Stanley Clarke
Encyclopedia
Stanley Clarke is an American jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 musician and composer known for his innovative and influential work on double bass
Double bass
The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...

 and electric bass guitar as well as for his numerous film and television scores. He is best known for his work with the fusion band Return to Forever
Return to Forever
Return to Forever is a jazz fusion group founded and led by keyboardist Chick Corea. Through its existence, the band has cycled through a number of different members, with the only consistent band mate of Corea's being bassist Stanley Clarke...

, and his role as a bandleader
Bandleader
A bandleader is the leader of a band of musicians. The term is most commonly, though not exclusively, used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or rock and roll music....

 in several trios and ensembles.

Early life and education

Clarke was born in Philadelphia. 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. He is a graduate of Roxborough High School in Philadelphia. Having graduated from the Philadelphia Musical Academy, (which was absorbed into the University of the Arts
University of the Arts (Philadelphia)
The University of the Arts is one of the United States' oldest universities dedicated to the arts. Its campus makes up part of the Avenue of the Arts in Center City, Philadelphia...

 in 1985), he moved to New York City in 1971 and began working with famous bandleaders and musicians including Horace Silver
Horace Silver
Horace Silver , born Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silva in Norwalk, Connecticut, is an American jazz pianist and composer....

, Art Blakey
Art Blakey
Arthur "Art" Blakey , known later as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina, was an American Grammy Award-winning jazz drummer and bandleader. He was a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community....

, Dexter Gordon
Dexter Gordon
Dexter Gordon was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and an Academy Award-nominated actor . He is regarded as one of the first and most important musicians to adapt the bebop musical language of people like Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Bud Powell to the tenor saxophone...

, Gato Barbieri
Gato Barbieri
Leandro Barbieri , better known as Gato Barbieri , is an Argentinean jazz tenor saxophonist and composer who rose to fame during the free jazz movement in the 1960s and from his latin jazz recordings in the 1970s.-Biography:Born to a family of musicians, Barbieri began playing music...

, Joe Henderson
Joe Henderson
Joe Henderson was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. In a career spanning more than forty years Henderson played with many of the leading American players of his day and recorded for several prominent labels, including Blue Note.-Early life:From a very large family with five sisters and nine...

, Chick Corea
Chick Corea
Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer.Many of his compositions are considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis' band in the 1960s, he participated in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever...

, Pharoah Sanders
Pharoah Sanders
Pharoah Sanders is a Grammy Award–winning American jazz saxophonist.Saxophonist Ornette Coleman once described him as "probably the best tenor player in the world." Emerging from John Coltrane's groups of the mid-60s Sanders is known for his overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic techniques on...

, Gil Evans
Gil Evans
Gil Evans was a jazz pianist, arranger, composer and bandleader, active in the United States...

 and Stan Getz
Stan Getz
Stanley Getz was an American jazz saxophone player. Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of his idol, Lester Young. Coming to prominence in the late 1940s with Woody Herman's big band, Getz is described by critic Scott...

.
He was an avid supporter of Scientology in his earlier musical productions, and referred to L. Ron Hubbard on most of his LP sleeves. His current association with Scientology is not known.

1970s

During the 1970s he joined the jazz fusion
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...

 group Return to Forever
Return to Forever
Return to Forever is a jazz fusion group founded and led by keyboardist Chick Corea. Through its existence, the band has cycled through a number of different members, with the only consistent band mate of Corea's being bassist Stanley Clarke...

 led by pianist and synth player Chick Corea
Chick Corea
Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer.Many of his compositions are considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis' band in the 1960s, he participated in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever...

. 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
School Days (album)
School Days is the fourth album by fusion jazz bassist Stanley Clarke.-Track listing:All tracks composed by Stanley Clarke# "School Days" – 7:51# "Quiet Afternoon" – 5:09# "The Dancer" – 5:27# "Desert Song" – 6:56# "Hot Fun" – 2:55...

(1976), which, along with Jaco Pastorius
Jaco Pastorius
John Francis Anthony Pastorius III , known as Jaco Pastorius, was an American jazz musician and composer widely acknowledged as a virtuoso electric bass player....

's self-titled debut
Jaco Pastorius (album)
This self-titled album was Pastorius' solo debut and was originally released in 1976. The album was produced by Blood, Sweat & Tears drummer/founder Bobby Colomby...

