Canadian pianist Jim Clayton’s latest album Look Out! marks his first time performing vocals on a record.
Clayton is joined by his trio of Herlin Riley and Amina Scott as they perform a varied set that includes standards like “Moon River” and “This Can’t Be Love,” popular songs by Paul Simon and The Police, and musical selections from Spider-Man, M*A*S*H, The Muppet Movie and The Aristocats. Here, Clayton shows his love of like-minded pianists and vocalists Dave Frishberg, Bobby Troup and Bob Dorough (including an arrangement of Dorough’s “Devil May Care”), not only playing these songs but singing them, too.
“Instead of playing instrumental music in the shadows, suddenly I’m sitting front and centre, and singing,” he says.
Listen to “You Can Call Me Al”:
The repertoire on Look Out! represents his life as a Canadian growing up in the late 1960s. Grammy-winning jazz historian Ricky Riccardi writes in the album’s liner notes: “From Saturday morning cartoon themes to Disney movies watched in kindergarten, to the music of his family’s folk choir friends, to the offerings in his mother’s record collection, to watching sitcoms with his father, to borrowing records from high school pals, to his brother’s guitar gigs, to the endless support of his wife and daughter, to his love of New Orleans — all of it added up and contributed to the music heard here.”
Here’s the track listing:
- Devil May Care
- This Can’t Be Love
- You Can Call Me Al
- Moon River
- Time in a Bottle
- Big Wide World
- Hold On
- Every Breath You Take
- Everybody Wants to Be a Cat
- Spider-Man
- Song From M*A*S*H
- The Rainbow Connection
Jim Clayton’s Look Out! is out Oct. 3, 2023, via Clay-Tone Records.
