Tributary: a stream that flows into a lake or river, feeding the greater body of water – refreshing it, rejuvenating it.
Tributary Tale: a story whose message merges with a greater narrative of scattered origins and open ending.
On his new record Tributary Tales, out now on Motéma Music, pianist and composer Gerald Clayton traces paths of myriad streams – personal, experiential, intangible – that flow into one another, creating a musical narrative greater than the sum of his individual compositions.
“I feel like the various encounters in my life are in their own way tributaries – like every trip is somehow an opportunity to discover a new type of bend in the river,” Clayton says. “The various places, people, foods and cultures I’ve been able to experience in my travels, all the musicians I gathered for this project and all the songs I’ve written – there’s a feeling of connectedness between them, even though they’re all their own separate entities.”
Clayton imbues Tributary Tales with a range of influences, including dialects and vocabulary handed down from his father, bassist and composer John Clayton and uncle, saxophonist Jeff Clayton, to contemporary expressions he heard growing up as a child of the ’80s and early ’90s. In Clayton’s unique vision, those diverse inspirations are impossible to unravel, melding together into a sound that resonates with modern styles as boldly as it evokes classic and timeless sounds.
“The process is really natural,” Clayton says. “When I’m in the experience of creating something, I try to open my ears and to be as selfless and open as possible. I grew up listening to and loving hip-hop, R&B, soul and rock. To me, they all flow from a single source. The cultural relevance of jazz and hip-hop is all the same; we’re talking about black music – about black expression – so it doesn’t feel right to build any dams across those streams.
An alternate definition of tributary, he adds, is that of “a person or state that pays tribute to another” – another apt metaphor in the tradition-oriented world of jazz. “Much of what we do has to do with what’s gone before us,” he says. “We’re constantly paying tribute to the elders, the masters, and being cognizant of all of the musicians who’ve lived and died in service of the music.”
To record Tributary Tales, Clayton assembled a group of artists both new and familiar, each of whom brings additional, unique influences and experiences to the music. Saxophonists Logan Richardson, Ben Wendel and Dayna Stephens, bassist Joe Sanders, drummer Justin Brown and percussionists Henry Cole and Gabriel Lugo join guest vocalist Sachal Vasandani and poets Carl Hancock Rux and Aja Monet to bring life to Clayton’s range of alluring compositions.
“I’ve really enjoyed exploring the natural connection between instrumental music and spoken word. I find there to be great potential for one to give unexpected meaning to the other.”
Gathering this cast of individual artists together to create a unified musical voice is another way Clayton sees the reflection of the tributary concept in his creative life. Pulling back to take an even broader view, he sees a beautiful parallel for communion and togetherness at a time that’s been marred by divisiveness and strife.
“Even though we’re all separate streams, we all come from the same ocean,” he says. “If we all just take a step back we can see that all human experience is essentially the same – the suffering, the will to transcend that suffering, our joys, our sorrows – they’re all connected. I’d love for the music on this record to remind people of our interconnectedness.”