, is one of the most influential solo bass recordings in fusion history. His albums Stanley Clarke
Stanley Clarke (album)
Stanley Clarke is the second album of the bassist Stanley Clarke.-Track listing:All tracks composed by Stanley Clarke; except where indicated# "Vulcan Princess" – 4:00# "Yesterday Princess" – 1:41# "Lopsy Lu" – 7:03...

(1974) and Journey to Love
Journey to Love
Journey to Love is the third jazz funk fusion album by bass guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Stanley Clarke, accompanied by familiar musicians he has often worked with like George Duke and Chick Corea...

(1975) are also notable.

Scoring film and television

Clarke began with TV scores for ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

's short-lived series A Man Called Hawk
A Man Called Hawk
A Man Called Hawk is a prime time television series that ran on the ABC television network between January 1989 and May 1989. The series was a spin-off of the crime drama series Spenser: For Hire, and features the character Hawk, who first appeared in the 1976 novel Promised Land, the fourth in...

and an Emmy-nominated score for Pee-wee's Playhouse
Pee-wee's Playhouse
Pee-wee's Playhouse is an American children's television program starring Paul Reubens as the child-like Pee-wee Herman. The show was developed from Reubens' popular stage show and the one-off TV special The Pee-wee Herman Show, produced for HBO, which was similar in style but featured much more...

. Clarke then moved on to work as a composer, orchestrator, conductor and performer of scores for such films as: Boyz n the Hood
Boyz N the Hood
Boyz n the Hood is a 1991 American hood film written and directed by John Singleton. Starring Cuba Gooding, Jr., Ice Cube, Laurence Fishburne, Morris Chestnut, Nia Long, Angela Bassett and Regina King, the film depicts life in poor South Central Los Angeles, California and was filmed and released...

, the biopic of Tina Turner
Tina Turner
Tina Turner is an American singer and actress whose career has spanned more than 50 years. She has won numerous awards and her achievements in the rock music genre have led many to call her the "Queen of Rock 'n' Roll".Turner started out her music career with husband Ike Turner as a member of the...

 What's Love Got to Do with It, Passenger 57
Passenger 57
Passenger 57 is a 1992 American action film starring Wesley Snipes and Bruce Payne. The film's success made Snipes a popular action hero icon.-Plot:...

, Higher Learning
Higher Learning
Higher Learning is a 1995 American drama film, starring an ensemble cast. It also featured Tyra Banks' first performance in a theatrical film...

, Poetic Justice, Panther
Panther (film)
Panther is a 1995 film directed by Mario Van Peebles, from a screenplay adapted by his father, Melvin Van Peebles, based on his book. The film dramatizes the story of The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense...

, The Five Heartbeats
The Five Heartbeats
The Five Heartbeats is a 1991 musical drama film directed by Robert Townsend, who co-wrote the script with Keenan Ivory Wayans. Distributed by 20th Century Fox, the film's main cast includes Townsend, Michael Wright, Leon Robinson, Harry J. Lennix, Tico Wells, Harold Nicholas of the Nicholas...

, Book of Love
Book of Love (1990 film)
Book of Love is a 1990 romantic comedy film directed by New Line Cinema producer Robert Shaye. It is based on the autobiographical novel Jack in the Box by William Kotzwinkle .The film was originally PG-13, but subsequent DVD releases have been the R-rated Director's Cut Book of Love is a 1990...

, Little Big League
Little Big League
Little Big League  is a 1994 family film about a 12-year-old who suddenly becomes the owner and then manager of the Minnesota Twins baseball team. It stars Luke Edwards, Timothy Busfield and Dennis Farina.-Plot:...

,
and Romeo Must Die
Romeo Must Die
Romeo Must Die is a 2000 martial arts film directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak. Starring Jet Li, Aaliyah, Anthony Anderson, Delroy Lindo, Isaiah Washington, Russell Wong, and features action and fight choreography by Corey Yuen...

. He also scored the Luc Besson
Luc Besson
Luc Besson is a French film director, writer, and producer. He is the creator of EuropaCorp film company. He has been involved with over 50 films, spanning 26 years, as writer, director, and/or producer.-Early life:...

