REMEMBERING JAMES CLAY

James Earl Clay (b. Sept. 8, 1935 - d. Jan. 6, 1995) was an American hard bop jazz tenor saxophonist & flutist, and a native of Dallas, TX.

2017 is our 9th annual tribute and features DFW jazz musicians who knew and worked with James ClayClay. Anchoring the event will be Roger Boykin/saxophone, Johnny Case/piano, and Duane Durrett/drums - complete musical line-up to be announced.

"Playing with Ornette (Coleman) opened me up quite a bit," said Clay, who was part of Coleman's Jazz Messiahs ...I remember one day we came out of the crib and we were going to practice. I got one of those method books out, and we started playing and Ornette just went off like, and I'm playing toot-toot-toot. So I promptly closed the book up. I said, 'Well, we're going off in a completely different direction here, hmmmm.' It opened my ears up to a lot more."