ON the Beat | Jazz Finds a Groove in the 805, RIP Scott Clayton

Jazz and World Music Champion Passes

From left to right: Scott Clayton, Ora Clayton, and Charles Lloyd | Photo: MacDuff Everton

Let us now praise Scott Clayton, former Santa Barbaran visionary alternative radio deejay and fervent champion/fearless presenter of music on the left end of the spectrum, who recently passed on. Although Clayton had lived in San Francisco for many years, he was a powerful and ever-affable force in Santa Barbara in the ’80s and early ‘90s.

He beamed his passion for non-mainstream jazz and music from around the world on his categorically alternative radio show on KCSB for years, but, more importantly, he parlayed that passion into the public sphere of our town through the Society for Jazz and World Music (SJWM). The long list of concerts the Society presented includes Henry Threadgill, Sun Ra, Mal Waldron, Dave Holland Quintet, Episteme (featuring George Lewis and Anthony Davis), Charlie Haden, Anthony Braxton (solo at SBMA), a young Wynton Marsalis, and many other jazz artists, along with important world music artists.

In short, SJWM supplied our sleepy paradise with cutting-edge sounds we would have otherwise had to venture to a more cosmopolitan spot to hear.

On a personal note, he had a decisive influence on my own formative explorations into eclectica and a shift away from mainstream music (or only mainstream music), and we became comrades in the mission of promoting music from the edges. SJWM continued for a bit after Clayton’s northward migration, under the adept guidance of Eric Larson.

Scott Clayton and Stephen Cloud | Photo: MacDuff Everton

Larson has a trove of memories of his time with Clayton and the society they kept alive. “I often think about what made Scott so successful at SJWM,” Larson said when informed of Clayton’s passing, “so much more than I was. ‘Daring,’ yes, but back then we were so young that we were oblivious to the risks — mainly financial, the artistic risk was zero. ‘Inspired’ is perhaps better. Maybe it was the confidence that comes with both inspiration and insouciance.

“Maybe it was his great affability that made him such an effective motivator of other people, from volunteers to cranky musicians. Maybe it was that goofy laugh and shit-eating grin. Maybe it was that the only one taller than him was Steve Cloud. Or maybe it was just a combination of organizational skill and copious musical taste. He was also an eager collaborator, including with Nimbus West Records (Tom Albach, many shows by Horace Tapscott et al.), Dawn Elder at Oscar’s nightclub — I recall a young Wynton Marsalis, with Charlie Rouse on tenor — Santa Barbara Piano, and just about every nightclub in town.

“Also, I think things were easier then.

Expectations were lower. Costs were lower. SJWM was nothing but a seat-of-the-pants operation. In retrospect, I think that was part of its charm.”

Santa Barbara was a richer and more well-versed place, thanks to Clayton’s opening windows into musical cultures that needed to be heard. For those of us engaged in the adventure, the memories linger on. Thanks for the memories, Scott, and safe travels.

Miles Ahead and Behind

Creating a generally undisputed top 10 pantheon of great jazz artists can be a delicate operation, subject to the subjectivity of the list maker. Certainly, at the top of my list would be the mighty three “M’s:” Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, and Charles Mingus. On the saxophone front, John Coltrane and Charlie Parker loom large, and the piano department would have to include Bud Powell and Keith Jarrett. Up in the outer regions of avant-garde avatars, the list would have to include Ornette Coleman and Henry Threadgill. The list could go on, of course, just as jazz evolution goes on.

This year, much is being made of the synchronicity of two towering and continuingly influential titans — Miles and Coltrane — reaching the milestone 100th birthday year. Santa Barbara celebrates that confluence with not one, but two significant jazz shows within a single week — last night’s meeting of Terrence Blanchard and Ravi Coltrane at the Granada, and the arrival of impressive pianist Emmet Cohen at Campbell Hall on Sunday.

Cohen is widely hailed as one of the strongest of a strong crop of young jazz pianists on the scene at present. He is on the road with the show Miles and Coltrane at 100, alongside impressive collaborators — trumpeter Jeremy Pelt, saxophonist Tivon Pennicott, bassist Reuben Rogers, and drummer Joe Farnsworth. It promises to be a jazz event to be missed at one’s own peril, for jazz fans old and emerging.s

On the Antonio Beat

This week, Italian-in-Santa-Barbara Antonio Artese will be a busy camper (a portmanteau of “happy camper” and “busy beaver”). On Friday afternoon, he will perform along with harpist-of-choice Laurie Rasmussen as part of the intriguing — and yes, healing — “Music & Meditation” series, co-founded by Artese and meditation guide Jessica Kolbe, and settled into the intimate quarters of the Music Academy of the West’s Weinman Hall.

Having attended the first two events in the series, I can attest to the success and cross-disciplinary compatibility. I have also noticed that what makes certain music meditative is highly subjective. I found Brahms to be the antithesis of meditative, while the music of JS Bach and minimalist Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov elicited a deep, awakening, and active contemplative state.

This weekend, April 10-12, he assumes a natural spot in the newly-launched “La Piazza” Italian festival at the central library courtyard (see Independent story here). On Monday night, Artese — this time in full jazz mode (but with his inherent classical breeding sneaking into the stew) — brings his “west coast trio,” with bassist Luca Alemanno and drummer Mark Ferber, back to SOhO. The multiple sides of Artese’s musical being will emerge within the course of a few days and nights.

Schubertian Climax

From left to right: Frank Huang, Qianqian Li, Han Chen, Carter Brey, Cynthia Phelps | Photo: Emma Matthews

The Music Academy of the West’s (MAW) most welcome “Mariposa” concert series, which brings a handful of concerts to the idyllic Miraflores compound in the “off season” for MAW’s summer-timed stretch, came to a close last week. On tap: The New York Philharmonic String Quartet, whose members include MAW alums and faculty Frank Huang (violin) and Cynthia Phelps (viola), along with veteran cellist Carter Brey and violinist Quanqian Li, exerted a superb chamber-music sound in “moonlighting” mode from their orchestral duties.

This was a two-night stand, as they were joined on Thursday by pianist Han Chen, but I was only able to catch Wednesday’s concert. Although the program included Mendelssohn’s String Quartet No. 3 in D, Opus 44, No. 1, the evening really belonged to Schubert — and specifically music written shortly before his death at age 31. His “unfinished quartet,” “Quartettsatz,” opened the evening, and the concert centerpiece arrived after intermission, with his celebrated Quartet No. 15 in G, D. 887.

Beautifully played by this foursome, the piece is a powerfully moving epic of the quartet repertoire, with dimensions seemingly grander than its four-piece format, and a challenge to play. Challenge met.

TO-DOINGS:

The ideal chamber music room, that is Hahn Hall, will also be the site of this Saturday night’s concert by the Santa Barbara Chamber Players. This still-young group, which rose out of the ashes of the beloved Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, will be conducted by Emmanuel Fratianni, calling on music of Debussy (Petite Suite), Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1, and the west coast premiere of Tulio Cremisini’s Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra.

Santa Barbara Acoustic continues its program of strong acoustic string music on Sunday, April 12, in a new, logistically woodsy venue for the group: the Unitarian Parish Hall. Dubbed “Steelin’ Away,” the double-header show features the lap steel-endowed group The Elderberries and the western swinging Poi Rogers, with pedal steel, double bass, and guitar.