#195 Clayton Cameron- Brushmaster, Drummer for Sammy Davis Jr., Tony Bennett and More!
This week’s episode is sponsored by Dream Cymbals. Every Dream cymbal is hand-made and hand-hammered, painstakingly created from fire, base metal and human spirit to create an individual masterpiece. The hand-craftsmanship of their master smiths is apparent in every Dream cymbal.
This week’s guest is Clayton Cameron. Los Angeles, California native Clayton Cameron began showing an interest in drumming at the young age of seven. According to Clayton, his parents were always supportive of his pursuits and they bought him a drum kit and had him taking lessons by the time he was twelve. After High School, Clayton went on to earn a degree in Music from California State University. While in school he played around the Los Angeles area with some of his mentors and early influences such as Ernie Andrews, Teddy Edwards, Larry Gails and Gerald Wilson. After graduating from college, Clayton settled in Las Vegas where he played regularly with a small Jazz trio known as The Kirk Stuart Trio and continued to develop his skills as a brush player. Clayton quickly found that the small jazz club settings and trio groups called for mostly low volume playing, and as a result, Clayton developed a distinct and potent style of brush playing. Today, Clayton is widely known as a brush master.
During his time in Las Vegas, Sammy Davis Jr..'s musical Director George Rhodes hired Clayton to be his drummer. Clayton cites Sammy Davis' tap dancing as an influence on his brush playing. Clayton also played drums for Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra during this time. In 1988/89, Clayton toured with the three members of the "Rat Pack" an experience he will always treasure.
In 1990, Clayton completed and released his instructional video entitled "The Living Art of Brushes". This was the first drum instructional video dedicated to brush playing. At this time Clayton also toured with Jazz legends Joe Pass, Joe Williams and George Shearing.
In 1993, Clayton became the drummer for music legend Tony Bennett. He has recorded six Grammy nominated albums and played on many world tours with Tony. In 1994, Clayton shared in the honor of Tony Bennett's Grammy award for his "Tony Bennett Unplugged" album. This was the first Grammy awarded for a live recording.
Clayton has also released the book Brushworks, a comprehensive text on the subject. Aside from being the definitive reference book on the art of brushes, Brushworks will for the first time allow novice brush players insight into the mechanics of the art form. Clayton continues to tour and record, and work on his many drumming education projects.
Gig Alerts
There is a cajon festival taking place this Saturday via zoom. You can email festivaldelcajonla@gmail.com or call 818.481.6169 for more info.
Also, South by Southwest (SXSW) will be going virtual for 2021. -Article
Educational Spotlight
You can drum along with (friend of the show) Tom Aungst in a triple beat exercise on Vic Firth’s Instagram page.
Sheet Music for All Exercises Available for Download at Zildjian.com/Education. Also the transcriptions for the Zildjian Live performances can be found there too.
Iconic Recording
This week’s iconic recording is called “Our Routine” from the Eddie Palmieri album ‘La Perfecta II’. The original La Perfecta band formed in 1961, Palmieri’s combo was notable for expansive hits like “Azucar,” and for merging trombones and flutes where trumpets and strings had traditionally sufficed. It was termed trombanga by his older brother, the late pianist and bandleader Charlie Palmieri. “My brother was my mentor,” says Palmieri. “He would bring most of the music into the household so I could listen to the big bands of that era.”
As kids, they competed in local competitions — “Usually, we won” — and by age 12 Eddie was playing timbales in his uncles’ professional bands. As piano became his cause, he graduated to mambo, cha cha cha and charanga ensembles, backing Tito Rodríguez. Decades later, he recalls childhood dreams long since realized and heroes with whom his incredible art is now forever linked. “My goal was to become a dance orchestra leader,” Palmieri says. “Like the great bands of Machito, Tito Rodríguez and Tito Puente.”
The rhythm section on this tune includes Eddie Palmieri on keys, Joe Santiago on bass, Jose Clausell on timbales, Richie Flores on congas and (friend of the show) Johnny “Dandy” Rodriguez on bongos.
