JOHN CLAY

ABOUT TIME

Claytone Music

John Clay, drums; Ruby Pucillo, vocals; Sean Conly, acoustic bass; Enrique Haneline, piano; Matt Garrison, tenor & soprano saxophone; Shunzo Ohno, trumpet/flugelhorn.

John Clay grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, where he played with local bands, starting as early as age thirteen.  While still in high school, he somehow landed the job of backing up Bill Withers in front of 35,000 attendees at the largest benefit concert in Kentucky at that time.  By age 24, John was drummer of choice for guitar legend, Jimmy Raney.  He also accompanied master music educator, Jamey Aebersold and recorded one of the Aebersold best-selling play-along records called, “Getting It Together.”  At age 25, John Clay relocated to New York City.

The blessings continued to pour into Clay’s life.  He got to work and record with Zoot Sims, along with Jimmy Rowles and Michael Moore.  Naturally, that led to playing top jazz venues like The Village Vanguard and Fat Tuesdays. Clay recorded with Zoot at RCA Recording studios. They released 3 ‘Pablo Today’ albums including a compilation record with Zoot Sims, Sarah Vaughan, and Clark Terry on “Quadrant, A Celebration of Duke.”

How apropos that John Clay would choose a title like “About Time” from his drummer perspective. Of course, with Clay, it’s always been “About Time.”  He spoke about this current project in his press package.

“The idea of recording “About Time” grew out of recent performances with pianist Enrique Haneline, which are always spontaneous and engaging.  I wanted to document our musical interactions.  Playing with Enrique has created some of my favorite musical moments,” John Clay said.

They begin this musical journey with a Fred Hersch tune called “A Lark.”  It features a lovely bass solo by Sean Conly and the harmonic horns of Matt Garrison on saxophone and Shunzo Ohno on trumpet. They follow this with a Chick Corea gem, “Humpty Dumpty.”  Then we are entertained by the wonderful vocals of Ruby Pucillo singing “Alice in Wonderland” as a jazz waltz. The group swings and so does Ruby.  She breaks out into a very interesting perspective on vocal scatting. Purcillo puts her own mark on the artform.

The John Clay album will not be available until January 23^rd of next year.  So, enjoy this sneak preview and put it on your ‘must have’ list.  John Clay offers us a rich repertoire of familiar jazz standards, arranged in very creative ways, with lots of Straight-ahead moments and tunes like Wayne Shorter’s “Rio,” Billy Drummond’s “Dubai” and Young & Washington’s familiar “Stella by Starlight.”  Alan Pasqua’s tune called “Highway 14” spotlights Pucillo’s soprano jazz tones in a lovely Latin way.  She becomes a vocal horn, that draws me into the music like quicksand.

Reviewed by Dee Dee McNeil

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