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 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'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 to New York to guest NBC's "Hullabaloo". After this nationally televised appearance, David 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 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 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 came with him. When that gig ran out, Hooker left for Europe and David stayed on in the Village.
It was 1967, and the Village was a hotbed of creative activity. David 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.
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 and 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.) BS&T'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.
BS&T's first album with David 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'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 BS&T was at the very top of the music industry.
Blood, Sweat and 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. BS&T 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 and 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, BS&T 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 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 was the only one left from the glory years.
In 1985, David 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 BS&T under David's leadership came storming back to the concert stages of the world, playing international jazz festivals, symphonies, concert halls and casino show rooms. David never sounded better. The personnel of the band stabilized, and BS&T once again delivered the same exciting diverse sound that made it such a well-loved part of America's musical heritage.
In 1996, David 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. |
