HOPE CLAYTON

Hope Clayton’s first album provides an exceptionally entertaining selection of jazz standards performed in a unique style. Accompanied by Bob Fields on piano and Bill Nelson on bass violin, Hope performs her own interpretations of these familiar melodies with feeling and swing. She begins wordlessly singing the famous riff from Benny Golson’s “Killer Joe” which leads into her version of “That Old Devil Moon.” As she sings the melody in a fairly high voice, it becomes obvious that she sounds unlike anyone else. Although there are hints of Sarah Vaughan when she ventures into her lower register on some of the other selections, overall Hope Clayton is an original from http://jazztimes.com