Gerald Clayton

But the way people react to it sometimes is different.

So it teaches you a lot about who your real friends are, and the people who are just kind of like, they don't act any differently.

Yeah.

And I'm like, "Oh, there you go.

So... [laughs] Definitely.

Yeah.

I, I've had friends who like, who've been super frustrated about like getting pitted against John Williams- Oh, yeah ... at the GRAMMYs, and it's- Yeah ... it's tough.

[laughs] It's, it's not, it's not an ideal, uh, person to be [laughs] in the same category with.

Comes from a 2004 album Translinear Light.

We heard Gretchen Parlato with Gerald Clayton on piano and Mark Guiliana on the drums from her album Flor.

It came out in 2021, and we heard the tune Wonderful.

The social justice activist and jazz drummer Terri Lyne Carrington.

Many of the biggest names in jazz today went through the Gilbert Castellanos School of Music on the bandstand.

Like Gerald Clayton is a perfect example of that.

Um, everyone in the world of jazz knows Gerald Clayton.

And, um, I think Luke Little is one example of the future of that.

He's, um...

...

I think one piano player we just left off the list there was the great [laughs] Gerald Clayton.

Oh, yeah, he stopped in a little bit.

[laughs]

Man.

Yeah.

Gerald Clayton eats, eats this album up.

Yeah.

The name of the cut is entitled Finding Ways.

It features Gerald Clayton on piano, Emmanuel Wilkins on alto sax, Joel Ross on the vibes, Kendrick Scott on drums, and Matt Brewer on bass.

Stay tuned at 12 o'clock for the Justin Kickett Show.

Vanilla Chocolate, the Vanilla Soul Brother, will be taking over the chair at 12 o'clock.

Phibius, it's called A Turtle's Dream.

Jonathan Blake, I just saw him recently at the Village Vanguard with Bill Frizzell and Gerald Clayton.

He is here doing Joe Jackson's 1982 Steppin' Out.

It comes from an album called Homeward Bound, and he's got Emmanuel Wilkins here with him on the sax.

I was starting to compose at that time.

Gerald Clayton, one of my greatest friends and comrades in music, we used to share an apartment together.

I feel like being in that space and being in a space with know your friends where you have a space to practice and develop and talk about music you know during that time i was starting to explore with composing and started playing gigs under my own name um but yeah it was a group i started with peers and practitioners of their instruments you know and put out an album in 2018 and it was, you know, greatly received.

And I'm very grateful for that.

Over 25 years an alto sax player, he's produced quite a body of work.

He's released 10 albums as a leader or co-leader, featuring established veterans like Jeff Ballard and Van Allison, rising stars like Gerald Clayton and Aaron Parks.

He's an active presence in the New York City jazz scene, having appeared as a side man on 43 albums, including... that of band leader Dan Pugach's 2025 Grammy-winning Blanca Reimagined.

He's won four consecutive ASCAP Young Composer Awards, among others.