Gerald Clayton

Pianist Gerald Clayton is an adept improviser and composer with a style steeped in post-bop jazz traditions, but whose work has grown ever more stylistically daring, exploring classical, Latin and electronic textures. Since his early '00s emergence playing with his father bassist John Clayton, he has established a reputation as a skilled composer and arranger, releasing trio albums like 2009's Two Shade and 2011's Bond: The Paris Sessions. The latter album earned Clayton a Grammy nomination, as did 2013's Life Forum, which found him expanding his group with trumpeter Akinmusire, saxophonists Logan Richardson, and vocalist Gretchen Parlato. A larger group also performed 2017's charting Tributary Tales. More Grammy nominations arrived with 2019's Happening: Live at the Village Vanguard. Clayton's debut for Blue Note Records, the live album paved the way for 2022's Bells on Sand (which featured an appearance by saxophonist Charles Lloyd) and 2025's DJ-inspired Ones & Twos.