Jazz at Centrum

Please Mr. Ogilvy

[Sachal Vasandani onstage]

Vocalist Sachal Vasandani will give a mainstage performance at Jazz Port Townsend on Saturday, July 26, as part of the 7:30 pm show. He will follow Paquito d'Rivera and sing ahead of a performance by the Matt Wilson Quartet. Tickets are available by following this link or by calling Centrum at 360.385.3102, x117.

Andre Hayward to Headline at Jazz Port Townsend

Andre Hayward will join Wycliffe Gordon onstage during the Friday night show of Jazz Port Townsend.

Born in Houston, Texas in 1973, Hayward began playing trombone and tuba at the age of 11 under the tutelage of Leon Schreiber and two years later with Bob Odneal, the lead trumpeter for Maynard Ferguson.

Hayward continued playing through high school where he attended the High School for Performing and Visual Arts under the direction of notable jazz educator Robert “Doc” Morgan. He continued to hone his skills with Houston's legendary educator Conrad O. Johnson. It was Conrad's instruction, and the opportunity to work in his big band “The Big Blue Sound,” where he really started to gain experience working in an ensemble.

A Jazz Apprenticeship

Trumpeter and Jazz Port Townsend participant Steve Alboucq vacations on Orcas Island—where, when local islanders would find out he played the trumpet, they’d say: “There’s this old guy on the island, Willie Thomas, who plays trumpet pretty good. You should meet him.” 

Learning that Thomas’s daughter owned a small French café on the island, Alboucq went to meet her. “I understand your father plays trumpet,” he said.

The woman laughed. “Oh yeah, he plays the trumpet, all right,” she said.

Within ten minutes, a man with a thick mane of white beard and bucket cap squashed on his head walked in.

John Clayton to Launch New Website

Centrum's Artistic Director for Jazz, John Clayton, will be launching his new website soon! Available at http://www.johnclaytonjazz.com/, the website will be the central place for information and news about one of the most beloved and influential figures in contemporary jazz.

John Clayton has gained prominence as performer, composer, and arranger in both the jazz and classical fields. He began a two-year association with Count Basie and his orchestra as a player, while developing his compositional and arranging skills, and relocated to Los Angeles in 1984 following five years as principal bassist with the Amsterdam Philharmonic Orchestra.

He currently conducts, composes, and co-leads the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, and received a 1991 Grammy nomination for his composition “Brush This” from Groove Shop, their debut recording. 1991 also was the year that John's stirring arrangement of “The Star Spangled Banner” for Whitney Houston resulted in the fastest selling single in the history of Arista Records.

The esteem in which Clayton is held is evidenced by his recent election as president of the 1,500 member International Bassist Association. As Leonard Feather attests while recognizing John as “one of the six best possibilities to assume the mantle of Miles Davis,” John Clayton is “rapidly becoming one of the most internationally respected bassists and composers, with good reason.”

In February, Clayton won a Grammy for "I'm Gonna Live Till I Die," arranged for Queen Latifah.