Gerald Clayton Trio and Logan Richardson
Gerald Clayton. Photo: Ben Wolf Born in the Netherlands into a musical family and raised in southern California, two-time Grammy Award-nominee Gerald Clayton first started to study classical piano with Linda Buck aged just seven, later also studying...
[attach id="260757" size="medium"]Gerald Clayton. Photo: Ben Wolf[/attach]
Born in the Netherlands into a musical family and raised in southern California, two-time Grammy Award-nominee Gerald Clayton first started to study classical piano with Linda Buck aged just seven, later also studying jazz piano and composition with Donald Vega, Shelly Berg, Kenny Barron and Billy Childs.
After graduating from Los Angeles County High School, he was one of four musicians to be awarded a scholarship by the Music for Youth Foundation, around which time he also received the Shelly Manne Award for emerging young artists from the Los Angeles Jazz Society.
He received a Bachelor of Arts degree through the Jazz Studies programme at USC Thornton School of Music in 2006, and placed second at the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Piano Competition.
Clayton moved to New York in the winter of 2006, where he pursued his belief that tradition and innovation can peacefully coexist by developing a dynamic sound that has been widely lauded by leading music critics. In fact, apart from the Jazz Times and Los Angeles Times, Clayton has also been praised by The New York Times, who saluted his “Oscar-Peterson like style” and “huge, authoritative presence”.
Further to the positive critique, Clayton was also voted the top Rising Star – Pianist in Down Beat Magazine’s 2010 Critics Poll. His work has been commissioned by New York’s Jazz Gallery and performed by the BBC Orchestra.
The acclaimed pianist will be performing with Joe Sanders (bass), Justin Brown (drums) and Logan Richardson (alto sax) at the Malta Jazz Festival on the opening night.
The 23rd edition of the Malta Jazz Festival starts on July 18 at Ta’ Liesse in Valletta. For more information about the whole programme, visit www.maltajazzfestival.org.