John Clayton: Career Reflections

AAJ: Being a professional musician is a stressful and often an under-appreciated life. What is so rewarding that has kept you committed to it?

JC: The joy, and the joy that was displayed by people like Ray Brown, Milt Jackson, Monty Alexander, Teddy Edwards, Blue Mitchell, Quincy Jones, all these people. Every time I would see them, they were performing some pretty intense and serious music. If the music asked for it, and the situation asked for it, they always were smiling. They were laughing. They were outwardly showing their joy and love for the music. Of course, if the song was not about that, then of course, if it's a somber song or a sad song, or something like that, then their body language and presence reflected that, the mood of the music. They never told me that I was allowed to smile. They never told me that I was allowed to outwardly show my love of the music. Seeing them that way never gave me the chance to get caught up in the negativity and the darkness that also exists.

There are many musicians, artists, and people who give the negativity more time than it is due. My heart goes out to them. They haven't successfully found the balance that is necessary to really move forward with the music. If you get caught up in the stress, in the negativity, in the problems that you are going to find in any situation, it is only going to slow down your progress. We are the ones that define something as difficult. We're the ones that define something as stressful. A situation is a situation. You can define that situation as par for the course, you can define it as, "Hey this is very cool, let's keep this going," or you can define it as stressful, ugly and mean. That's what I've learned.

There is no such thing, for instance as difficult music. If somebody comes to me and says, "Hey I'd love to learn to play this classical piece by Bach, the cello suite." I might say to that person, "Ah, the Bach cello suite. Oh, you're going to love it. Number two is my favorite. It's a really hard piece of music. We will work on it, and if you stick with it, you are going to love it." We all agree that we are all talented in different ways. There are certain things that people learn in a lot less time than I did, and vice versa. Now that person goes home, and they take out that music. They are excited to play it, and suddenly they go, "Oh yeah, this is that piece that John Clayton told me was really difficult." What have I done? I've just created a situation whereby they have to unlearn the difficulty of the music, and then start learning the music.

Conversely, I would never say to that person, "Ahh the Bach cello suite, is a great work of music, and a piece of cake. You'll learn it in no time." They go home, it kicks them in the butt, they feel like idiots. Now if we take that piece of music, and we play it every day for a month, two months, three months, now you start feeling more comfortable with it, it's flowing, it starts sounding stronger and stronger. Did the music get easier? The music didn't change. The music was never difficult. The music was never easy. Bach wrote those notes in the 18th century. The music didn't change. We change. Therefore, music is not difficult. Music is not easy. There are only two possibilities, either you know it, or you don't. If you don't know it, you learn it, and if you do know it—end of conversation. So, this idea of, "Oh this is a very difficult song." No. It's new to you. You need to make it something that is familiar.

Same thing with, "The music business is really difficult." No, it's not, and it hasn't gotten more difficult. People say there are fewer jobs for musicians now. Oh yeah? Statistically wrong! "There are fewer possibilities now for musicians than there were in the past." No! There are more possibilities. When we were growing up, we didn't have the internet. Now someone can hear that new song that you wrote in Brazil, in Japan, in Austria, in Russia simultaneously. That does not equate to fewer opportunities and fewer jobs. No. That means that more people can experience our music than ever before. We need now to create situations that will allow us to take advantage of all the cool things that now exist, that didn't exist 50 years ago.

It's really how you look at it. I've come to realize that stress is a choice. If you're looking at a job that needs to be done, person number one may choose to get that job done with stress. Person number two might look at that job and say, "Okay, well I guess I've got to get busy." They roll up their sleeves, and get to work. At the end of the day, both people have gotten that same job done. Only one person chose stress. These are things I've learned just by paying attention, and seeing what people struggle with.

AAJ: That is a good point to end on. Thank you so much.

JC: You're welcome. Same to you, and have a beautiful evening.

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