STANLEY CLARKE

Stanley Clarke (born 30 June 1951) is an American jazz musician and composer known for his innovative and influential work on double bass and bass guitar as well as his numerous film and television scores.

Early life and education

Clarke was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was introduced to the bass as a schoolboy when he arrived late on the day instruments were distributed to students and acoustic bass was one of the few remaining selections. Having graduated from the Philadelphia Academy of Music, he moved to New York City in 1971 and began working with famous bandleaders and musicians including Horace Silver, Art Blakey, Dexter Gordon, Gato Barbieri, Joe Henderson, Chick Corea, Pharoah Sanders, Gil Evans and Stan Getz. Clarke is 6'3" and his Alembic basses tend to be short-scale (in this case, 30-3/4" versus a typical.

1970s

During the 1970s he joined the jazz fusion group Return to Forever led by pianist and synth player Chick Corea. The group became one of the most important fusion groups and released several albums that achieved both mainstream popularity and plaudits from critics. Clarke also started his solo career in the early 1970s and released a number of albums under his own name. His well-known solo album is School Days (1976), which, along with Jaco Pastorius's self-titled debut, is one of the influential solo bass recordings in fusion history. His albums Stanley Clarke (1974) and Journey to Love (1975) are also notable.

Film and television composing

Clarke began with TV scores for ABC's short-lived series A Man Called Hawk and an Emmy-nominated score for Pee-wee's Playhouse. Clarke then moved on to work as a composer, orchestrator, conductor and performer of scores for such films as: Boyz N the Hood, the biopic of Tina Turner What's Love Got to Do with It, Passenger 57, Higher Learning, Poetic Justice, Panther, The Five Heartbeats, Book of Love, Little Big League, and Romeo Must Die. He also scored the Luc Besson- produced/co-written action film, The Transporter, starring Jason Statham and a Michael Jackson video release directed by John Singleton entitled Remember the Time. In the 2000s, he composed music for the Showtime Network program Soul Food.

Right-hand technique

Clarke places his right hand so that his fingers approach the strings much as they would on an upright bass, but rotated through 90 degrees. To achieve this, his forearm lies above and nearly parallel to the strings, while his wrist is hooked downward at nearly a right angle. For lead and solo playing, his fingers partially hook underneath the strings so that when released, the strings snap against the frets, producing a biting percussive attack. In addition to an economical variation on the funky Larry Graham-style slap-n'-pop technique, Clarke also uses downward thrusts of the entire right hand, striking two or more strings from above with his fingernails (examples of this technique include "School Days", "Rock and Roll Jelly", "Wild Dog", and "Danger Street").

Equipment 

Clarke has long been associated with Alembic basses, and the much of his recorded output has been produced on Alembic instruments, particularly a dark-wood-colored custom bass in the Series I body style. These basses are handmade neck-through-body instruments made from a mixture of exotic woods and a proprietary active pickup system that is powered from an external power supply. A Stanley Clarke Signature Model bass guitar is produced by Alembic. Clarke also utilizes full-range amplification for his basses, more in keeping with a keyboardist's rig than a bassist's or guitarists. To extend his melodic range to play higher registers as he sees orchestrationally fit, he also used the piccolo bass and the tenor bass. A piccolo bass is a bass guitar, tuned one octave higher - Clarke's are usually short scale (30.75"), four string, Carl Thompson or Alembic. A tenor bass is turned A,D,G,C in the same octave range as a standard bass.

In the late 1970s, Clarke was playing Rick Turner's first graphite neck on his Alembic "Black Beauty" bass, and he decided to have an all composite bass made. He commissioned Designer/Luthier Tom Lieber to design and build this bass, having purchased one of Lieber's Spider grinder basses in 1979. In 1980 Lieber and Clarke formed the Spellbinder Corporation and produced a limited run of fifty Spellbinder basses. One left-handed bass was built as a gift from Stanley to Paul McCartney. After the run the molds were destroyed. In 2007 Clarke once again teamed up with Lieber and Rick Tuner to reform the Spellbinder Corp. and produce a limited run of 125 of the Spellbinder Bass II, which Clarke is currently playing on the RTF reunion tour. Clarke has also played a Ken Smith BT Custom, and a German made Löwenherz Tenor Bass.

