 DAVID CLAYTON-THOMAS was born in London England, on September
13, 1941. His father was a twice wounded, highly decorated, Canadian soldier,
his mother, a British music student who was playing the piano for the troops in
a London hospital. Following the war, the family settled in Willowdale, a suburb
of Toronto. While still in his teens , David Clayton-Thomas began playing guitar
and singing in "garage bands" and by the time he was twenty-one, his band, "The
Shays" was playing bars on Toronto's Yonge Street "Strip".
Rythym & Blues was the music of choice on "The Strip", it
migrated up from Detroit and Chicago and was adopted by the young musicians of
Toronto. David Clayton-Thomas's earliest musical influences were Motown, and
Chicago blues. He played the bars till midnight alongside Muddy Waters, Bo
Diddley, Albert King, Otis Rush,The Four Tops, Stevie Wonder and The Temptations
and then hung around the "after hours" clubs till dawn, just for a chance to
"sit in" with the great blues singers.
His first venture into the recording studio produced "Boom
Boom," a John Lee Hooker blues which rose to number one locally. He then wrote
"Walk that Walk" and "Brainwashed". Both rocketed to number one nationally. A
top-selling album, numerous TV appearances, and hundreds of club and concert
dates followed, and David Clayton-Thomas was known across Canada. Paul Anka,
Canada's biggest international star, invited David Clayton-Thomas to New York to
guest NBC's "Hullabaloo". After this nationally televised appearance, David
Clayton-Thomas returned to Toronto. But New York had changed him forever. He
took his band out of the lucrative bars on "the strip" and into the coffee
houses of Yorkville, hangout for the artists, writers, and musicians of the
Bohemian set. The money was lean, but here David Clayton-Thomas could play
alongside the great bluesmen he worshipped: John Lee Hooker, Lightnin' Sam
Hopkins, Son House, Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee.
His band soon drifted away. There was simply not enough money in Yorkville to
support them. But David Clayton-Thomas hung in, doggedly playing for whoever
would listen, learning the music from the masters. John Lee Hooker took the
young singer-guitarist into his band, and when he came to New York to play a
Greenwich Village club, David Clayton-Thomas came with him. When that gig ran
out, Hooker left for Europe and David Clayton-Thomas stayed on in the Village.
It was 1967, and the Village was a hotbed of creative
activity. David Clayton-Thomas roomed with other hungry young musicians, playing
for pizza money, hanging out in all-night cafes, arguing music, politics and
philosophy with the young activist firebrands of the era, sharing gigs with
Richie Havens, James Taylor and Jimi Hendrix, playing "basket houses," (play a
few songs then pass the basket). Scuffling to survive was nothing new to David
Clayton-Thomas.
Word got around about the white blues singer from Canada who
sang and played with such conviction. Genuine stars began to show up wherever he
played. One night folk singer Judy Collins dropped in and was deeply moved by
the intensity of the young man's music. She told her friend Bobby Colomby about
the experience, and the next night they returned together. (Bobby was trying to
hold together his faltering band "Blood Sweat & Tears". Even though the band's
first album, "Child Is Father To The Man," had been released, the band was
already torn by infighting over direction and leadership. Singer Al Kooper and
several founding members had already left.) Blood Sweat & Tears's drummer was
stunned by what he heard that night, He immediately asked the young Canadian
blues singer to help reorganize his failing band, and an American musical
institution was born.
Blood Sweat & Tears's first album with David Clayton-Thomas
sold an amazing ten million copies and launched three gold singles, "You've Made
Me So Very Happy", "And When I Die" and "Spinning Wheel". The album won an
unprecedented five Grammy awards, including album of the year and best
performance by a male vocalist. David Clayton-Thomas's rendition of Billie
Holiday's "God Bless The Child" became a classic. Five successive gold albums
and three more gold singles, "Hi De Ho," "Lucretia MacEvil" and "Go Down Gamblin'"
followed, and by 1972 Blood Sweat & Tears was at the very top of the music
industry.
