Kenny Clayton

Kenny Clayton was a prolific jazz pianist, arranger and producer who worked with many of the most popular singers of the past half-century and more, composed for film and television, and made several ventures into theatre.

Born in Clapton, London and raised in Edmonton, he trained at the Trinity College of Music and quickly established a professional career. By the late 1950s, he was in demand on the variety circuit and became the accompanist of choice for singers such as Alma Cogan and Terry Dean.

Signing to EMI/Parlophone, he released his first single in 1961 and throughout the rest of the decade and the 1970s, he served as musical director and arranger for luminaries such as Petula Clark (with whom he worked from 1962 to 2005), Matt Monro, Shirley Bassey, Cilla Black, Phil Everly and Robin Gibb.

Notable theatre work included serving as musical associate on The Sound of Music (Apollo Victoria, London, 1981), musical director on Song and Dance and Petula Clark’s Someone Like You (Strand, 1990), the Anita Harris musical Nightingale (on tour, 1990), and composing the music for Mike Margolis’ Bertie (Alexandra, Birmingham, 1993), with  Harris and Ron Moody as leads.

He later composed incidental music for spoken-word albums featuring Glenda Jackson and Spike Milligan, and to accompany Peter O’Toole’s audio recordings of Shakespeare’s sonnets.

For film, he composed soundtracks to The Ragman’s Daughter (1972) and Morecambe and Wise’s swansong project, Night Train to Murder (1984), and, for television, the seven-part Company and Co, starring Maria Aitken and Simon Williams (1980). He was also the featured pianist in the Barry Cryer-hosted monologue and song show The Green Tie on the Little Yellow Dog (1983), in which he also acted alongside Julie Walters.

Throughout his career, Clayton performed and recorded with his eponymous jazz trio, and was regularly seen in London clubs including The Alley Cat, Crazy Coqs and The Pheasantry.

In recent years, he collaborated with actor Bruce Montague on a number of musicals that were performed to private audiences.

Kenny Clayton was born Kenneth Ian Wilkinson on May 9, 1936, and died on October 10, aged 86. He is survived by his daughter Alex from his first marriage, and his third wife, Sarah, and her three daughters.