Music News
Bandcamp started “Bandcamp Fridays” back in March to support artists impacted by the pandemic, and in the past few months the music community has come together in a huge way: in just four days, fans put more than $20 million directly into the pockets of artists and labels. Because the pandemic is far from over, they’ll continue to hold Bandcamp Fridays on the first Friday of every month until the end of the year. -Article
Damon has an album on Bandcamp with some cool people on it.
Earlier this week, a group of frustrated Democrats and Republicans joined forces to developed compromise COVID relief bill. Now, we’re learning more about what’s included in the $1.5 trillion proposal — including two stimulus checks. -Article
Back in July, Digital Music News was first to report that Lady A – that is, the band formerly known as Lady Antebellum – had filed a lawsuit against the original Lady A, 62-year-old blues singer Anita White. Now, White has fired back with a complaint of her own. -Article
During their ninth and most recent “Happy Hour” livestream event, Touring’s Out. Now What?, music licensing and distribution platform Songtradr welcomed two eminent musicians to discuss how they’re adjusting to cancelled concerts and the wider pause in touring. -Article
The song leading into the interview is “Advent” from a forthcoming album by Clayton.
Clayton Cameron Interview
The interview starts with Damon and Clayton talking about math.
Clayton teaches at UCLA, and this is one of the classes he teaches.
Shout-out to friend of the show and one of Damon’s former teachers, Stefon Harris.
This is one article that talks about the brain finding patterns.
A hoofer was a professional dancer that later became known as a tap dancer.
Papa Jo Jones instigated brush playing, and later people like Philly Joe Jones took it to another level.
Clayton talks about some of the tap dancers that could dance very rhythmically and some inspiration was taken by drummers to mimic the dancing. Clayton mentions how Baby Laurence would copy jazz solos. He also mentions Sandman Sims, and his technique of slip sliding around on the floor. Clayton brings up the iconic movie called Tap which featured some of the greatest tap dancers to ever do it.
The dance combinations from the tap dancers that Clayton backed up was the inspiration for the brush rudiments he came up with.
This isn’t the footage from the NAACP dinner/power outage, but here is Sammy Davis Jr. playing drums and vibes, tap dancing and singing old man river.
Clayton grew up in L.A. and attended Cal State Northridge.
Clayton spent time in Las Vegas, playing with Kirk Stuart who he mentions played with Sarah Vaughan.
The first show Clayton saw was Sammy Davis Jr. with the Count Basie Big Band. The first time he played with Sammy was in Minnesota and the song “Once in a Lifetime” was the show opener.
Clayton ate tons of oatmeal to have his own bongo drums before acquiring real bongos from his neighbor.
After touring with Sammy Davis Jr., Clayton moved to NYC and was playing for lots of people like the Mingus Big Band and others. He got a call about being considered for Tony Bennett’s gig and playing tennis was something he and Tony had in common.
Clayton talks about lessons he learned from being in the studio with Tony Bennett.
Clayton has been experimenting with a cajon kit and also has been using it on his new forthcoming record.
Clayton teaches at UCLA if you’re interested in studying with him. The program Damon mentions Go React.
The Tribe Called Quest song Damon mentions is “I Left my Wallet in El Segundo”.
Clayton uses Ludwig Drums, Regal Tip sticks, mallets and his signature brushes, Zildjian Cymbals, Latin Percussion (DW Drums), and Remo Drumheads.
The first gig Clayton had was with the Gerald Wilson Big Band. He talks about how Paul Humphrey was not just his idol, but also recorded the day before him. Another session he was on was being conducted by Gil Askey.
Clayton and Damon talk about technique vs. groove and life experiences as well as a bonus James Jamerson story.
If you would like to try to make Yang Chow’s Slippery Shrimp recipe at home, you can CLICK HERE.
The song leading out of the bonus part of the interview is called “I Hear You” from Clayton’s forthcoming album.
