Grammy® Nominated for Jazz Instrumental Album and Improvised Jazz Solo: A quarter of the age of Jazz, Gerald Clayton stakes his claim in the history and the present of this vital music with the following words, Tradition and innovation can peacefully coexist.

In libraries and on drawing-boards around the country this statement might be true, but with Gerald behind the piano this coexistence is anything but peaceful. His dynamic and award-winning sound has been praised in print by the Jazz Times and Los Angeles Times.

The New York Times has saluted his Oscar-Peterson like style and huge, authoritative presence and Down Beat Magazine s 2008 Readers Poll named him one of the top up-andcoming pianists to watch.

As a composer, his work has been commissioned by the Jazz Gallery in New York City and performed overseas by the BBC Orchestra. He has been honored with a Level 1 award by the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts (NFAA), the title Presidential Scholar in the Arts, and second place in the Thelonious Monk Institute Jazz Piano Competition. Dodging early pressures to emerge as a prodigy, Gerald instead honed his talents and his resolve to ensure that this next generation is never lacking for intricate, swinging pieces and performances that are steeped in tradition while always facing the future.

It is Gerald's own trio, based in New York City and comprised of Justin Brown (drums) and Joe Sanders (bass) that provides him the most direct opportunity to explore and expand his own thoughts in music.

Following upon their touring in Europe and the U.S., where they were praised for balancing a deconstructivist aesthetic with a stronghold on the swing factor, Gerald and his trio are set to release their debut album, Two-Shade this month on Emarcy.

So, if you would like to win one of these new CDs, and you think you know all there is to know about the man himself, just answer this easy question: In December 2009, Clayton was nominated for Best Improvised Jazz Solo, for his solo on which track off of his brnd new, upcoming 'Two-Shade' album?!

Send us your answers and if you're correct you'll be in the running to win one of these CDs! Just send us an e:mail here before April 1st (no joke!) with your answer and the subject title CONTEST: GERALD CLAYTON CDs to: exclusivemagazine@flash.net