- produced/co-written action film, The Transporter
The Transporter
The Transporter is a 2002 French action film directed by Louis Leterrier and Corey Yuen and written by Luc Besson, who was inspired by BMW Films' The Hire series....

, starring Jason Statham
Jason Statham
Jason Statham born 12 September1967) is an English actor and former diver, known for his roles in the Guy Ritchie crime films Revolver, Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels...

 and a Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...

 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 bass guitar technique

When playing bass guitar, 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
Larry Graham
Larry Graham, Jr. is an African American bass guitar player, both with the popular and influential psychedelic soul/funk band Sly & the Family Stone, and as the founder and frontman of Graham Central Station...

-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
Alembic Inc
Alembic was founded in 1969 and is a manufacturer of high-end electric basses, guitars and preamps.-History:Ron and Susan Wickersham founded Alembic, Inc. in 1969...

 basses, and 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, including two QSC 2050 amplifiers, more in keeping with a keyboardist's rig than a bassist's or guitarists. To extend his melodic range, he also plays on tenor and piccolo basses. Clarke's are usually short scale (78 cm or 30.75"), four string, Carl Thompson or Alembic.

In the late 1970s, Clarke was playing Rick Turner's
Rick Turner
Rick Turner co-founded Alembic in 1970 and was involved in the design and construction of the Alembic instruments. He founded Rick Turner Guitars in 1979 and joined Gibson in 1988 where he served as president of Gibson Labs West Coast R&D Division.Turner left Gibson in 1992 and ran a guitar repair...

 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 Turner 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

Clarke formed Animal Logic
Animal Logic (band)
Animal Logic is the name of a band formed in 1987 by ex-Police drummer Stewart Copeland, virtuoso bassist Stanley Clarke, and singer-songwriter Deborah Holland...

 with rock drummer Stewart Copeland
Stewart Copeland
Stewart Armstrong Copeland is an American musician, best known as the drummer for the band The Police. During the group's extended hiatus from the mid-1980s to 2007, he played in other bands and composed soundtracks...

, after the break-up of The Police
The Police
The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For the vast majority of their history, the band consisted of Sting , Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland...

, and singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...

 Deborah Holland
Deborah Holland
Deborah Holland was the lead singer and songwriter of Animal Logic featuring Stanley Clarke and Stewart Copeland. Beginning her musical studies at age 14, Holland attended the Berklee College of Music and Rutgers University, from which she received her B.A...

. Other notable (recording/touring) project involvements are: (1979) Jeff Beck
Jeff Beck
Geoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck is an English rock guitarist. He is one of three noted guitarists to have played with The Yardbirds...

, (1979) Ron Wood
Ron Wood
Ronald David "Ronnie" Wood is an English rock guitarist and bassist best known as a former member of The Jeff Beck Group, Faces, and current member of The Rolling Stones. He also plays lap and pedal steel guitar....

's New Barbarians, (1981, 1983, 1990) Clarke/Duke Project with George Duke
George Duke
George Duke is a multi-faceted American musician, known as a keyboard pioneer, composer, singer and producer in both jazz and popular mainstream musical genres. He has worked with numerous acclaimed artists as arranger, music director, writer and co-writer, record producer and professor of music...

, (1984) with Miroslav Vitouš
Miroslav Vitouš
Miroslav Ladislav Vitouš , is a Czech jazz bassist.-Biography:Born in Prague, he began the violin at age six, and started playing the piano at age ten, and bass at fourteen. As a young man in Europe, Vitouš was a competitive swimmer. One of his early music groups was the Junior Trio with his...

, (1989) Animal Logic
Animal Logic (band)
Animal Logic is the name of a band formed in 1987 by ex-Police drummer Stewart Copeland, virtuoso bassist Stanley Clarke, and singer-songwriter Deborah Holland...

 with Stewart Copeland
Stewart Copeland
Stewart Armstrong Copeland is an American musician, best known as the drummer for the band The Police. During the group's extended hiatus from the mid-1980s to 2007, he played in other bands and composed soundtracks...

, (1993–94), A group with Larry Carlton
Larry Carlton
Larry Carlton is an American jazz, smooth jazz, jazz fusion, pop, and rock guitarist and singer. He has divided his recording time between solo recordings and session appearances with various well-known bands...

, Billy Cobham
Billy Cobham
William C. Cobham is a Panamanian American jazz drummer, composer and bandleader, who has called Switzerland home since the late 1970s....