Collaborations

He formed Animal Logic with rock drummer Stewart Copeland, after the break-up of The Police, and singer-songwriter Deborah Holland. Other notable (recording/touring) project involvements are: (1979) Jeff Beck, (1979) Ron Wood's New Barbarians, (1981) Clarke/Duke Project with George Duke, (1989) Animal Logic with Stewart Copeland, (1993-94), A group with Larry Carlton, Billy Cobham, Najee & Deron Johnson, (1995) The Rite of Strings with Jean-Luc Ponty and Al Di Meola and (1999) Vertu’ with Lenny White. In addition to touring with his own band, Clarke continues also collaborates with other artists on tour. During the summer and fall of 2007 he toured with his Rites of Strings comrades, Al DiMeola and Jean-Luc Ponty. In addition to a date in France and dates in the Eastern US, the tour included shows in South America.

In 2006 Clarke joined old friend, George Duke for a 40-city tour of festivals and performing arts centers. This was the first time Clarke and Duke had toured together in fifteen years. The duo first teamed to form the Clarke/Duke Project in 1981. They scored a Top 20 hit with “Sweet Baby” and recorded three albums. In 2005 Clarke toured as Trio! with banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck and Jean Luc Ponty. The US and European tour was nominated for a 2006 Relix Jammy Award in the category of “Tour of the Year."

Night School

Early in 2007, Clarke's own Roxboro Entertainment Group released a DVD entitled Night School: An Evening with Stanley Clarke and Friends (HUDV-7118) through the Heads Up International label. The 90-minute presentation documents the third annual Stanley Clarke Scholarship Concert, recorded at Musicians Institute in Hollywood, CA, in October 2002. The group offers scholarships to students in financial need who excel in music. The Night School DVD scholarship concert features diverse group of musicians that include Stevie Wonder, Wallace Roney, Bela Fleck, Sheila E., Stewart Copeland, the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea, Wayman Tisdale, Marcus Miller and others. Night School captures performances that range from straight-ahead jazz to full-tilt rock fusion to a twenty-two-piece string ensemble.

2000s

Since the 80s, Stanley has been turning his energy to film and television scoring. He is currently scoring the ABC Family Channel series “Lincoln Heights,” in addition to writing the show's theme song. In October 2006 Clarke was honored with Bass Player magazine's Lifetime Achievement Award. Bassists Marcus Miller and Victor Wooten presented the award at a ceremony at New York City's Millennium Broadway Hotel. A multi-Grammy award winner, Stanley was the first “Jazzman of the Year” for Rolling Stone magazine, won Music Award - Best Bassist from Playboy magazine for 10 straight years, and is a member of Guitar Player magazine's “Gallery of Greats”. He was honored with the key to the city of Philadelphia and put his hands in cement as a 1999 inductee into Hollywood's “Rock Walk” on Sunset Boulevard. In 2004 he was featured in Los Angeles magazine as one of the Top 50 most influential people.

BET-J launched a series hosted by Clarke entitled, On the Road with Stanley Clarke in June 2006. The series consists of seven episodes titled: “Origins of Black Music,” “That Philly Sound,” “Jazz Beyond the Classroom,” “Black Music in Film, Television & Theatre,” “Jazz,” “Black Music in Film – The Next Generation” and “Bass to Bass.” Some of his guests include Terence Blanchard, Marcus Miller, George Duke, The Tate Brothers, Gamble & Huff and academics Dr. Jacqueline Cogdell DjeDje and Dr. Cheryl Keyes from the Department of Ethnomusicology at UCLA among many others. “On the Road with Stanley Clarke” episodes are set to rerun on BET-J in 2007. In 2008, Stanley was presented with a Doctorate in Fine Arts from his alma mater, the University of the Arts. He has three children, Chris, and two step children Natasha and Frank.

