Stanley took the idea and ran with it, adapting it to complex jazz harmonies.Īlways in search of new challenges, Clarke turned his boundless creative energy to film and television scoring in the mid-1980s. Sly and the Family Stone’s Larry Graham first developed the rudimentary slap technique. In 1974, he released the eponymous Stanley Clarke album which featured the hit single, “Lopsy Lu.” Two years later, he released School Days, an album whose title track is now a bona fide bass anthem, a must-learn for nearly every up-and-coming bassist, regardless of genre.Īspiring bassists must also master the percussive slap funk technique that Clarke pioneered as well. They also won a Grammy (No Mystery) and received numerous nominations while touring incessantly.Ĭlarke then fired the “shot heard ‘round the world” that started the 1970s bass revolution and paved the way for all bassist/soloist/bandleaders to follow. They recorded eight albums, two of which are certified gold (Return to Forever and Romantic Warrior). Chick Corea changed my mind about that.”Ĭlarke and Corea formed the wildly influential jazz fusion band Return to Forever, a showcase for each of the quartet’s strong musical personalities, composing prowess, and instrumental voices. I wanted to be one of the first black musicians in the Philadelphia orchestra. Stanley says: “my original goal was to be a classical bassist. Arriving in New York City, he immediately landed jobs with bandleaders such as Horace Silver, Art Blakey, Dexter Gordon, Joe Henderson, Pharaoh Saunders, Gil Evans, Stan Getz, and a budding young pianist-composer named Chick Corea. In 1971, 20-year-old Stanley Clarke exploded into the jazz world, fresh out of the Philadelphia Academy of Music. But I made records and got famous more as an electric bass player than as an acoustic bass player.” When I first started playing electric it was at parties and just for having fun. “Electric bass is my secondary instrument. His first passion, which carries to this day, is for the acoustic bass. Interestingly electric bass, for which Stanley is most renowned, is not his principal instrumental. Whatever was there, I was going to do the opposite.” The rest, as they say, literally is history. I was going to approach my career completely like a revolutionary. He was very intense, heavy! That’s when I realized exactly what I wanted to do with the bass. He had the personality of a revolutionary that could have run a paramilitary group. “The greatest moment in my life that changed me was having dinner with the great Charlie Mingus. By the time he was 25 years old, he was already regarded as a pioneer in the jazz fusion movement.Ĭlarke cites Mingus as a great influence personally and professionally. He was also the first to double on acoustic and electric bass with equal virtuosity, power, and fire. But Clarke became the first bassist in history to headline sold-out world tours and have gold albums. All that I did was just take the step and create my own band.”Ĭertainly there were great and celebrated bass players before Stanley like Ron Carter, Scott LaFaro, and the pioneering composer Charles Mingus. But many of those bass players were serious musicians. They were very quiet kind of guys who didn’t appear to write music. Clarke says: “Before I came along a lot of bass players stood in the back. The traditional role of the bass was largely one of time-keeping that sonically filled out the spectrum. Stanley almost single-handedly took the bass out of the shadows and brought it to the very front of the stage, literally and figuratively. It is difficult to remember how limited the potential career path of a bass player was before he came on the scene. Clarke was honored with Bass Player Magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Award and is a member of Guitar Player Magazine’s “Gallery of Greats.” He was even given the key to the city of Philadelphia.ĭigging through the great multitude of accolades bestowed upon Stanley reveals an interesting phenomenon. He was Rolling Stone’s very first Jazzman of the Year and bassist winner of Playboy’s Music Award for ten straight years. Unquestionably he is a “living legend,” lauded with every conceivable award available to a musician in his over 40- year career as a bass virtuoso.Ĭlarke’s incredible proficiency has been rewarded with: four Grammys, gold and platinum records, Emmy nominations, an honorary Doctorate from Philadelphia’s University of the Arts, and much more. As a performer, composer, conductor, arranger, recording artist, producer, and film scorer known for his ferocious dexterity and consummate musicality, Clarke is a true pioneer in jazz and of the bass itself. Four-time Grammy™ winner Stanley Clarke is quite possibly the most celebrated acoustic and electric bassist in the world.
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