Biography
Pianist Sonny Clay, whose full name was William Rogers Campbell Clay, proved crucial to the evolution of jazz in Australia, though that claim initially registers as an odd piece of trivia. Decades before Duke Ellington featured her, the bandleader had Ivie Anderson singing with his ensemble. Throughout the 1920s he directed an assortment of units, among them the California Poppies, the Stomping Six, Sonny Clay’s Plantation Orchestra, Sonny Clay & His Orchestra, and Sonny Clay’s Hartford Ballroom Orchestra.
Born near the close of the nineteenth century, Clay had moved to Phoenix, Arizona, by 1908 and there began instruction on piano, drums, xylophone, and C-melody saxophone. After leaving school he worked professionally in the Phoenix vicinity, including a stint supplying music for students at an Arthur Murray studio. By 1918 he had become a traveling musician, filling whichever chair—drums or piano—was required in successive small groups along the West Coast and as far as Tijuana, Mexico, where accounts hold that he once sat in with Jelly Roll Morton.
Early in the 1920s Clay settled in Los Angeles, performing with Reb Spikes’ Famous Syncopated Orchestra and, on drums, with Kid Ory’s Sunshine Orchestra. He soon entered the studios, first accompanying blues singer Camille Allen at the piano and then cutting two titles under his own name for Sunset. Additional Sunset sessions followed, encompassing solo piano work and ensemble dates, before he began recording for Vocalion in 1925. The band held a steady engagement at the Plantation Club in Los Angeles, refining Clay’s original compositions and personnel until the unit that sailed for Australia at the beginning of 1928 was assembled.
Australian listeners had never encountered anything comparable to the New Orleans style the visitors delivered live; local white ensembles fell far short of the same atmosphere. The tour also presented gospel ensembles and the twenty-three-year-old Anderson, yet Clay’s orchestra drew the greatest notice, not all of it favorable. A change in bookings from vaudeville theaters to dance halls placed the musicians in conflict with union rules governing their permits and with restrictions on venues open to members of the “coloured races.”
Further difficulties arose. Local women showed pronounced interest in the players, and rumors of drug use circulated. Commonwealth Investigation Branch officers placed the musicians under surveillance, monitoring their Darlinghurst flats in Sydney where white women were being entertained. Journalists accompanied the police until a raid on two apartments occupied by six sidemen produced several scantily clad women—one of whom jumped from a window—while other guests continued drinking, smoking, and embracing. No narcotics were discovered, and the allegation that they had been present was never substantiated. The musicians reportedly begged both officers and reporters, particularly those wearing wedding rings, to suppress details of the evening; attempts to bribe the press were also made.
Clay himself was absent and took no part in the episode that former prime minister Billy Hughes declared would have resulted in a lynching had it occurred in the American South. Hughes labeled the visitors “the scum of America,” a remark that offset the enthusiastic notices the band had received in the Australian press. Cabinet ordered deportation, and Saturday editions announced that “Federal cabinet [would] bar entry of all colored artists.” For the next twenty-six years only a few black performers reached the country; Louis Armstrong & His All-Stars did not arrive until 1954.
The episode left the Australian jazz community profoundly unsettled: any stylistic advances reached the public only after being filtered through white local bands. Clay disbanded the group in the early 1930s and worked thereafter as a solo pianist in Los Angeles clubs until his induction into the Army during World War II. While in uniform he continued to lead ensembles under the Special Services Division. After the war he resumed solo club work until failing health prompted a move to the post office, supplemented by occasional piano tuning. Renewed interest in the late 1950s drew him out of retirement to perform again in clubs; a 1960 session produced for John Bentley finally appeared on the Harlequin label twenty-five years later.
Born near the close of the nineteenth century, Clay had moved to Phoenix, Arizona, by 1908 and there began instruction on piano, drums, xylophone, and C-melody saxophone. After leaving school he worked professionally in the Phoenix vicinity, including a stint supplying music for students at an Arthur Murray studio. By 1918 he had become a traveling musician, filling whichever chair—drums or piano—was required in successive small groups along the West Coast and as far as Tijuana, Mexico, where accounts hold that he once sat in with Jelly Roll Morton.
Early in the 1920s Clay settled in Los Angeles, performing with Reb Spikes’ Famous Syncopated Orchestra and, on drums, with Kid Ory’s Sunshine Orchestra. He soon entered the studios, first accompanying blues singer Camille Allen at the piano and then cutting two titles under his own name for Sunset. Additional Sunset sessions followed, encompassing solo piano work and ensemble dates, before he began recording for Vocalion in 1925. The band held a steady engagement at the Plantation Club in Los Angeles, refining Clay’s original compositions and personnel until the unit that sailed for Australia at the beginning of 1928 was assembled.
Australian listeners had never encountered anything comparable to the New Orleans style the visitors delivered live; local white ensembles fell far short of the same atmosphere. The tour also presented gospel ensembles and the twenty-three-year-old Anderson, yet Clay’s orchestra drew the greatest notice, not all of it favorable. A change in bookings from vaudeville theaters to dance halls placed the musicians in conflict with union rules governing their permits and with restrictions on venues open to members of the “coloured races.”
Further difficulties arose. Local women showed pronounced interest in the players, and rumors of drug use circulated. Commonwealth Investigation Branch officers placed the musicians under surveillance, monitoring their Darlinghurst flats in Sydney where white women were being entertained. Journalists accompanied the police until a raid on two apartments occupied by six sidemen produced several scantily clad women—one of whom jumped from a window—while other guests continued drinking, smoking, and embracing. No narcotics were discovered, and the allegation that they had been present was never substantiated. The musicians reportedly begged both officers and reporters, particularly those wearing wedding rings, to suppress details of the evening; attempts to bribe the press were also made.
Clay himself was absent and took no part in the episode that former prime minister Billy Hughes declared would have resulted in a lynching had it occurred in the American South. Hughes labeled the visitors “the scum of America,” a remark that offset the enthusiastic notices the band had received in the Australian press. Cabinet ordered deportation, and Saturday editions announced that “Federal cabinet [would] bar entry of all colored artists.” For the next twenty-six years only a few black performers reached the country; Louis Armstrong & His All-Stars did not arrive until 1954.
The episode left the Australian jazz community profoundly unsettled: any stylistic advances reached the public only after being filtered through white local bands. Clay disbanded the group in the early 1930s and worked thereafter as a solo pianist in Los Angeles clubs until his induction into the Army during World War II. While in uniform he continued to lead ensembles under the Special Services Division. After the war he resumed solo club work until failing health prompted a move to the post office, supplemented by occasional piano tuning. Renewed interest in the late 1950s drew him out of retirement to perform again in clubs; a 1960 session produced for John Bentley finally appeared on the Harlequin label twenty-five years later.
Albums
Singles
