We all first met Clayton Cameron several years ago. His career had brought him from manning the skins in the big band behind The Rat Pack and the legendary Sammy Davis Jr. to the high-profile gig playing behind Tony Bennett in the Ralph Sharon Trio. Clayton did 13 records with Tony Bennett, but it was after MTV “discovered” Tony and released his Grammy Award winning CD and DVD “MTV Unplugged,” that Clayton and Tony’s schedule got very busy. Tony Bennett deservedly became an unlikely “rock star” and taught the world a whole collection of “new” songs, that were actually old standards. Clayton played with the grace of Papa Jo Jones and Billy Higgins in supporting Tony Bennett.

Clayton was anointed as “The Brush Master” after he started putting names to all of his new brush sounds and released his amazing brush video The Living Art of Brushes (1990) and book Brushworks (2010). But simply fitting into that singular fixed mindset didn’t interest Clayton, he has continued to grow. Today he is finalizing a new book called Perfect Time and he is teaching at UCLA. Based on his brush expertise, the new book, and his teachings, Clayton will also be writing a new column for Modern Drummer.

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