Jeff Clayton

In the mid-80s when I was still living in L.A. I took a couple lessons with the great alto sax and flute player Jeff Clayton. I probably found him through the music store Stein on Vine. He had signs on his wall that said things like "Relax" and "Freedom of Breath". He had been a great disciple of Cannonball Adderly and I think he actually had Cannonball's horn. But the truth is, at that point I was still ignorant about a lot of musicians and sadly at that point in my youth I wasn't yet hip to Cannonball.

Jeff had books of his own patterns that he had written and advocated my working on patterns of my own. Mostly what I remember is that it opened my eyes that there was a whole world of music out there I needed to learn about. Taking those lessons from Jeff Clayton was part of the impetus for me getting out of L.A. to go study music in San Francisco.