The Clayton/Scott Group
What does true Canadian Smooth Jazz sound Like? Pick up 'August' the superb debut album from the Clayton/Scott group and we promise you will be begging for more. The duo who formed in autumn of 2000 sat down and talked to Smooth Jazz Now in July 2002.

John Beaudin - Hi guys, welcome. I really love the debut album.

Andrew Scott - Thanks for the interview and for your nice review of our record.

John - You are very welcome. Tell me, what was your inspiration going into the recording of this one? Did you have Smooth Jazz in mind?

Jim Clayton - Very much so, Andy had discovered the more R&B side of the genre in Boston clubs while studying musicology there. I'd found it by way of contemporary jazz like Yellowjackets, Mike Stern, Bob Berg and eventually found artists like David Benoit and Rick Braun. I'd also found some Bob James LP's when I was about twenty after seeing flautist Alexander Zonjic play his tune "Angela" in my hometown. Anyhow, when The Wave 94.7 opened in Hamilton, the morning host called asking if I had any new music they could include in their Canadian content. He'd spun my debut CD at CKWR in Waterloo, so I mentioned it to Andy and he proposed collaboration.

Andrew - Jim and I did quite a bit of research and pre-production in order to pinpoint some specific recording, compositional and playing techniques which we felt were idiomatically "Smooth Jazz". We tried to capture these concepts on our record.

John - Is there a buzz among musicians that this genre is growing or do your Jazz musician friends even care?

Andrew - I don't know many other Smooth Jazz musicians. However, Brian Hughes was one of my early guitar instructors and he and I had a recent positive conversation about the growing interest in Canadian Smooth Jazz.

John - Do you run into the "Jazz Police?" You know the die hard musicians who don't take Smooth Jazz police seriously?

Jim - Of course, and the name itself is a source of confusion. The Grammy award category for the genre is called "Instrumental Pop" and that's probably more accurate. The American name for the format is New Adult Contemporary in the trade magazines.

Andrew - The most common criticism leveled against Smooth Jazz is that "it's not Jazz" and in my opinion in many cases it's not. Specifically, there are many fine players in the Smooth Jazz genre like Jeff Golub whose timbre, sound, vocabulary, time feel, note-choice and musical attitude comes more from a rock-pop background than from Jazz. For me, these musicians are not Jazz musicians but rather Smooth Jazz players. That said, I enjoy what they do tremendously, have tones of respect for their musicianship, chops, compositions, attitude, savvy etc. I just think of it as being a different style of music than Jazz. I like them both. I think it would be equally ridiculous to assert that someone like Sonny Stitt is a Smooth Jazz musician and then criticize him for not playing the genre properly.

John - Andrew, tell me about some of the guitar album you buy?

Andrew - For Jazz I buy Mark Elf, Sonny Greenwich, Pat Martino, Mark Whitfield, Grant Green, Peter Bernstein, Wes Montgomery, Johnny Smith, Joe Pass, Charlie Christian, Django Reinhardt, Barney Kessel, Herb Ellis, Jimmy Ponder, Rene Thomas, Reg Schwager, Lenny Breau, Lorne Lofsky, Gene Bertoncinni, Frank Vignola, Kenny Burrell, Bruce Foreman, Howard Alden, Jimmy Bruno, John Pizzarelli and Ed Bickert records among others. For Smooth Jazz I like Norman Brown, George Benson, Earl Klugh, Jeff Golub, Peter White and Brian Hughes.

John - Andrew, tell me about your book on Sonny Greenwich.

Andrew - Sonny is my musical hero. In my opinion, Sonny is one of the greatest musicians on the planet of any genre or style. He is a genius composer, an amazingly unique guitar player and a Canadian national treasure. He has such a special touch on the instrument that you know it is him within two notes and his understanding of music not just Jazz is total and unbelievable. Like Beethoven, Oscar Peterson, Bach, Glenn Gould, Charlie Parker, Frank Sinatra or Django Reinhardt I get the sense from Sonny that he couldn't play a wrong note if he tried. My book, although still in the works is the offshoot of research I'm doing for a Musicology PhD. at York University in Toronto. I recently submitted an abstract of my research so hopefully I'll be presenting some of my work on Sonny and his music at this summer's Guelph Jazz Festival.

John - What cuts did The Wave in Hamilton choose to play?

Andrew - Of my compositions, The Wave choose two wedding dedications to friends: "August" and "David and Elizabeth" one groove/blowing tune, "Santa Ana" and one up-tempo happy song with a nice lyric and sentiment called "I Love Music."