, Najee & Deron Johnson
Deron Johnson (musician)
Deron Johnson is an American jazz musician. Beginning at the age of sixteen, Johnson became hooked on jazz music and attended California State University Long Beach where he continued his pursuit with private lessons from Billy Childs. In 1991, after touring with Pop Idol Paula Abdul, Johnson was...

, (1995) The Rite of Strings
The Rite of Strings
The Rite of Strings is a collaborative album by virtuosi Al Di Meola, Stanley Clarke and Jean-Luc Ponty, recorded after their world tour in 1995...

with Jean-Luc Ponty
Jean-Luc Ponty
Jean-Luc Ponty is a French virtuoso violinist and jazz composer.- Early years:Ponty was born into a family of classical musicians on 29 September 1942 in Avranches, France. His father taught violin, his mother taught piano...

 and Al Di Meola
Al Di Meola
Al Di Meola is an acclaimed American jazz fusion and Latin guitarist, composer, and record producer of Italian origin. With a musical career that has spanned more than three decades, he has become respected as one of the most influential guitarists in jazz to date...

 and (1999) Vertu’ with Lenny White
Lenny White
Leonard White III, better known as Lenny White is an American jazz fusion drummer, who is best known for playing in Chick Corea's Return to Forever.-Biography:...

 and Richie Kotzen
Richie Kotzen
Richie Kotzen is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter.At a young age, Richie Kotzen was taken by music and first began playing piano at the age of five. At the age of seven he was inspired by the band KISS to learn the electric guitar...

. 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 The Rite of Strings comrades, Al DiMeola and Jean-Luc Ponty. In addition to a date in France and dates in the Eastern U.S., 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!
TRIO!
Trio! was a one-time acoustic jazz fusion supergroup during 2005. It consisted of bassist Stanley Clarke , jazz violinist Jean-Luc Ponty , and banjoist Béla Fleck .Much of the material performed by Trio! was from The Rite of Strings, with Fleck...

 with banjo
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...

 player Béla Fleck
Béla Fleck
Béla Anton Leoš Fleck is an American banjo player. Widely acknowledged as one of the world's most innovative and technically proficient banjo players, he is best known for his work with the bands New Grass Revival and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones.-Early life and career details:Fleck was born in...

 and Jean-Luc Ponty. The U.S. and European tour was nominated for a 2006 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 1980s, Clarke has been turned much of his energy to television and film score
Film score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...

s. He is creditd for the scores for the ABC Family Channel
ABC Family
ABC Family, stylized as abc family, is an American television network, owned by ABC Family Worldwide Inc., a subsidiary of the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company...

 series Lincoln Heights
Lincoln Heights (TV series)
Lincoln Heights is an American drama television series about Eddie Sutton, a Mission Vista police officer who moves his family back to his old neighborhood, Lincoln Heights, to start a new life and to help out his old neighborhood...

as well as composing the theme song for the show. In October 2006, Clarke was honored with Bass Player
Bass Player (magazine)
Bass Player is a popular magazine for bassists. Each issue offers a variety of artist interviews, lessons, equipment reviews, and a complete transcribed bass line from a popular song...

magazine's Lifetime Achievement Award. Bassists Marcus Miller
Marcus Miller
Marcus Miller is an American jazz composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. Miller is best known as a bassist, working with trumpeter Miles Davis, singer Luther Vandross, and saxophonist David Sanborn, as well as maintaining a prolific solo career...

 and Victor Wooten
Victor Wooten
Victor Lemonte Wooten is an American bass player, composer, author, and producer, and has been the recipient of five Grammy Awards....

 presented the award at a ceremony at New York City's Millennium Broadway Hotel. Stanley who won a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...

 in 1975 was the first “Jazzman of the Year” for Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...

magazine, won "Best Bassist" from Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...

magazine for 10 straight years, and is a member of Guitar Player
Guitar Player
Guitar Player is a popular magazine for guitarists founded in 1967. It contains articles, interviews, reviews and lessons of an eclectic collection of artists, genres and products. It has been in print since the late 1960s and during the 1980s, under editor Tom Wheeler, the publication was...

magazine's "Gallery of Greats." He was honored with the Key to the city
Freedom of the City
Freedom of the City is an honour bestowed by some municipalities in Australia, Canada, Ireland, France, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, the United Kingdom, Gibraltar and Rhodesia to esteemed members of its community and to organisations to be honoured, often for service to the community;...

 of Philadelphia and put his hands in cement as a 1999 inductee into the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...

 on Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard is a street in the western part of Los Angeles County, California, that stretches from Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles to the Pacific Coast Highway at the Pacific Ocean in the Pacific Palisades...

