Pianist and composer Gerald Clayton is gearing up for his subsequent album. Ones & Twos, the musician’s second album for Blue Be aware Information, is formally accessible on April 11. The album’s dreamy first single, “Angels Speak,” is out now.
Described as “an experiment” born from “the art of turntablism,” Clayton’s new challenge will discover concepts of duality. “I set out to create a record where the A side can be played simultaneously with the B side—a nod to that moment in the club when the DJ transitions from one song to the next, when you hear two separate pieces at the same time,” the musician says in a press assertion.
Clayton explains that the method of making Ones & Twos led him to pose a number of questions: “Is it really possible for two separate melodies to coexist harmoniously? Does one inevitably become a counter melody to the other—a support of the more dominant melody? What does the experiment teach us about coexistence more broadly? I’m fascinated with this concept of coexistence in more than just the music. Not only the question: Can two songs coexist?… but can two people?… two cultures? One of the lessons we may gain from the music is that there will be moments of friction/tension, and there will be moments where two things fit together smoothly/peacefully.”
That includes post-production from Kassa Total, Ones & Twos will see Clayton workforce with vibraphonist Joel Ross, flutist Elena Pinderhughes, trumpeter Marquis Hill, and drummer Kendrick Scott. Clayton has been nominated for six Grammys, together with three nominations for Finest Jazz Instrumental Album in 2011, 2013, and 2020. Clayton’s earlier album, Bells On Sand, was launched in 2022. That album was impressed by sands, each of time and in any other case. “To look at things from this zoomed-out perspective might allow for a union between past, present, and future,” he advised Blue Be aware of his hopes for that album’s reception. “It might allow us to embrace the totality of our life experience.” If “Angels Speak” is any indication, Ones & Twos may pull off a equally transcendent expertise.
Order Gerald Clatyon’s Ones & Twos now.