Blood Sweat & Tears, daring and innovative, a fiery fusion of
jazz and rock, blues and the classics . . . This superb band defied all
boundaries, performing with consummate artistry in front of a symphony one
night, thousands of rock fans the next. Blood Sweat & Tears played the
Metropolitan Opera, the Fillmores, the Newport Jazz Festival, and Caesar's
Palace--all in the same year. It was the first contemporary band to break
through the iron curtain with the historic 1970 tour of Eastern Europe, and of
course headlined at Woodstock, Madison Square Garden, Carnegie Hall and the
Hollywood Bowl . . . Blood Sweat & Tears was the hottest concert ticket in
America.
Then there was David Clayton-Thomas. He prowled the edge of
the stage, that big blues-drenched voice, totally unique, filled with raw naked
emotion that no audience could resist. He drove the band relentlessly. Without
him it was academic perfection. With him it came alive.
He possessed neither classical training nor a jazz
background. But he was undoubtedly the star of the show, attracting most of the
media attention and composing most of their hit songs. By the mid-70's, Blood
Sweat & Tears was submerged in a wave of its own creation. Every record company
had its horn bands: Chicago, Earth Wind And Fire, Tower of Power... Even the
Rolling Stones carried a horn section. The founding members of BS&T began to
drift away to pursue their own musical ambitions. The classical musicians went
on to film scoring and teaching fellowships. The jazz players left to play pure
jazz. One by one they were replaced with an illustrious lineup of renowned
musicians: Joe Henderson, Jaco Pastorius, Mike Stern, Larry Willis, Don Alias,
Gregory Herbert. In concert, the band was a musical powerhouse, but inwardly it
was in turmoil. The unique creative team was gone, so the band took to the road,
playing 300 concerts a year through the 70's. David Clayton-Thomas left the band
twice, exhausted by the brutal tour schedule and frustrated by the lack of
creative time. In 1976, even Bobby Colomby, the sole remaining founding member,
left to become a music executive, and David Clayton-Thomas was the only one left
from the glory years.
In 1985, David Clayton-Thomas teamed up with musical
director/trumpeter Steve Guttman, graduate of Oberlin Conservatory of Music,
former musical director for the 70's recording stars Gloria Gaynor and Evelyn
"Champagne" King, and alumnus of the Tito Puente and Machito big bands, and he
assembled an exciting lineup of top New York musicians. With Steve conducting,
Blood, Sweat & Tears began performing with prestigious American symphonies like
the Detroit, the Houston, and the Oklahoma City Symphony Orchestras.
A revitalized Blood Sweat & Tears under David
Clayton-Thomas's leadership came storming back to the concert stages of the
world, playing international jazz festivals, symphonies, concert halls and
casino show rooms. David Clayton-Thomas never sounded better. The personnel of
the band stabilized, and Blood Sweat & Tears once again delivered the same
exciting diverse sound that made it such a well-loved part of America's musical
heritage.
In 1996, David Clayton-Thomas was inducted into the Canadian
Music Hall of Fame, where he takes his place alongside his country's musical
giants... Oscar Peterson, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young... Artists of legendary
stature.
David Clayton-Thomas today, carries on the fine musical
tradition of Blood Sweat & Tears. The musicians are the very best in New York
City, Mecca for the finest contemporary musicians in the world. The repertorie
boldly embraces all genres, from David's gutsy blues compositions to Billy
Holiday, Steve Winwood and Laura Nyro...The charts move seamlessly from Bartok
to Monk. The band shifts effortlessly from classical chorale to jazz
improvisation, from Afro Cuban to pure Funk. The force that holds it all
together is the Clayton-Thomas voice, smokey and beautifully controlled on a
ballad, deep rooted and soulful with the Blues, hard and edgey as he blazes
through a rock tune. He has been gifted with one of the most remarkable
instruments in all of music and continues to delight audiences around the world.
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