. In 2004 he was featured in Los Angeles
Los Angeles (magazine)
Los Angeles magazine is a monthly regional magazine of national stature. Published by Emmis Communications and produced monthly since the spring of 1961, LA Magazine is a combination of award-winning feature writing, investigative reporting, service journalism, and design, the definitive resource...

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
Terence Blanchard
Terence Oliver Blanchard is an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, arranger, and film score composer. Since he emerged on the scene in 1980 with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra and then shortly thereafter with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Blanchard has been a leading artist in jazz...

, Marcus Miller
Marcus Miller
Marcus Miller is an American jazz composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. Miller is best known as a bassist, working with trumpeter Miles Davis, singer Luther Vandross, and saxophonist David Sanborn, as well as maintaining a prolific solo career...

, George Duke
George Duke
George Duke is a multi-faceted American musician, known as a keyboard pioneer, composer, singer and producer in both jazz and popular mainstream musical genres. He has worked with numerous acclaimed artists as arranger, music director, writer and co-writer, record producer and professor of music...

, The Tate Brothers, Gamble and Huff
Gamble and Huff
Kenneth Gamble and Leon A. Huff are an American songwriting and record production team who have written and produced over 170 gold and platinum records. They were pioneers of Philadelphia soul and the in-house creative team for the Philadelphia International record label...

, 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 The University of the Arts
University of the Arts (Philadelphia)
The University of the Arts is one of the United States' oldest universities dedicated to the arts. Its campus makes up part of the Avenue of the Arts in Center City, Philadelphia...

.
He has three children (Chris and two stepchildren, Natasha and Frank).

Recent records

Clarke's latest records include The Toys of Men
The Toys of Men
The Toys of Men is a 2007 album by jazz fusion bassist Stanley Clarke.-Track listing:All tracks composed by Stanley Clarke except where noted.# "The Toys of Men" – 11:14# "Come On" – 2:59...

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
Billboard charts
The Billboard charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs or albums in the United States. The results are published in Billboard magazine...

' Contemporary Jazz Chart. The 13-track CD examines the issue of war, and it includes performances by vocalist/bassist Esperanza Spalding
Esperanza Spalding
Esperanza Spalding is an American multi-instrumentalist best known as a jazz bassist and singer, who draws upon many genres in her own compositions...

, keyboardist Ruslan Sirota
Ruslan Sirota
Ruslan Sirota is a Grammy Award winning pianist, keyboardist, composer and producer.-Biography:Ruslan was born in Uman, Ukraine to a Jewish family on November 4, 1980. His father, Yefim, who was an active local guitarist, had introduced him to music at an early age...

, percussionist Paulinho da Costa
Paulinho Da Costa
Paulinho da Costa is a Brazilian percussionist born in Rio de Janeiro, considered one of the most recorded musicians of modern times. Playing over two hundred percussion instruments, he has participated in thousands of recording sessions, Grammy Award-winning albums, hit songs, soundtracks, radio...

 and violinist Mads Tolling
Mads Tolling
Mads Tolling is a Danish-American violinist, violist and composer. Tolling won Grammy Awards for "Best classical crossover album" as part of Turtle Island Quartet's recordings 4+Four and A Love Supreme - The Legacy of John Coltrane . Tolling also recorded on Stanley Clarke's Toys of Men...

. 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
Jazz in the Garden
Jazz in the Garden is the debut release from the Stanley Clarke Trio, featuring pianist Hiromi and drummer Lenny White. It was released in 2009 on CD and vinyl...

, featuring the Stanley Clarke Trio: with Clarke, pianist Hiromi Uehara, and Lenny White
Lenny White
Leonard White III, better known as Lenny White is an American jazz fusion drummer, who is best known for playing in Chick Corea's Return to Forever.-Biography:...

 on drums. In 2010, Clarke released the Stanley Clarke Band, with Ruslan Sirota
Ruslan Sirota
Ruslan Sirota is a Grammy Award winning pianist, keyboardist, composer and producer.-Biography:Ruslan was born in Uman, Ukraine to a Jewish family on November 4, 1980. His father, Yefim, who was an active local guitarist, had introduced him to music at an early age...

 on keyboards
Electronic keyboard
An electronic keyboard is an electronic or digital keyboard instrument.The major components of a typical modern electronic keyboard are:...