Jim - From my own writing they added "Black Horse", "Huron", "Mr. Guaraldi" which was inspired by Vince Guaraldi's "Cast Your Fate To The Wind" and "Dukish". They also added our cover of Smokey Robinson's "Just To See Her". We're adding some notes and commentary on our songs to the website this month.

Andrew - I'm thrilled that The Wave has been so supportive. It's very rewarding to hear our music on the radio.

Jim - We've been heavily added to the digital radio services in Canada also so if you have Starchoice, ExpressVu, or Rogers Digital you can tune in to their Smooth Jazz channels to hear us. Also, Australian radio has picked us up including their CBAA 150-station network.

John - Jim, are you still a Music Director with Second City?

Jim - Yes, I've been working with their National Touring Company for seven years and I'm still enjoying it. There's not a lot of music gigs where you can laugh your butt off on the job. There's some interesting traveling too, I spent two weeks in China and Singapore last fall.

John - Yeah it really sounds like a great gig ! How did you hook up with the company?

Jim - One of my favourite teachers at Humber College, Don Baird, recommended me. I was in his "Electric Band" one of the college ensembles and one day he walked up to me and said, "You seem to think you're pretty funny. I might have a gig for you." Turned out he'd had the gig himself back when SCTV was still on the air.

John - Guys tell me what your perfect radio station would sound like any genre?

Andrew - I guess it would be a blend of talk, sports, Jazz, Classical, Funk, Soul, and old R&B.

Jim - That'd be fine by me. Throw in some Seventies' Rock'n'roll though.

John - I grew up in the seventies and I still love most of the Rock'n roll that I listened to back then. What's your biggest complaint about radio today?

Jim - Maybe that they're so narrowly focused genre-wise. The station Andrew described would never happen in commercial radio. But that's the way any business works and if I want something more eclectic, there's always college stations and public radio.

John - Will there be more Clayton/Scott Group albums? Are you working on more stuff?

Andrew - There will definitely be more Clayton/Scott records. I think Jim and I have struck a nice balance both professionally and musically and we want to see our commitment through. Since we both compose, there are always lots of song and project ideas being discussed.

John - I talked to Bruce Hornsby a while back and he does something a lot of Pop acts don't do and that's practice constantly. Do you guys have a chance to work on your craft?

Andrew - The guitar is such a difficult, physical instrument that I have to practice to maintain my chops. So I practice all the time whether I'm transcribing tunes, lifting solos or learning the Jazz vocabulary. It is easy to do though because I just love the guitar. I love how it feels, sounds, looks, and plays. So I'm always practicing in some form or another.

Jim - Andy plays his instrument more than I do for sure. I'm fascinated by writing and producing and I'm always working in my home studio. I've started spending more time at the piano though, improvising on our own tunes and on others. I'd love to get my trad-Jazz chops together enough to do a standards album.

John - I know it's the oldest question in time but I know our readers love hearing this: name your desert island albums.

Jim - I don't know about exact albums but there'd have to be some Miles Davis, some Yellowjackets and the Steely Dan box set. Pat Metheny's "We Live Here" and old Billy Joel would make the cut. I've started listening to a lot of Joe Sample and Donny Hathaway, so they'd be in there too.

Andrew - My desert Island Disc list in no particular order :

"The Trio": The Oscar Peterson Trio
Fantastic chops, swing and attitude. The epitome of Jazz trio playing.
For anybody who thinks that Peterson can only play fast, check
out "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning" - so beautiful!

"Sonny Stitt meets the Oscar Peterson Trio": Sonny Stitt and Oscar Peterson
The guys play absolutely perfect Jazz vocabulary. Nobody swings
harder than Sonny, Oscar, Ray Brown and Ed Thigpen (Except maybe Herb
Ellis when he was in the band.)

"Bach: Goldberg Variations": Glenn Gould
He recorded Bach's work often (and the Goldberg's twice: 1955 and
1981.) I prefer the later version, although both are wonderful.
Listening to Gould play Bach is like hearing Parker play Bebop-
absolute perfection.

"Live": Donny Hathaway
Brilliant, funky, underrated. Everyone from Alicia Keys to Stevie
Wonder owes big thanks to Donny.

"White Album": The Beatles (really anything Revolver onwards)
The perfect band.

"Charlie Parker with Strings" (really any Charlie Parker)
Perfect jazz.

