It appears they’re playing while trombonist Benny Morton solos. The Basie Orchestra with Buck in the top left row of horns next to the drums. “ Introduced to Basie I found him to be a nice congenial cat that knew all the answers” he writes. The orchestra needed a new trumpeter to replace Hot Lips Page. Buck already knew several of the musicians and his reputation preceded him.

He just happened to be passing through, headed to a job with Willie Bryant after visiting his family in Parsons.

Joining Basie in Kansas City, 1936Ĭlayton was born and raised in Kansas, but that’s not how he became part of the Kansas City music story. In late 1935 and early 1936 he led yet another version of the orchestra at Sebastian’s Cotton Club in Los Angeles (Culver City) which included tenor saxophonist Herschal Evans and drummer Lee Young, Lester Young’s brother. Returning to Los Angeles in 1935 after an adventure of nearly two years performing in Shanghai, China, Wilbur “Buck” Clayton (1911-1991) put together another band of Harlem Gentlemen and toured on the West Coast Pantages Theater circuit.