
To jazz bassist John Clayton, being acknowledged for his life in songs at an event organized by Lincoln Facility for the Carrying Out Arts on Jan. 8 stood for among the fantastic honors of his expert life.
Yet in one telephone call, he informed ABC Information, it developed into “an attractive party and a night of extreme sorrow.”
On the largest evening of his expert life, Clayton discovered that his home of 40 years had actually refuted.

John Clayton.
Gail Boyd Musician Administration
Clayton was simply an hour far from getting the 2025 Bruce Lundvall Enthusiast Honor, among Jazz at Lincoln Facility’s leading honors, when he and his partner obtained a telephone call from their child in The golden state informing them that her home had actually refuted in the wildfires eating Altadena.
Since they lived 4 mins far from their child, Clayton claimed, “We understood we were susceptible.”
Nonetheless, upon listening to the information, the pair continued their means to the event where their boy, the author and pianist Gerald Clayton, was readied to offer the honor.
Clayton claimed years of training as an artist educated him “just how to concentrate 100% on the circumstance” and not damage.
” Obviously, we were ravaged by our child’s loss as we strolled to Lincoln Facility. Yet I chose a great deal of individuals are obtaining with each other to commemorate this honor and provide it to me. It’s an honor and I require to accept that spirit,” he claimed. “To make sure that’s what I did.”
Amidst the limelight, the praise, the smiles and the distinctions guided towards him in the very first fifty percent of the night, Clayton informed no person what he had actually simply discovered. “When it’s around, after that you collapse,” he informed himself.
At intermission, Clayton and his partner strolled back to their resort and telephoned a next-door neighbor to ask him to look at their home.
It as well, they discovered, was gone.
Once More, Clayton went back to Lincoln Facility– this time around to carry out.
The 2nd fifty percent of the night’s celebrations included the musician executing duos with pianist Diana Krall, pianist Kenny Barron and singer Tammy McCann.
It was just throughout a short soundcheck that Clayton disclosed the circumstance to bassist Christian McBride.
” He ordered my shoulder and claimed, ‘Brother, you have a bass. Do not stress over that,'” Clayton claimed. “That was a huge minute for me.”

John Clayton at the Vienne Jazz Celebration in France, July 11, 2004.
David Redfern/Redferns/Getty Photos
Clayton’s payments as an arranger and author beginning when the 72-year-old was a teen in Venice, The golden state, where he was mentored by jazz star Ray Brown.
He took place to come to be a Grammy-winning bassist and author that has actually dealt with stars varying from the Matter Basie Band and Nancy Wilson to Queen Latifa and Whitney Houston.
Besides your house, Clayton shed his wedding rehearsal workshop and 2 valued tools: a bass he acquired when he was simply 19, and a 2nd bass that came from his advisor, Brown.
Clayton informed ABC Information that he will certainly proceed executing.
In the weeks considering that his significant evening at Lincoln Facility, he started seeing neighborhood tool stores in the Los Angeles location to discover a substitute bass for the one he acquired greater than half a century back.
” I need to look for the one that is closest to my voice, the one I listen to in my head,” he claimed.
The pair leased an Airbnb in Santa Monica simply last weekend break. Clayton claimed that their on-line fundraising will certainly aid them move to a rental home close by.
Furthermore, Clayton and his partner were amongst those lucky sufficient to have home insurance coverage, and they are thinking about reconstructing– yet that is not particular, Clayton claimed.
He claimed that they will likely never ever go back to the website of their previous home.
” If somebody claimed you’ll never ever see it once more, I would certainly be all right. Since I recognize there’s absolutely nothing to see,” he claimed. “I do not require to filter with the debris.”
The destruction disclosed not simply a loss, yet something obtained. “It enhanced my dedication to do what I do,” Clayton claimed.
” It is definitely in contrast for me to accept decreasing and retiring,” he included. “Currently, it’s specifically the contrary. It’ll be pedal to the steel.”