Two-Shade

In an interview with Nextbop, Clayton explained that the album's musical concept is "about taking two opposite ideas and putting them together in order to create a new sound... [featuring] jazz, some hip hop and a lot of improvisation." However, he prefaced, "people become close minded towards music that they've never even listened to, because it's classified under a certain genre".^[2]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
All About Jazz	[3]
AllMusic	[4]
The Guardian	[5]

According to All About Jazz, "Clayton has not only learned from the great Jazz masters before him but he embodies [their] spirit and the language", with the review characterizing the results as "not only stunning but fresh, original and distinctly the music of today".^[6] A review by Ben Ratliff for The New York Times, found it a "wide-ranging, self-confident album, and a fluent, bobbing-and-weaving relationship with the bassist... and the drummer".^[7] Additionally, Michael Nastos of AllMusic wrote, "There's a lyrical and ethereal approach to all of the selections – elusive, lithe, quicksilver, Zen-like, very articulate, and always intriguing to the point where it tempts, pull you in, and envelops your soul."^[4]

A 90% rating was awarded by specialist website Jazz.com for this "must-hear debut release" on which "Clayton's apparent skills as a composer foreshadow the impact that he will have on jazz in the years to come".^{[8][dead link]} JazzWeek Radio, which determines national airplay for the top-fifty jazz and smooth-jazz recordings in the US and Canada,^{[9][dead link]} listed Two-Shade as 12th on its chart for August 10, 2009,^[10] debuting at 25th on its July 1 release.^{[11][dead link]}

All tracks are written by Gerald Clayton except where noted.