Stanley Clarke

Stanley Clarke is an American jazz bassist, composer and film and television scorer from Philadelphia, United States. Born in 1951, he is associated with contemporary jazz, funk, jazz, jazz fusion, jazz rock and jazz-funk. He works on double bass and electric bass and is widely identified with the jazz fusion era.

Career

Clarke studies at the Philadelphia Musical Academy before moving to New York City in 1971. There he works with Horace Silver, Art Blakey, Dexter Gordon, Joe Henderson, Pharoah Sanders, Gil Evans, Stan Getz and Al Di Meola. He becomes best known for his work with Return to Forever, the fusion group led by Chick Corea, and for his role as a bandleader in several trios and ensembles.

He also begins releasing solo albums in the early 1970s. His first self-titled album appears in 1974, followed by Journey to Love in 1975 and School Days in 1976. School Days becomes his best-known album and is often regarded as one of the landmark bass albums in jazz fusion.

Groups and collaborations

Clarke is part of a number of ensembles and collaborative projects, including Animal Logic, Trio!, Stanley Cowell Trio, S. M. V., Corea, Clarke & White, Bobby Lyle Trio, Fuse One, George Russell Orchestra, Stan Getz Quartet, The Clarke/Duke Project, The Stanley Clarke Band, The Stanley Clarke Trio, Vertú, The New Barbarians, World-Wide-Funkdrive, Echoes of an Era and Return to Forever.

He forms Animal Logic with Stewart Copeland and Deborah Holland after the break-up of The Police. The group has success with its first album and world tour, but its follow-up sells poorly and it does not continue.

He and George Duke form The Clarke/Duke Project in 1981. The pair score a Top 20 hit with “Sweet Baby” and record three albums. In 2005 he forms the acoustic fusion trio TRIO! with Béla Fleck and Jean-Luc Ponty, and the group tours the eastern United States and plays major jazz festivals.

Later work and recognition

From the 1980s onward, Clarke focuses much of his work on film and television music. He composes scores and writes the theme for the ABC Family Channel series Lincoln Heights.

His honours include a Grammy Award in 1975, the first “Jazzman of the Year” title from Rolling Stone, ten straight Playboy “Best Bassist” awards, membership of Guitar Player magazine’s “Gallery of Greats”, the Key to the City of Philadelphia, a Bass Player magazine Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006, and a doctorate in fine arts from The University of the Arts in 2008. He is also featured among Los Angeles magazine’s 50 most influential people in 2004.

Style and instruments

Clarke is strongly associated with Alembic basses, especially a dark-wood custom instrument in the Series I body style. His recorded work largely uses Alembic instruments, and he also uses full-range amplification. His approach to tone is noted for a full-bodied, woody sound. He is also an early prominent user of piccolo bass, usually a short-scale four-string instrument made by Carl Thompson or Alembic.

His right-hand technique combines an upright-bass-like hand position with a rotated wrist and percussive snapping attack, alongside slap and finger-strike methods used for lead and solo playing.

Recent recording projects

Later releases include The Toys of Men, which features Esperanza Spalding, Ruslan Sirota, Paulinho da Costa and Mads Tolling, and examines the subject of war. Jazz in the Garden features The Stanley Clarke Trio with Hiromi Uehara and Lenny White. The Stanley Clarke Band includes Ruslan Sirota and Ronald Bruner, Jr., with Hiromi appearing as a guest. The Stanley Clarke Band wins the Grammy for Best Contemporary Jazz Album.