Bassist, Composer, Arranger and Producer, John Clayton is a busy man. He is a GRAMMY® winner with nine additional nominations and has written and/or recorded with artists such as Milt Jackson, Diana Krall, Paul McCartney, Regina Carter, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Gladys Knight, Queen Latifah, McCoy Tyner, YoYo Ma and Charles Aznavour, to name only a few. John was the principal bassist in the Amsterdam Philharmonic Orchestra (The Netherlands) from 1980-1984.
In 1986, John co-founded the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra and rekindled The Clayton Brothers Quintet. In addition to his individual clinics and workshops, he was the Artist Director of Jazz for Centrum, The Port Townsend Jazz Festival, and the Vail Jazz Workshop. It is John’s arrangement of the “Star Spangled Banner” that helped propel Whitney Houston in her 1990 performance at the Super Bowl (the recording went platinum). His recordings with the Clayton Brothers, the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, Milt Jackson, Monty Alexander, Count Basie and others are plentiful.
John feels “I’ve been guided by a village of musicians who helped me understand the humility that goes along with playing music at the highest level you can. Ray Brown used to tell me to ‘Just learn how to play the bass!’ If you take care of the music, it will take care of you.”