The Clayton Brothers

Bassist <a href="spotify:artist:7xpCL3ZjAsjhUIPJBE5PmB">John Clayton, Jr.</a> and his two-years-younger brother, saxophonist <a href="spotify:artist:2bBWuA5lniLcWPiMcPqzW8">Jeff Clayton</a>, play straight-ahead jazz. The brothers were born and raised in Venice, CA. <a href="spotify:artist:7xpCL3ZjAsjhUIPJBE5PmB">John</a> took up bass in junior high school, while <a href="spotify:artist:2bBWuA5lniLcWPiMcPqzW8">Jeff</a> began playing clarinet at nine, switching to saxophone at 14. <a href="spotify:artist:7xpCL3ZjAsjhUIPJBE5PmB">John</a> joined <a href="spotify:artist:30V1rKijENF5MFcGidInfh">Monty Alexander</a>'s trio after graduating from college in the mid-'70s, and in 1977 moved to <a href="spotify:artist:2jFZlvIea42ZvcCw4OeEdA">Count Basie</a>'s band; <a href="spotify:artist:2bBWuA5lniLcWPiMcPqzW8">Jeff</a> also played with Basie. The Claytons began working together as a group in 1978, issuing their debut album, Clayton Brothers, on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Concord+Records%22">Concord Records</a>, followed in 1980 by It's All in the Family. After their stints with <a href="spotify:artist:2jFZlvIea42ZvcCw4OeEdA">the Basie Orchestra</a>, both brothers played with a variety of jazz and pop performers. In 1985, with drummer <a href="spotify:artist:1qWu3D3Lp6hCk4XFNaeZ18">Jeff Hamilton</a>, they launched <a href="spotify:artist:3BDNDjVtAxrIqFDIO5cUgy">the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra</a>. Their third album as the Clayton Brothers, The Music, arrived in 1991. For this date, the group was a quartet filled out by Hamilton and pianist <a href="spotify:artist:2FfWqpDJg7emSdQljKfwHM">Bill Cunliffe</a>. <a href="spotify:artist:5FuXrmOgtBTlGDUP1O41Ir">Herlin Riley</a> replaced Hamilton for 1997's Expressions after the Claytons signed to <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Qwest+Records%22">Qwest Records</a>, but Hamilton was back in the drummer's chair for 2000's Siblingity, which marked the group's expansion to a quintet with the addition of trumpeter <a href="spotify:artist:7rF1f3ZbidUhK24k7N8RcB">Terell Stafford</a>. The group followed up with 2005's Back in the Swing of Things and 2008's Brother to Brother. The Clayton Brothers' 2010 album, The New Song and Dance, was nominated for a Grammy Award. ~ Michael G. Nastos & William Ruhlmann, Rovi