Beloved Drummer Claude Clayton Dead at 71

By Daniel S. Levine

Claude Clayton, a street performer beloved in Boulder, Colorado, died early last month. He was 71. Clayton, who was best known as the mysterious drummer Mau Mau, was known for performing outside Pearl Street Mall wearing an African mask from Cameroon as he played drums from Senegal.

Clayton died on Sept. 13, his family told the Daily Camera on Oct. 2. They declined to share a cause of death and will hold a private memorial in Boulder. He is survived by his three children, their spouses, and 12 grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his daughter, Tiye Clayton, who passed away in 2020.

Clayton was born on Aug. 30, 1951, and spent the early part of his life in New York City. He owned a barber shop and had several high-profile clients, his daughter, Rhainy Clayton-Cole, said. Clayton kept his "barber shop energy" for the rest of his life, his nephew, Ayo Clayton, told the Daily Camera.

Clayton always loved music, even performing in a competitive all-Black marching band with his brothers while still living in New York. In the 1980s, he learned to play the horn with the New York Skyliners drum and bugle corps. He constantly played jazz records at his barber shop. His friend, Shane Faddis, said music was "a driving force in his life," no matter what was going on around him.

During the mid-1980s, Clayton and his children moved to Denver, where his mother was living at the time, after struggling to raise his children as a single father in New York. After he retired, he started a new career as "Mau Mau," taking the name from the 1950s uprising in Kenya that led to the country's independence. "It was someone else that he embodied when he drummed," Clayton-Cole said of her father's alter ego. "I think it provided his viewers healing of some sort."

Clayton became enamored with Boulder during his trips to the city on the weekend in an old van he converted into a camper. "He fell in love with (Boulder) and just loved it so much, he got rid of his place, he put everything in storage and said, 'I'll see you when I see you,'" Clayton-Cole said. "He lived life on his own terms and he was very unapologetic about it. He really led by example that way. If he said he was gonna do it, he was gonna do it, no matter what it was."

The drummer's legacy is expected to live on long after his death. He was devoted to his family when he wasn't performing and helped raise his grandchildren. "There's not a sufficient amount of words to express what he meant to our family. To describe him is difficult. But to know him is to experience him," Clayton-Cole told the Daily Camera. "It's hard to put him into words. He's indescribable. (But) he was a treasure. He was a treasure to our family, and he's impacted so many people over the years." 

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