Sonny Clay

Is Clay of vital importance of to the development of jazz in Australia? What sounds like a surrealist trivia question makes sense only when it is revealed that the Clay in question is pianist Sonny Clay, a bandleader of some reknown who can righteously claim to have had Ivie Anderson vocalizing in front of his big band years before the great Duke Ellington discovered her. Clay led a batch of different bands in the '20s, including the California Poppies, the Stomping Six, Sonny Clay's Plantation Orchestra, Sonny Clay & His Orchestra, and Sonny Clay's Hartford Ballroom Orchestra...