Happy Birthday BUCK CLAYON Born November 12, 1911 to December 8, 1991

[WASHINGTON DC JAZZ NETWORK]

Buck Clayton (born Wilbur Dorsey Clayton in Parsons, Kansas on November 12, 1911-died in New York City on December 8, 1991) was an American jazz trumpet player, fondly remembered for being a leading member of Count Basie’s 'Old Testament' orchestra and leader of mainstream orientated jam session recordings in the 1950s. His principal influence was Louis Armstrong. The The Penguin Guide to Jazz says that he “synthesi[zed] much of the history of jazz trumpet up to his own time, with a bright brassy tone and an apparently limitless facility for melodic improvisation”. Clayton worked closely with Li Jinhui, father of Chinese popular music in Shanghai. In the long run, his contribution changed the course of music history in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Clayton played piano when he was six years old and switched to trumpet when he was a teenager. After high school, he moved to Los Angeles. He later formed a band named “14 Gentleman from Harlem” in which he was the leader of the 14 member orchestras
[edit] Shanghai career

Buck Clayton and his Harlem gentlemen posing in the Canidrome 1930sFrom there there are multiple sources claiming different ways in which Clayton ended up in Shanghai. Some claimed that Clayton was picked by Teddy Weatherford for a job at the international settlement areas of the Canidrome in ShanghaiOthers claimed he escaped US temporarily to avoid racism



From 1934 or 1935, depending on the sources, he was a leader of the "Harlem Gentlemen" in Shanghai. His experience in the east was unique, since Clayton was discriminated against by fellow American marines who were stationed in Shanghai. On numerous accounts, he was attacked by soldiers including an instance where bricks were thrown at him. On the contrary he was treated like an elite by the Chinese. Some of the bureaucratic social group he was with included Chiang Kai-shek's wife Soong Ching-ling, who were regulars at the canidrome. Clayton would play a number of songs that were composed by Li Jinhui, while adopting the Chinese music scale into the American scale. Li learned a great deal from the American jazz influence brought on over by Clayton. A 1935 guidebook in Shanghai listed Clayton and Teddy Weatherford as the main jazz attraction to the canidrome. He would eventually leave Shanghai before the 1937 Second Sino-Japanese War. Clayton is credited for helping close the gap between traditional Chinese music and shidaiqu/mandopop. Though Li is mostly remembered in China, since he would later die in the Cultural Revolution.

Later that year he accepted an offer from bandleader Willie Willie Bryant in New York, but while moving east he stopped off in Kansas City, and was persuaded to stay by Count Basie[1], whose orchestra had a residency at the Reno Club, and took the trumpet chair recently vacated by Hot Lips Page. From 1937, the Count Basie orchestra was based in New York, giving Clayton the opportunity to freelance in the recordings studios, and he participated in recordings sessions featuring Billie Holiday and was also present on Commodore (and later Keynote Records) sessions with Lester Young. Clayton remained with Basie until he was drafted for war service in November 1943. Based at Camp Kilmer near New York, Clayton was able to participate in various all-star sessions, some of which were led by Sy Oliver.

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