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i'm gerald clayton and I rock jazz you

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know I think it's uh it's it's something
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that keeps evolving for me but for me
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the process has always been the same
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it's it's I'm just trying to soak in the
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music that I love and I grew up
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listening to the tradition to a lot of
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the classics of obstacle Peterson and
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Art Tatum and all the way up through
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Herbie Hancock so if I want to be honest
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with my expression which is kind of my
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goal it makes sense for me to draw upon
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those sounds because that's I feel that
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that's part of who I am but I also
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relate to other musicians who are
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playing now you know that the guys that
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I'm playing with you are pushing the
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music forward so I think it's just a
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matter of trying to stay honest you know
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just just expressing yourself with
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honesty and doing what doing what's
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right for the music doing what the music
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halls for and you know if you're tipping
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if you're playing a standard it may not
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be time for this unless somebody
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introduces a certain idea and you want
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to take it there you know I try to
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really just stay open-minded both to the
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tradition and into the more modern stuff
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the best advice that I got from my dad
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was to do it for the music and to let
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the rest take care of itself that's
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something he told me early on and
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fortunately that's that's worked out for
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me you know there was pressure at some
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point when I was young to record and
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sort of get into that at an early age
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and he said you know be patient you have
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the rest of your life to record just
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focus on the music and I'm really glad
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he told me that because you know I
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wasn't ready there was a lot I mean I'm
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still learning all the time but there
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was a lot to be learned at that time and
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so those sort of things come in real
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handy but that's that's really the main
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messages ignore everything else and
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focus on the music let the rest take
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care of itself
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I don't know that you have to do
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anything I mean that's the beauty of
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this music is that it's it represents
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freedom and it's it's up to each
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individual to decide you know how
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they're going to go about presenting our
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music or you know what what sort of
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influences they want to bring together
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but you know I think it's it's a hip-hop
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is a relevant part of the music's
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culture you know that the music's
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tradition if we're talking about black
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music you know starting with jazz
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definitely at some point hip-hop came
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into the equation so it is relevant and
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it does i think it it's yet it's
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relevant but i don't think that i think
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of those boundaries you know i'm not
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trying to think about okay now i'm
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playing hip-hop now i'm playing jazz I'm
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just trying to play what's right for the
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music and if somebody if we're taking it
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there and that's that's the vibe then I
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want to be able to go there which means
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making yourself familiar with with those
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styles but but really the genre
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distinctions are not important you know
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it's it's all music to me it's just good
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and bad
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my advice is to create your own
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curriculum sort of have your own cradle
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your own goal and and establish a
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personal connection with the music
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something that is personal something
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that it's your own reason for loving the
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music don't do it because somebody else
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is trying to do it you know I'm always
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just striving for that honesty in my
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expression and that means being
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open-minded to all sorts of styles and
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genres so yeah do it for the music and
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let the rest take care of itself
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you