About Us | Contact | Subscribe

Home: 20's Jazz

Punishing The Piano

Sonny Clay

Subscribe to 20's Jazz

Navigation:

Home

Back

More videos like this

Recorded in Los Angeles, California in 1925 featuring Sonny Clay on piano.

Born in Chapel Hill, Texas in 1899, William "Sonny" Clay began playing drums as an adolescent before moving on to learn the piano. A chance meeting with Jelly Roll Morton while hitch hiking occurred during the early 1920s leading to a stint employed as a drummer in Morton's band in Mexico. The two became fast friends sharing much in common as virtuoso pianists with highly advanced skills as a composer and arranger. Following a failed tour with "Red Spikes Famous Syncopated Orchestra" Sonny returned to L.A. broke and organized his own band.