— Don Heckman, Los Angeles Times
At Kuumbwa, 26-year-old pianist Gerald Clayton
makes old standards new again
By Richard Scheinin, Mercury News
July 21, 2010
"For the best young jazz musicians — Clayton is 26 — the music's long history isn't a stumbling block to expression. It's just a reality, a source of connections. It gets complicated, but the sorting-out process happens over time for a working band like Clayton's. It's "a trio of close friends," he told the audience. "These guys pretty much read my mind."
"...the mind readers began very quietly: stretched out, minimalist lines from acoustic bassist Joe Sanders, again referencing neo-soul and hip-hop; lots of dancing definition from drummer Justin Brown, slipping in and out of multiple tempos; Clayton dropping little neural explosions into the mix with his own tangling and untangling lines. And then, stealthily, a groove emerged, a through-line, pulsing out of that big, heady mix of information: three dimensions had been focused down to one."
Jazz Piano Giants Spanning the Years
By Phillip Lutz, New York Times
July 23, 2010
"...the youngest pianist to lead a group at either festival will be Gerald Clayton, 26... Mr. Clayton already claims an impressive résumé, having played Caramoor last summer and led groups in the best clubs. He enjoys acceptance in the small circle of top-rank pianists..."
“Clayton is terrific of the young players coming up,” Mr. Morgenstern said. “He’s really gifted.”
Gerald Clayton
Players - Expansive Tastemaker
by Ted Panke
Downbeat Magazine
June 2009
"In a generation of technical, and resourceful, wunderkinds, Clayton, 24, stands out for his nuanced touch, precise articulation and the way he constructs a narrative for his solos."
My Favorite Things Jazz
January 2009
"I like to draw from all of the various musical styles that I love. If we had to describe music without using genre distinctions, we would have to refer to the emotions that the music evokes. I hope to find an honest way of expressing all of my emotions through music, which means drawing upon various types of sounds and styles."
A Pianist With a Soft Touch, Except When It Becomes Grand
Ben Ratlif, New York Times
July 2007
"We’ll be hearing more about him. This isn’t a blind guess; there just aren’t a lot of pianists who have so much organized at such a young age. His style synthesizes economy, variety and harmonic ideas from players like Cedar Walton and Kenny Barron, as well as some flourishes and grandstanding energy from Oscar Peterson and Art Tatum. It’s also an armored style, with a decent amount of glibness and facile blues language; one that, for whatever reason, regards dissonance, abruptness and space as undesirable options."
Concert Review: The Clayton Brothers at Dizzy’s Club, NYC 1/16/09
Lucid Culture
January 17, 2009
“The night’s most impressive solos belonged to Gerald Clayton, who set a devious tone early on and didn’t stray far. Whether winding up one of a seemingly endless series of impressionistic crescendos with a vividly Asian-inflected melody, or plucking the strings inside the piano for a banjo-like tone while John Clayton worked up a guitar line, he kept both the audience and the rest of the band on their toes."
Piano Sensation Gerald Clayton at the Hilton Harrisburg & Towers on January 25th
All About Jazz
“Sensation" is an easy word to toss around in the entertainment industry. In the case of Gerald Clayton, there is substantial evidence to back up that description. At the tender age of 24, he has already performed all over the world, receiving numerous honors and rave reviews.
CD Review: The Clayton Brothers - Brother To Brother
Don Williamson, Jazz Review
“...jaw-dropping solos for each of the musicians... Young Gerald, who lately has been working with Roy Hargrove’s group, provides a crashing, propulsive solo of his own, and following in his father’s footsteps, arranged “Jive Samba” with his own ideas about harmonization and stretching a melody, while providing opportunity for father John to establish a recurrent vamp reinforcing his own."