 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
53rd Grammy Awards
The 53rd annual Grammy Awards were held on February 13, 2011, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. They were broadcast on CBS with a rating of 26.6 million viewers. Barbra Streisand was honored as the MusiCares Person of the Year two nights prior to the telecast on February 11. Nominations were...

 for Best Contemporary Jazz Album.

Solo albums

Studio Albums
  • Children of Forever
    Children of Forever
    Children of Forever is the debut album of the fusion jazz bassist Stanley Clarke.-Track listing:All tracks composed by Stanley Clarke and Neville Potter; except where indicated# "Children of Forever" – 10:42# "Unexpected Days" – 5:53...

    (Polydor) (1973)
  • Stanley Clarke
    Stanley Clarke (album)
    Stanley Clarke is the second album of the bassist Stanley Clarke.-Track listing:All tracks composed by Stanley Clarke; except where indicated# "Vulcan Princess" – 4:00# "Yesterday Princess" – 1:41# "Lopsy Lu" – 7:03...

    (Nemperor) (1974)
  • Journey to Love
    Journey to Love
    Journey to Love is the third jazz funk fusion album by bass guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Stanley Clarke, accompanied by familiar musicians he has often worked with like George Duke and Chick Corea...

    (Nemperor) (1975)
  • School Days
    School Days (album)
    School Days is the fourth album by fusion jazz bassist Stanley Clarke.-Track listing:All tracks composed by Stanley Clarke# "School Days" – 7:51# "Quiet Afternoon" – 5:09# "The Dancer" – 5:27# "Desert Song" – 6:56# "Hot Fun" – 2:55...

    (Nemperor) (1976)
  • Modern Man
    Modern Man (album)
    Modern Man is the fifth album by fusion jazz bassist Stanley Clarke.-Track listing:All tracks composed by Stanley Clarke# Opening - 4:22 # He Lives On - 4:24 # More Hot Fun - 4:31...

     (Nemperor) (1978)
  • I Wanna Play for You (Nemperor) (1979)
  • Rocks, Pebbles and Sand
    Rocks, Pebbles and Sand
    Rocks, Pebbles and Sand is the 1980 album by jazz bass guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Stanley Clarke. Clarke sings on the album to the horror of critics, but sticks to his usual forte which is jazz rock and jazz funk.-Track listing:...

    (Epic) (1980)
  • Let Me Know You (Epic) (1982)
  • Time Exposure (Epic) (1984)
  • Find Out! (Epic) (1985)
  • Hideaway (Epic) (1986)
  • If This Bass Could Only Talk
    If This Bass Could Only Talk
    If This Bass Could Only Talk is a 1988 album by the American bassplayer Stanley Clarke.-Track listing:#"If This Bass Could Only Talk" – 2:30#"Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" – 6:24#"I Want to Play for Ya" – 3:22#"Stories to Tell" – 3:46...

    (Portrait) (1988)
  • Passenger 57 (Epic) (1992)
  • East River Drive
    East River Drive (album)
    East River Drive is a Stanley Clarke album released in 1993.-Track listing:# "Justice's Groove" – 4:06# "Fantasy Love" – 4:37# "Zabadoobeedi- " – 4:35# "East River Drive" – 7:48# "I'm Home Africa" – 5:59...

    (Epic) (1993)
  • The Rite of Strings
    The Rite of Strings
    The Rite of Strings is a collaborative album by virtuosi Al Di Meola, Stanley Clarke and Jean-Luc Ponty, recorded after their world tour in 1995...

    (Gai Saber) (1995)
  • At the Movies
    At the Movies (Stanley Clarke album)
    At the Movies is the twenty-fourth album by jazz bassist Stanley Clarke. - Track listing :All songs written by Stanley Clarke# "Passenger 57 Main Title - Passenger 57" – 3:22# "Lisa - Passenger 57" – 4:33# "Justice's Groove - Poetic Justice" – 3:50...

