The Buck Clayton Legacy Band came into being back in 2004 to serve the memory of the celebrated trumpeter, who starred in Count Basie’s ‘Old Testament’ orchestra before going on to lead his own bands, taking one of his ensembles to China before World War II. Writer, broadcaster and bassist Alyn Shipton received a cache of music from (and by) Clayton after his death in thanks for publishing his autobiography, Buck Clayton’s Jazz World. Apparently the gift was accompanied by a note: ‘You’ve kept my memory alive with the book, now maybe you can do the same with my music?’ And that’s precisely what Shipton has done with this first release from the Legacy Band, drawing on the arranging skills of German saxophonist and band co-leader Matthias Seuffert to give fresh, swinging life to a clutch of Clayton originals, written between the 1950s and 1980s. The set was recorded live at the Gateshead International Jazz Festival in 2011 and captures a crack ensemble – Dutch trumpeter Menno Daams in particular does a remarkable job filling the big, joyful shoes of Clayton himself – doing spectacular, swooning (especially on ‘I’ll Make Believe’) justice to Clayton’s witty, good-time compositions. The spirit of swing lives! (Interesting fact: the title of the disc is obviously intended to mean ‘material pertaining to Buck Clayton’, but did you know that the word ‘claytonia’ is also the name given to a particular winter salad crop, rich in vitamin C and similar in taste to spinach? If you didn’t, you do now.)