Buck Clayton - Mainstreamer

Mainstreamer

The English critic Stanley Dance coined the term "mainstream" in the 1950s to describe the style of those swing era players who fell between the revivalist and modernist camps. Clayton was precisely one of the players to whom this appellation most applied. In December 1953 Clayton embarked on a series of jam session albums for Columbia, which had been the idea of John Hammond, though George Avakian was the principal producer. The recording sessions for these albums lasted until 1956. The tracks could last the length of a LP side, and it had been the new format that had given Hammond the idea, but sometimes this led to unfortunate anomalies. The title track on the Jumping at the Woodside album was compiled from two takes recorded four months apart, each with a completely different rhythm section. Clayton's Jazz Spectacular album from this series (with Kai Winding, J. J. Johnson and vocals by Frankie Laine) is loved by jazz and pop fans alike. Clayton also recorded at this time for Vanguard, with Hammond producing, under his own name and on dates led by Ruby Braff, Mel Powell and Sir Charles Thompson.

In 1955 he appeared in The Benny Goodman Story, also working with Goodman in New York at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel two years later. In 1958 he was at the World Fair in Brussels for concerts with Sidney Bechet, and toured Europe the following year and annually through the 1960s. For the Swingville label (a subsidiary of Prestige Records) he co-led two albums with former Basie colleague Buddy Tate and supported Pee Wee Russell on his own outing for the label.

In 1964 he performed in Japan, Australia and New Zealand with Eddie Condon, with whom he had already occasionally worked for several years. In the early 1960s he guested with the band of British trumpeter Humphrey Lyttelton in public performances and on several record albums. In order to hoodwink the musicians' union in the UK, it was necessary to claim that these albums were recorded in Switzerland.