Stanley Clarke Article Index for
Stanley
Limousines in
Stanley
Website Links For
Stanley
 

Information About

Stanley Clarke




Clarke was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania . 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 , Joe Henderson , Pharoah Sanders , Gil Evans , Stan Getz and Al Di Meola .

During this period he joined the Jazz Fusion group '' Return To Forever '' led by pianist Chick Corea . The group became one of the most important fusion groups and released several successful and musically highly varied albums. Clarke also started his solo career in the early 1970s and released a number of albums under his own name. His most famous album is ''School Days'' (1976), which along with Jaco Pastorius 's self-titled debut is held up as one of the greatest bass albums in the history of Jazz Fusion.

His albums ''Stanley Clarke'' (1974) and ''Journey to Love'' (1975) are also notable.

Clarke created a very distinctive sound, playing Alembic basses and applying Larry Graham 's innovative slap style of bass playing to harmonically complex Jazz based music. Jaco Pastorius and Clarke are commonly considered the most important bass players of the 1970s.

He formed Animal Logic with Rock Drummer Stewart Copeland , after the break-up of The Police , and Singer-songwriter Deborah Holland . The trio had success with their first album and world tour but the follow-up sold poorly, and the band did not continue.

He continues to work and has several film scores as well as a string of albums to his name. In 2005 he started the Acoustic Fusion Supergroup TRIO! with Bela Fleck and Jean-Luc Ponty , which toured the Eastern U.S. and played all of the major Jazz Festivals.

Stanley Clarke is also the first influential bassist to use piccolo bass prominently. (A piccolo bass is a bass guitar, tuned one octave higher - Clarke's are usually short scale (30.75"), four string, Carl Thompson.)


DISCOGRAPHY


Partial solo discography

  • ''Children of Forever'' (One Way) (1972)

  • ''Stanley Clarke'' (Epic) (1974)

  • ''Journey to Love'' (Epic) (1975)

  • ''School Days'' (Epic) (1976)

  • ''I Wanna Play for You'' (Epic) (1977)

  • ''Modern Man'' (Nemperor) (1978)

  • ''Fuse One'' (IMS) (1980)

  • ''Rocks, Pebbles and Sand'' (Epic) (1980)

  • ''The Clarke/Duke Project, Vol. 1'' (Epic) (1981)

  • ''Let Me Know You'' (Columbia) (1982)

  • ''The Clarke/Duke Project, Vol. 2'' (Columbia) (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)

  • ''Passenger 57'' (Epic) (1992)

  • ''East River Drive'' (Epic) (1993)

  • ''Live at the Greek'' (Epic) (1993)

  • ''Live in Montreaux'' (Jazz Door) (1994)

  • ''Rite of Strings'' (Gai Saber) (1995)

  • ''At the Movies'' (Epic Soundtrax) (1995)

  • ''The Bass-ic Collection'' (1997)

  • ''1,2,To The Bass'' (2003)



Return to Forever -albums



EXTERNAL LINKS