Clark Gayton is a composer, trombone and tuba player, and band leader (and occasional actor!) based in New York City. He is also the founder of the Ritual, Ltd. label and Lautir Publishing. To date, he has 4 CDs under the Ritual, Ltd. label, including Don't Try to Question, JahMerican Jazz, Walk the Water, and his latest release, Sankofa. He was born in Seattle, WA. After graduating high school, Gayton received a scholarship to attend the Berklee School of Music, from which he graduated. Gayton then moved to Oakland briefly before moving to New York City.

While in New York, Clark has worked and continues to work with some of the finest jazz musicians in the world, such as Charles Tolliver, Lionel Hampton, McCoy Tyner, The Duke Ellington Orchestra, the Mingus Big Band, Ted Nash and Odeon, Ben Allison and Medicine Wheel, the Carnegie Hall Jazz Orchestra, the Count Basie Orchestra Nancy Wilson, and Ray Charles. Clark has also spent a great deal of time with popular musicians including Brazilian Girls, Prince, Bette Midler, Steel Pulse,

Wyclef Jean, Queen Latifah, Quincy Jones, Sting, Whitney Houston, Stevie Wonder, matchbox twenty, Santana, Maxwell, and The Skatalites, to name a few.

He has appeared on Carson Daly's Last Call performing with Scarface and Wyclef Jean. Film credits include Malcolm X, Money Train, Sweet and Low Down, and Kansas City. His music can be heard on a recent documentary entitled Detained, and in the film Freshening Up which appeared on HBO.