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Gerald Clayton
Background information
Born	(1984-05-11)May 11, 1984 (age 41) Utrecht, Netherlands
Origin	Los Angeles, California, United States
Genres	Jazz
Occupation	Musician
Instrument	Piano
Labels	Blue Note Concord Verve ArtistShare Motéma
Website	www.geraldclayton.com

Gerald William Clayton (born May 11, 1984) is a Dutch-born American jazz pianist and composer.

Clayton attended theLos Angeles County High School for the Arts; USC's Thornton School of Music, where he studied piano withBilly Childs; and the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied withKenny Barron.^{[1][citation needed]}

He has performed and recorded withRoy Hargrove,Diana Krall,Ben Wendel,Dianne Reeves,Terri Lyne Carrington,Ambrose Akinmusire,Dayna Stephens,Kendrick Scott,Ben Williams,Terell Stafford &Dick Oatts, Michael Rodriguez,Avishai Cohen,Sachal Vasandani,Gretchen Parlato, and theClayton Brothers Quintet.^{[citation needed]} Clayton also has enjoyed an extended association since early 2013, touring and recording with saxophone legend,Charles Lloyd.^{[citation needed]} 2016 marks his second year as Musical Director of theMonterey Jazz Festival On Tour, a project that features his trio withRavi Coltrane,Nicolas Payton, andRaul Midón.^{[citation needed]}

In 2012 and 2013, Clayton received Grammy nominations forThe Paris Sessions (Concord) andLife Forum (Concord).^{[citation needed]} In 2010, he was nominated forBest Instrumental Composition for "Battle Circle", which is featured on the Clayton Brothers album,New Song and Dance.^{[citation needed]} In 2009, he was nominated forBest Improvised Jazz Solo for his solo onCole Porter's "All of You" from his debut album,Two-Shade.^{[citation needed]} His nomination competed with established jazz musiciansTerence Blanchard andRoy Hargrove, with whom Clayton toured for several years.^{[citation needed]}

The Clayton Brothers'Brother to Brother received a nomination in theBest Jazz Instrumental Album category.^{[citation needed]} Gerald Clayton plays piano on the album, which holds loosely to a theme of songs that were made famous byThad,Hank andElvin Jones.^{[citation needed]} Clayton's piano playing was described by Ben Ratliff ofThe New York Times as "[filling] up the available space" with Clayton "busying himself with prettiness and authority...If you've listened to much hard bop or mainstream jazz of the early '60s, you might find some easygoing clichés in his playing – or maybe even an awful lot of them – but they are smoothly rendered. More important, the friendly rhetoric of this music allows them."^[2]

Clayton is the son of American jazz bassistJohn Clayton.^{[citation needed]}

• Gerald Clayton official website

• 1984 births
• Living people
• Dutch emigrants to the United States
• USC Thornton School of Music alumni
• American jazz pianists
• American male jazz pianists
• Los Angeles County High School for the Arts alumni
• African-American jazz musicians
• 21st-century American pianists
• 21st-century American male musicians
• Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra members
• Motéma Music artists
• Verve Records artists
• Concord Records artists
• African-American pianists
• 21st-century African-American musicians
• 20th-century African-American musicians
• Blue Note Records artists
• ArtistShare artists

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• Short description is different from Wikidata
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• Articles with unsourced statements from March 2021