Buck Clayton

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 “Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD” 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 learned to play the piano from the age of six.[1] His father was an amateur musician associated with the family's local church, who was responsible for teaching his son the scales on a trumpet which he did not take up until his teens.[2] From the age of seventeen, Clayton was taught the trumpet by Bob Russell, a member of George E. Lee’s band. In his early twenties he was based in California, and was briefly a member of Duke Ellington’s Orchestra and worked with other leaders. Clayton was also taught at this time by trumpeter Mutt Carey, who later emerged as a prominent west-coast revivalist in the 1940s. After high school, he moved to Los Angeles. He later formed a band named “14 Gentlemen from Harlem” in which he was the leader of the 14-member orchestra.[3]

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