. 

As the great drummer Billy Higgins once told him, “You don’t choose the instrument—it chooses you.” And for Clayton, there was no question. He didn’t even know what the bass sounded like yet, but he knew it had found him.

Once part of the school band, music began revealing itself to Clayton in deeper, more personal ways. He and his friends would tinker with ideas, scribbling out two-, three-, or four-bar ditties just for fun. By the end of high school, he was experimenting with blues melodies. Then, when he was handed an Oscar Peterson record featuring Ray Brown on bass, something remarkable clicked into place. “That album blew my mind,” Clayton says.

When Clayton found out Brown was teaching a class at the University of California, Los Angeles, he didn’t hesitate. He left his classical lessons behind, saved up what he could, and enrolled.

Brown pulled back a curtain revealing the world of jazz beyond, but perhaps most importantly, he helped Clayton discover his calling as an educator. “He’s probably the first guy that helped me to understand I was going to teach,” Clayton says. There’s an unspoken code among musicians, a pay-it-forward ethos that holds the community together. Brown lived it. He taught Clayton everything he knew, booked him gigs, even paid his union dues—and for the longest time, Clayton couldn’t figure out why.

“I finally said, ‘You’ve helped me so much and I’m always thanking you. You’ve got to be tired of it by now.’ And Ray just said, ‘No. I’m doing this for you now. And you’re going to do it for somebody else further down the line.’”

And it’s true, he has. Clayton has spent decades teaching, passing along not just technique but tradition. His students are now teachers themselves. One of them is Eastman’s new Associate Professor of Jazz Voice, Sara Gazarek, whom Clayton first met during his 20-plus years teaching at the University of Southern California.

CLAYTON RETURNS TO EASTMAN

Clayton’s roots in Rochester stretch back more than half a century. He remembers giving a workshop alongside jazz pianist Monty Alexander in the early 1970s, and has returned many times since, most recently in 2022.

What keeps drawing him back, is the spirit of the place. “Eastman represents young people that are curious about—and hungry for—the music that I have dedicated my life to. The level of the students is so high, which actually makes it easier for me, because I get to engage with them on a deeper level right from the start.”

This time around, he’s working with both the Eastman Jazz Ensemble and the Eastman New Jazz Ensemble—two powerful groups with distinct flavors. He’s excited to craft a program that will highlight each ensemble’s strengths and celebrate their shared creativity. And at the prospect of being reunited with Gazarek, he’s also planning to incorporate vocal arrangements to spotlight her department.

“I always plan the sets to feel balanced and have a flow, but I’ll start with something really good,” says Clayton, musing on whether Charles Mingus’s ‘Haitian Fight Song’ might make a rousing opener, though he often prefers to get a read on the musicians before locking in a playlist.

Christine Jensen, Assistant Professor of Jazz Studies & Contemporary Media (JCM) and Director of the Eastman Jazz Ensemble is excited to welcome Clayton. “We hope to get as much time with John as possible,” Jensen says. “His wisdom as a master bassist, composer, arranger, bandleader, and producer casts a wide net. He’s a living legend in jazz, and we look forward to celebrating his sounds, while sharing in his stories.”

Equally enthusiastic about Clayton’s return is another of Eastman’s Assistant Professors of Jazz Studies & Contemporary Media, and the Director of the Eastman New Jazz Ensemble, Dave Rivello. “John Clayton is one of my biggest heroes,” Rivello says. “Everything he does seems to have the history of jazz in it!”

John Clayton will be visiting Eastman from Sunday, April 13 through his double bill concert with the Eastman Jazz Ensemble and Eastman New Jazz Ensemble on Tuesday, April 15 at 7:30 PM. On the Monday, he will spend the day with the JCM students working with composition, arranging, and bass masterclasses, as well as visiting with the student Jazz Performance Workshop classes. Three student works will be premiered during the concert.

Clayton will also join the ensembles in playing a few tunes. “I always love composing and arranging. But I still love playing,” he confirmed. “When I’m deep on a writing project, I have a guy on my shoulder who goes, ‘Huh, call yourself a bass player? How come you’re not playing bass?’ And if I’m playing a lot, then I have another guy on my other shoulder that goes, ‘Huh, call yourself a composer? How come you’re not composing?’ So that’s my personal dilemma—trying to find the balance that keeps these guys quiet.”

As for advice to young players? Clayton keeps it simple: “If you follow your heart, you can’t go wrong.”

 

The Ray Coniff Jazz Ensemble Series presents
Eastman Jazz Ensemble & Eastman New Jazz Ensemble
with special guest John Clayton

Tuesday, April 15, 2025
7:30 p.m. | Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre