Stanley Clarke (June 30, 1951) is an American jazz musician and composer kn… Read Full Bio ↴Stanley Clarke (June 30, 1951) is an American jazz musician and composer known for his innovative and influential work on double bass and electric bass as well as for his numerous film and television scores. He is best known for his work with the fusion band Return to Forever, and his role as a bandleader in several trios and ensembles.
Clarke was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Having graduated from the Philadelphia Musical Academy, 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.
Return to Forever
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.
Style
Clarke's electric bass style is a combination of many factors.
Equipment - Clarke has always been very strongly associated with Alembic basses and the vast majority of his recorded output has been produced with one model of Alembic or another, particularly a dark-wood-colored custom bass in the Series I body style. These basses are handmade neck-through instruments made from a mixture of exotic woods and a proprietary active pickup system that is powered from an external preamplifier. Clarke also utilizes full-range amplification for his basses, more in keeping with a keyboardist's rig than a bassist's or guitarists. As a result, Clarke's tone is full-bodied and woody-sounding, with an organic flavor.
Physical size - Clarke is a slim 6'3" and his Alembic basses tend to be short-scale (in this case, 30-3/4" versus a typical 34"), so in his hands, the Alembic seems almost like a toy. As a result, having large hands and powerful musculature in his arms and hands gives him extra command over the instrument in terms of power, range, and speed. Many of the figures that Clarke plays are very difficult for a smaller bassist to play on a larger bass.
Right-hand technique - The classic Clarke right-hand posture has his fingers approaching 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 purposes, his fingers partially hook underneath the strings so that when releases, the strings snap against the frets, producing a biting percussive attack. In addition to an economical variation on the Larry Graham-style pop-n'-slap technique, Clarke also uses downward thrusts of the entire right hand, striking two or more strings from above with his fingernails (examples include "School Days," "Rock and Roll Jelly," "Wild Dog," and "Danger Street").
Stanley Clarke is commonly considered among the most important bassists of the jazz-fusion era (c. 1972-1982).
Animal Logic
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.
Today
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.
In 2006 Clarke reunited with George Duke and toured with him for the first time in fifteen years. The duo formed the Clarke/Duke Project in 1981. They scored a Top 20 hit with "Sweet Baby" and recorded three albums.
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.
Since the 1980s, Clarke has turned much of his energy to television and film scores. He is credited for the scores for the ABC Family Channel series Lincoln Heights as well as composing the theme song for the show. 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. Stanley who won a Grammy Award in 1975 was the first "Jazzman of the Year" for Rolling Stone magazine, won "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. In 2004 he was featured in Los Angeles magazine as one of the 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 and Huff, and academicians 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 were re-broadcast 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 stepchildren, Natasha and Frank).
Clarke's latest records include The Toys of Men in 2007. This was his first release in five years, on October 17, 2007. The first week of release it went to No.2 on Billboard charts' Contemporary Jazz Chart. The 13-track CD examines the issue of war, and it includes performances by vocalist/bassist Esperanza Spalding, keyboardist Ruslan Sirota, 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. 2009 saw his release of Jazz in the Garden, featuring the Stanley Clarke Trio: with Clarke, pianist Hiromi Uehara, and Lenny White on drums. In 2010, Clarke released the Stanley Clarke Band, with Ruslan Sirota on keyboards and piano and Ronald Bruner, Jr. on drums; the album also features Hiromi on piano (as a guest artist), along with many others. On February 13, the Stanley Clarke Band won the Grammy for Best Contemporary Jazz Album.
Instruments
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 or Alembic.)
Clarke was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Having graduated from the Philadelphia Musical Academy, 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.
Return to Forever
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.
Style
Clarke's electric bass style is a combination of many factors.
Equipment - Clarke has always been very strongly associated with Alembic basses and the vast majority of his recorded output has been produced with one model of Alembic or another, particularly a dark-wood-colored custom bass in the Series I body style. These basses are handmade neck-through instruments made from a mixture of exotic woods and a proprietary active pickup system that is powered from an external preamplifier. Clarke also utilizes full-range amplification for his basses, more in keeping with a keyboardist's rig than a bassist's or guitarists. As a result, Clarke's tone is full-bodied and woody-sounding, with an organic flavor.
Physical size - Clarke is a slim 6'3" and his Alembic basses tend to be short-scale (in this case, 30-3/4" versus a typical 34"), so in his hands, the Alembic seems almost like a toy. As a result, having large hands and powerful musculature in his arms and hands gives him extra command over the instrument in terms of power, range, and speed. Many of the figures that Clarke plays are very difficult for a smaller bassist to play on a larger bass.
Right-hand technique - The classic Clarke right-hand posture has his fingers approaching 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 purposes, his fingers partially hook underneath the strings so that when releases, the strings snap against the frets, producing a biting percussive attack. In addition to an economical variation on the Larry Graham-style pop-n'-slap technique, Clarke also uses downward thrusts of the entire right hand, striking two or more strings from above with his fingernails (examples include "School Days," "Rock and Roll Jelly," "Wild Dog," and "Danger Street").
Stanley Clarke is commonly considered among the most important bassists of the jazz-fusion era (c. 1972-1982).
Animal Logic
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.
Today
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.
In 2006 Clarke reunited with George Duke and toured with him for the first time in fifteen years. The duo formed the Clarke/Duke Project in 1981. They scored a Top 20 hit with "Sweet Baby" and recorded three albums.
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.
Since the 1980s, Clarke has turned much of his energy to television and film scores. He is credited for the scores for the ABC Family Channel series Lincoln Heights as well as composing the theme song for the show. 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. Stanley who won a Grammy Award in 1975 was the first "Jazzman of the Year" for Rolling Stone magazine, won "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. In 2004 he was featured in Los Angeles magazine as one of the 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 and Huff, and academicians 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 were re-broadcast 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 stepchildren, Natasha and Frank).
Clarke's latest records include The Toys of Men in 2007. This was his first release in five years, on October 17, 2007. The first week of release it went to No.2 on Billboard charts' Contemporary Jazz Chart. The 13-track CD examines the issue of war, and it includes performances by vocalist/bassist Esperanza Spalding, keyboardist Ruslan Sirota, 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. 2009 saw his release of Jazz in the Garden, featuring the Stanley Clarke Trio: with Clarke, pianist Hiromi Uehara, and Lenny White on drums. In 2010, Clarke released the Stanley Clarke Band, with Ruslan Sirota on keyboards and piano and Ronald Bruner, Jr. on drums; the album also features Hiromi on piano (as a guest artist), along with many others. On February 13, the Stanley Clarke Band won the Grammy for Best Contemporary Jazz Album.
Instruments
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 or Alembic.)
Rock 'N' Roll Jelly
Stanley Clarke Lyrics
We have lyrics for these tracks by Stanley Clarke:
1 If you have to do me this way I can't stay I…
Anna Anna anna anna…
Born In The U.S.A. Born down in a dead man's town The first kick I…
Cruisin' Baby let's cruise away from here Don't be confused, the way…
Desert Song [Chorus 1:] We're sailing ships across the desert And fadi…
Drop That Zero Dr dr drop it (drop drop drop) Dr dr drop it…
Fantasy Love I'll be there, I promise whenever you call, come riding on…
Funny How Time Flies Funny how time flies when you're having fun... Oh baby Funny…
Game so life is just a game and there is many ways…
Hideaway One day the boy decided To let them know the way…
I If you have to do me this way I can't stay I…
I Just Want to Love You girl i got you on my mind i need you all…
I Mean You If you have to do me this way I can't stay I…
I Wanna Play for You I wanna play for you He wants to play for you Play…
I Want Your Love girl i got you on my mind i need you all…
Jeru Why don't you come over 'bout a quarter to nine Bring…
Just a Feeling Dance-just a feeling…
Justice's Groove - This is how it goes Give me your attention, stop what…
Life Is Just a Game so life is just a game and there is many ways…
Old Friends Over time, I've been building My castle of love Just for t…
Rane To Plane You can't see much of the skyline It looks like more…
Sweet Baby When I think about your lovin' The Sunday evenings, the fun…
Swung On Woo, Politix, 2010 Politix like that "Who the hell you talki…
Vulcan Princess Vulcan princes bold and stronger yes, today you and me Vulca…
Where Do We Go Baby, you′ve got my feelings You've got my love right in…
Yesterday Princess Vulcan Princess Bold and strong girl Yesterday you and me …
The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos
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Dave Draper
Here to remember Jeff Beck, whose death was reported today. Absolutely gutted by his loss. This is one of my all time favorite JB performances, he and Stanley just crushed this tune. Rest in peace, Jeff.
beachhunting69
One of my favorite songs. Jeff Beck puts his signature on this song. Got that Wired vibe to it. RIP JB.
Dave Draper
@beachhunting69 It totally does! Wired came out only a year before he cut this with Stanley, so that makes plenty of sense. Still just can't believe it...
Richard Patik
This is the tune I remember hearing back in the 70s. A friend from high school who played bass had this album. Always loved the slashing guitar by Jeff Beck. Saw him with B.B. King in Madison, Wisconsin in 2003. What a thrill. You will be missed. RIP
Jane Otte
Damn this is awesome. Carmen Appice sent me here to listen to the incomparable Jeff Beck. Rest in peace Master of the Six Strings.
J C
By far, my favorite instrumental piece. Stanley Clarke was always savvy with letting others shine on his albums. The result is a well balanced and finely crafted record.
Troy Lowe
That's freedom to let others shine is a testament to his greatness. All the greats have this in them, confidence not ego. Confidence allows you to let others shine. Ego does not.
Michael Craig
If you got more than one instrument in a band you got to do that! That is automatic if you want it to be any good.
Jesse McDonald
Been obsessed with Stanley Clarke tracks lately. This Jeff Beck guitar work is out of control yet so in control.
Glen
Cool little groove. I love Jeff. Stanley is positive and jamming (sounds like a guitar and a bass). One of the best tracks I've heard this year! Just love the upbeat, classy drumming by Carmine.