I have a great announcement!
The incredible veteran jazz singer, JAY CLAYTON, is coming to the West Coast for her 80th Birthday west coast tour!
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Here’s what to expect!
Jay’s Los Angeles Birthday Gig
I seriously encourage you to attend!
She will have the incredible pianist Bill Cunliffe, John Leftwich bass, Chris Wabich drums, and Kim Richmond alto sax!
It will be a Brunch on Sunday November 14th,
at Feinstein’s in Studio City… 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm.
A vocal workshop Saturday 10/13. To be held in Granada Hills (near Northridge) most likely outside.
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AND you can have a private lesson with one of the Masters of jazz singing! Thursday and Friday, call me for scheduling.
For information, reservations, addresses and deposit information, contact Cathy
(818)599-3292
$60 for the in-person workshop.
$80 for the in-person private lessons
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ABOUT JAY:
More than 20 years after [her debut recording] All Out, Clayton is still the most adventurous singer in jazz, a specialist in wordless improvisation who’s also expert in distending and finding new meanings in the melodies and lyrics of classic popular song.
Francis Davis, The Village Voice, July 14, 2004
Jay Clayton is an internationally acclaimed vocalist, composer,
and educator, whose work boldly spans the terrain between
jazz and new music.
Clayton’s pioneering vocal explorations placed her at the forefront of the free jazz movement and loft scene in the 1970s, where she counted among the first singers to incorporate poetry and electronics into her improvisations.
With more that 40 recordings to her credit, Clayton has appeared alongside such formidable artists as Muhal Richard Abrams,
Kirk Nurock, Stanley Cowell, Lee Konitz, and Fred Hersch, as well as fellow vocalists Jeanne Lee, Norma Winstone, Urszula Dudziak, and Bobby McFerrin. Clayton currently records for Sunnyside and her most recent album, Brooklyn 2000, met with enthusiastic critical praise. Her many accomplishments include grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, and Chamber Music America (2004).
As the jazz scene in the clubs ebbed with the burgeoning interest in rock’n’roll, lofts became important artist showcases. By 1967, Clayton and husband Frank were presenting Jazz at the Loft in their home on Lispenard Street, one of the first loft concert series.
Sam Rivers, Cecil McBee, JoAnne Brackeen, Dave Liebman, Pete Yellin, Hal Galper, Jeanne Lee, Bob Moses, Jiunie Booth, John Gilmore, and Jane Getz were among the featured musicians. Clayton also began to earn her own reputation as an avant-garde singer, developing her personal wordless vocabulary.
In 1971, Clayton began leading her own workshops on vocal improvisation and exploration, as well as sound and movement workshops with Michelle Berne and Jeanne Lee.
She performed with Muhal Richard Abrams at the Joseph Papp Public Theater, a project recorded as Spihumonesty (Black Saint 1979), with John Fischer’s Interface, and Byron Morris’s Unity. As an independent artist already used to creating her own events, Clayton acted as the artistic director for the first ever Women in Jazz Festival, produced by Cobi Narita in 1979. She served as a consultant for ABC Cable’s Women in Jazz, compiling footage for the series.
While her career in jazz began to blossom, Clayton simultaneously emerged on the new music scene. In 1971, minimalist composer Steve Reich was looking for a jazz singer with strong skills reading music. Clayton, whose loft was located conveniently around the corner from Reich’s, fit the bill. She would appear on his recordings of several seminal works including Drumming, Music for Eighteen Musicians, and Tehillim. (Many of these recordings have recently been reissued on Nonesuch Records). Clayton toured with
Steve Reich and Musicians for more than ten years and continues to appear with the ensemble.
Clayton’s versatility would also lead her to make some of the first recordings of composer John Cage’s vocal music. Even though Cage was not particularly interested in having his works recorded at the time, he heard Clayton perform She’s Asleep. She would record it under the auspices of producer
Having trained singers using a capella groups for years in her teaching, Clayton would also envision an ensemble of master vocal improvisers. In 1982, she was invited to a vocal jazz forum in Germany led by noted European producer Joachim-Ernst Berendt, to demonstrate what improvising voices could do.
Vocal Summit, an international acapella ensemble, evolved from this meeting. At various times, its members included Urszula Dudiziak, Michele Hendricks, Jeanne Lee, Bobby McFerrin, Lauren Newton, Norma Winstone, and Bob Stoloff. Although the group disbanded, Clayton sees potential for a revival with Dudziak, Hendricks, and Winstone, the personnel on their recording Conference of the Birds.
A master teacher, Clayton creates a classroom environment that allows the students to experience musical freedom and gives them the security create their own sound vocabularies.
Jay has taught numerous master classes and workshops including New York’s City College, the Universität für Musik in Graz, Austria, and the Bud Shank Jazz Workshop. the Banff Center, which she co-taught with fellow vocalist Sheila Jordan.
She was on the jazz faculty at Cornish Collage for the Art for 20 years and on the jazz faculty at Peabody Institute in Baltimore for 8 years. She is currently on the jazz faculty at Princeton University. Her book, Sing Your Story: A Practical Guide for Learning and Teaching the Art of Jazz Singing, was published by Advance Music in 2001.
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