Gerald Clayton Trio

Possessing an exquisite touch, astonishing technique, and a sound that somehow combines the dynamic finesse of Ahmad Jamal with the hurtling swing of Oscar Peterson, six-time GRAMMY nominee Gerald Clayton ranks among the very best pianists of his generation. He returns with his trio featuring Joe Sanders (Charles Lloyd, Kendrick Scott) and drummer Justin Brown (Thundercat, Ambrose Akinmusire) his 2025 Blue Note album Ones & Twos.

At 41, Clayton is a well-traveled veteran who has served as music director of the Monterey Jazz Festival On Tour, released five highly regarded albums, and collaborated with artists including Roy Hargrove, Charles Lloyd, Diana Krall, Ambrose Akinmusire, and Terri Lyne Carrington. With a compositional approach inspired by studies with Billy Childs, Clayton is the scion of a jazz dynasty. The son of esteemed Los Angeles bassist/arranger John Clayton and nephew of the late alto saxophonist Jeff Clayton, he’s played and recorded with the Clayton Hamilton Jazz Orchestra and the Clayton Brothers (with whom he earned a GRAMMY nomination for a composition on 2010’s The New Song and Dance.)  

His third album for Blue Note, Ones & Twos, represents an innovative approach to acoustic jazz inspired by DJ Culture and turntablism where each A-side track has a corresponding B-side track designed to interlock harmonically and rhythmically when overlaid, evoking a DJ mixing on “the ones and twos” (the two turntables).