The Toys of Men

Clarke's new CD is entitled The Toys of Men. It was his first release in five years, and it was released on October 17, 2007. The first week of release it went to #2 on Billboard magazine's Contemporary Jazz Chart. The 13-track CD examines the issue of war, and it includes performances by vocalist/bassist Esperanza Spalding, percussionist Paulinho da Costa and violinist Mads Tolling. The Toys of Men includes acoustic bass interludes that provide a counterpoint to Clarke's better known electric bass attack.

Discography

Solo albums

Children of Forever (Polydor) (1973)
Stanley Clarke (Nemperor) (1974)
Journey to Love (Nemperor) (1975)
School Days (Nemperor) (1976)
Modern Man (Nemperor) (1978)
I Wanna Play for You (Nemperor) (1979)
Fuse One (IMS) (1980)
Rocks, Pebbles and Sand (Epic) (1980)
The Clarke/Duke Project, Vol. 1 (Epic) (1981)
Let Me Know You (Epic) (1982)
The Clarke/Duke Project, Vol. 2 (Epic) (1983)
Time Exposure (Epic) (1984)
Find Out! (Epic) (1985)
Hideaway (Epic) (1986)
Project (CBS) (1988)
If This Bass Could Only Talk (Portrait) (1988)
3 (Epic) (1989)
Live 1976-1977 (Epic) (1991)
Passenger 57 (Epic) (1992)
East River Drive (Epic) (1993)
Live at the Greek (Epic) (1993)
Live at Montreux (Jazz Door) (1994)
The Rite of Strings (Gai Saber) (1995)
At the Movies (Epic Soundtrax) (1995)
The Bass-ic Collection (Sony) (1997)
1,2,To The Bass (Sony) (2003)
The Toys of Men (Heads Up) (2007)

with Return to Forever

Return to Forever (1972, ECM)
Light as a Feather (1972, Polydor)
Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy (1973, Polydor)
Where Have I Known You Before (1974, Polydor)
No Mystery (1975, Polydor)
Romantic Warrior (1976, Columbia)
Musicmagic (1977, Columbia)
Return to Forever Live (1979)
The Best of Return to Forever (1980)

with Pharoah Sanders

Black Unity (1971)

with The New Barbarians

Buried Alive (recorded 1979, released 2006)

As a co-leader/band member

Echoes of an Era (with Chaka Khan)
Echoes of an Era 2 Live (with Nancy Wilson)
The Griffith Park Collection
The Griffith Park Collection 2 In Concert
Clarke/Duke Project (with George Duke) (1981)
Clarke/Duke Project II (1983)
Clarke/Duke Project III (1990)
Live in Montreux, 1988 (1993, Jazz Door-bootleg)
Stanley Clarke & Friends (with Larry Carlton, Billy Cobham, Deron Johnson & Najee)
Live At The Greek (1994)
The Manhattan Project (with Lenny White, Michel Petrucciani, Wayne Shorter) (1989)
Animal Logic (1989)
Animal Logic II (1991)
Implosions (with Randy Brecker, McCoy Tyner, Frank Morgan, Peter Erskine, Roger Kellaway and Ernie Watts) (1987)
The Rite of Strings (with Al Di Meola and Jean Luc Ponty) (1995)
Vertu’ – McCoy Tyner with Stanley Clarke (with Lenny White) (1999)
McCoy Tyner with Stanley Clarke and Al Foster (2000)
Thunder, as SMV (with Marcus Miller and Victor Wooten) (2008)

As a producer

Roy Ayers - In The Dark
Roy Buchanan - Loading Zone
Dee Dee Bridgewater - Just Family
Natalie Cole - I’m Ready
Maynard Ferguson - Hollywood
Free Flight - Illuminations
Rodney Franklin - Diamonds Inside of You
Howard Hewett - I Commit to Love
Kent Jordan - No Question About it
Ramsey Lewis & Nancy Wilson - The Two of Us
Jeff Lorber
Marilyn McCoo
Brenda Russell
Shalamar - The Look
Billy Shields - Shieldstone
Jim Walker - Private Fligh