"Zoot Sims meets the Gershwin Brothers"
The epitome of swinging saxophone. Joe Pass, OP, George Mraz and
Grady Tate all tear it up. Listen to "I've Got Rhythm". Joe Pass'
solo is worth the album price alone.

"Live": Pat Martino
What a dark sound and what a time feel. Fantastic Tunes ("The Great
Stream" and "Sunny"). Totally exciting guitar playing. I love the
pairing of guitar and Rhodes.

"Sun Song: The Music of Sonny Greenwich"
Genius writing and playing. Check out "Lily (Lotus)" and "Peace
Chant". These tunes still sound modern today and it was done back
in 1974.

"Live at The Sands": Frank Sinatra with the Count Basie Orchestra
(conducted by Quincy Jones)
Sinatra is pure rhythm! The epitome of Jazz singing, attitude,
phrasing and musicality - Fantastic.

"The California Concert": Freddie Hubbard, George Benson, Stanley
Turrentine, Airto, Billy Cobham, Johnny Hammond, Ron Carter and Hubert Laws . A great CTI Live record; need I say more?

John - Is there a part of the business you just don't get?

Jim - I always thought it was weird that Posh Spice smiles the least of the "Spice Girls" but she's the funny one during interviews.

John - (laughing) Yeah that one keeps me up at night! What's the best moment you ever had with music as a performer and a fan?

Andrew - As a performer it would have to be playing Thunderbird Stadium in Vancouver with "One Step Beyond" in front of some ten thousand people. As a fan it would be getting to see (and meet) Oscar Peterson at the Bermuda Onion in Toronto, a musical epiphany or seeing Sonny Greenwich play every night for a week at Judy Jazz in Toronto.

Jim - Playing "Mustang Sally" with Dan Ackroyd onstage at The Hummingbird Centre, backing a Blues Brother is pretty cool. As an audience member it would be the 1993 George Benson concert at the old Ontario Place Forum.

John - What was the worst?

Andrew - It's impossible to have bad moments when music is involved.

Jim - True. Anytime I get down about something I remind myself that I get to do something I love for a living and it evens things out.

John - What was the first album you ever bought?

Jim - The Star Wars soundtrack. I split the cost with my brother in a Baton Rouge mall in 1977.

Andrew - "Minute by Minute" by The Doobie Brothers.

John - Hey there's a classic 70's album. Who influenced you the most in what records you bought?

Andrew - My mother, an amazing musician and lady.

Jim - A grade eight classmate who's a great rock guitarist, Brian Joyce. He showed me how to hook up the FM antenna on my stereo. Up until then I only knew the stuff on the adult-contemporary AM station in Sarnia. I tuned in to WRIF 101.1 FM, turned it up and heard my first hard rock, it was "Back In Black" by AC/DC. I'd never heard anything like it. So I went through that phase and then discovered Rush, Genesis, UZEB then Weather Report. After talking to musician friends it seems like Rush and other progressive rock is often an entry point to the Jazz world.

John - That 's a good point I can't tell you how many times I hear that. Before I really got serious with Jazz there were always the Rush albums like "Fly By Night" or "All The Worlds a Stage" especially the latter what an episode in great musicianship! Genesis is another great example. We talked with Daryl Stuermer of Genesis a while back he's one of the nicest guys that i've ever interviewed. Who's the most underrated musician on the planet?

Andrew - Sonny Greenwich, a genius guy, player and composer or Oscar Peterson. People complain that Oscar always plays fast but he is also such a deep, heavy harmonic musician. Both those guys are complete, perfect musicians.

Jim - He's not under-rated but I'd love to see more attention paid to Richard Bona, an amazing singer/bassist/writer. He just joined the Pat Metheny Group so that'll boost his exposure. I bought his first CD and after one listen I went back the next day and bought the other one as well.

John - Have you heard about the new Smooth Jazz station that New-Cap is starting in September in Calgary? It's called 'The Breeze.'

Jim - It's good to know that the genre is growing in Canada. I was surprised it wasn't Vancouver next though with so many applicants there wanting to open a Smooth Jazz station.

John - Yeah the Vancouver situation still angers me. Six applicant's tried including one of the companies that I have been working for CHUM LTD. who let me play Smooth Jazz in the evenings for ten years. What other commercial radio company dedicated that much time to Smooth Jazz especially since they didn't have to. There are a lot of rumours about why the CRTC made the decision they did and none of them are good. What really happened? I have no idea. Anyway thanks guys. I'm so glad we could have you on Smooth Jazz Now.com

Andrew - Thanks for the interview and for your dedication to the music.

Read reviews on The Clayton/Scott Group