Buck Clayton was a jazz trumpeter in Count Basie’s orchestra, though his career took him all over the world. In his twenties, he ended up traveling to Shanghai and played at the Canidrome, a famous entertainment venue in the 1920s and 30s. There, he led the “Harlem Gentlemen” group with pianist Teddy Weatherford in the mid-1930s, playing for French, British, Russian, and Japanese audiences (Radlauer, 2021). Clayton found Shanghai to be a much-needed respite from American racism and interacted with famous celebrities and politicians such as Chiang Kai-shek’s wife.

He worked with composer Li Jinhui, playing his compositions and collaborating on works that combined the Chinese pentatonic scale with American jazz chord progressions. When the Japanese military began encroaching on Shanghai, Clayton departed and continued his career in the US with Count Basie (Clayton, 1986). Though Clayton is likely best known for his performance activity in the United States, he was a key figure in the formation of Shanghai popular song due to his collaboration with Li Jinhui and his time in Shanghai in the 1930s, bringing in American jazz music.

Clayton, Buck, and Nancy M. Elliott. 1995. Buck Clayton’s Jazz World. London: Continuum/

Radlauer, David. 2021. “Buck Clayton’s Jazz World, Part One.” The Syncopated Times, September 30, 2021. https://syncopatedtimes.com/buck-claytons-jazz-world-part-one/