"Avant-garde vocalist and music educator Jay Clayton was born on this date in 1941 in Youngstown, Ohio. Born Judith Colantone, Clayton played piano and accordion as a youth and attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, graduating with a degree in music education in 1963.

After college, Clayton moved to New York City and became involved in the avant-garde jazz scene there. She worked with Steve Lacy, Muhal Richard Abrams, Jane Ira Bloom and George Cables, among many others. In 1967 Clayton and her husband, drummer Frank Clayton began a loft concert series in their home which featured some of the leading avant-garde performers.

In 1982, Jay Clayton moved to Seattle to take a position building the jazz vocal program at the Cornish College of the Arts, a position she held for 20 years. She also has led clinics and workshops at Princeton University, the New School in New York, the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna and at the Banff Centre in Canada. Clayton has released 17 albums as a leader and also appeared on records by John Cage and Charlie Haden. Clayton passed away in 2023.
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Here is a link to a 1978 performance by Jay Clayton with pianist Kirk Nurock:

"MY FUNNY VALENTINE"