20 Facts About Buck Clayton

Wilbur Dorsey "Buck" Clayton was an American jazz trumpeter who was a member of Count Basie's orchestra.

Buck Clayton's 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.

Buck Clayton was taught at this time by trumpeter Mutt Carey, who later emerged as a prominent west-coast revivalist in the 1940s.

Buck Clayton met Louis Armstrong, while Armstrong was performing at Sebastian's Cotton Club, who taught him how to glissando on his trumpet.

Buck Clayton later formed a band named 14 Gentlemen from Harlem, in which he was the leader of the 14-member orchestra.

Buck Clayton played a number of songs that were composed by Li Jinhui, while adopting the Chinese music scale into the American scale.

Later that year, Buck Clayton accepted an offer from bandleader Willie Bryant in New York, but while moving east he stopped in Kansas City, Missouri and was persuaded to stay by Count Basie, whose orchestra had a residency at the Reno Club.

From September 1949, Buck Clayton was in Europe for nine months, leading his own band in France.

Buck Clayton recorded intermittently over the next few years for the French Vogue label, under his own name, that of clarinetist Mezz Mezzrow and for one session, with pianist Earl Hines.

In 1953, Buck Clayton was again in Europe, touring with Mezzrow; in Italy, the group was joined by Frank Sinatra.

Buck Clayton was precisely one of the players to whom this appellation most applied.

Buck Clayton recorded for Vanguard, with Hammond producing, under his own name and on dates led by Ruby Braff, Mel Powell and Sir Charles Thompson.

In 1955, Buck Clayton appeared in The Benny Goodman Story, working with Goodman in New York at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel two years later.

In 1964, Buck Clayton performed in Japan, Australia and New Zealand with Eddie Condon, with whom he had already occasionally worked for several years.

Buck Clayton made numerous visits to the UK thereafter and recorded three albums with Lyttelton.

Shortly after appearing at the New Orleans Jazz Festival in 1969, Buck Clayton underwent lip surgery and had to give up playing the trumpet in 1972.

Buck Clayton was able to resume playing in 1977 for a State Department-sponsored tour of Africa.

Buck Clayton had to permanently stop playing in 1979, although he still worked as an arranger.

Buck Clayton taught at Hunter College, CUNY, from 1975 to 1980, and again in the early 1980s.

Buck Clayton died in his sleep in December 1991, the month after his 80th birthday, at the Manhattan home of a friend.