    (Epic Soundtrax) (1995)
  • 1,2,To The Bass (Sony) (2003)
  • The Toys of Men
    The Toys of Men
    The Toys of Men is a 2007 album by jazz fusion bassist Stanley Clarke.-Track listing:All tracks composed by Stanley Clarke except where noted.# "The Toys of Men" – 11:14# "Come On" – 2:59...

    (Heads Up) (2007)
  • Jazz in the Garden
    Jazz in the Garden
    Jazz in the Garden is the debut release from the Stanley Clarke Trio, featuring pianist Hiromi and drummer Lenny White. It was released in 2009 on CD and vinyl...

    (Heads Up) (2009)
  • The Stanley Clarke Band
    The Stanley Clarke Band
    The Stanley Clarke Band is an album by jazz bassist Stanley Clarke. It was released by Heads Up Record in June 2010 and was produced by Clarke and Lenny White. Band members include Ruslan Sirota on keyboard, Ronald Bruner, Jr. on drums and Hiromi on piano...

    (Heads Up) (2010)

Live Albums
  • Live 1976-1977
    Live 1976-1977
    Live 1976-1977 is the sixth album of the bassist Stanley Clarke. This is also his first live album.-Track listing:# "School Days" – 7:01# "Lopsy Lu" – 7:25# "Quiet Afternoon" – 6:51# "Silly Putty" – 5:37# "Dayride" – 7:04# "Bass Folk Song No...

    (Epic) (1991)
  • Live at the Greek (Epic) (1993)


Compilations
  • The Bass-ic Collection
    The Bass-ic Collection
    The Bass-ic Collection is a Stanley Clarke album released in 1997. -Track listing:All tracks composed by Stanley Clarke, except where indicated.# "School Days" – 7:49# "Wild Dog" - 3:31...

    (Sony) (1997)

with Return to Forever

Studio Albums
  • Return to Forever
    Return to Forever (album)
    Return to Forever is a jazz fusion album by Chick Corea, simultaneously functioning as the debut album by the band of the same name. Unlike later albums by the group, it was released by the ECM label and produced by Manfred Eicher. The album was not released in the USA until 1975...

    (1972, ECM)
  • Light as a Feather
    Light as a Feather
    Light as a Feather is the second studio album of fusion band Return to Forever, led by keyboardist Chick Corea.The second and last album by the first line-up of Return to Forever was recorded in the same year eight months later. The style of the music remains mostly the same though vocal tracks...

    (1972, Polydor)
  • Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy
    Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy
    Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy is Return to Forever's third studio album.This was the group's first album with a rock influenced sound and without any vocals...

    (1973, Polydor)
  • Where Have I Known You Before
    Where Have I Known You Before
    Where Have I Known You Before is the fourth album by Jazz-Rock Fusion band Return to Forever.While the style of music has not changed much since the previous album, Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy, important changes have taken place in the band's sound and line-up. Both keyboardist Chick Corea and...

    (1974, Polydor)
  • No Mystery
    No Mystery
    No Mystery is the fifth studio album by influential jazz-rock fusion band Return to Forever.Return to Forever's fifth album is their most varied. While the production is similar to the album's predecessor, Where Have I Known You Before, the sheer variety of compositions gives this record a...

    (1975, Polydor)
  • Romantic Warrior
    Romantic Warrior
    Romantic Warrior is the sixth studio album of fusion band Return to Forever.Romantic Warrior is the band's best selling record reaching eventual sales of 500,000 copies. It was the group's first album made for Columbia Records, which may have had a positive effect on sales...

    (1976, Columbia)
  • Musicmagic
    Musicmagic
    Musicmagic is the seventh and final studio album of fusion band Return to Forever.This album contains the final line-up of the band, with only founders Chick Corea and Stanley Clarke returning from the previous album. This is the first album since Light as a Feather to contain vocals, featuring...

    (1977, Columbia)
  • Returns (2009)

Live Albums
  • Return to Forever Live (1979)


Compilations
  • The Best of Return to Forever (1980)

with The New Barbarians

  • Buried Alive (recorded 1979, released 2006)
    Buried Alive: Live in Maryland
    Buried Alive: Live in Maryland is a live album by The New Barbarians. It was recorded at the Capital Center Arena in Largo, Maryland on May 5, 1979 during the band's only concert tour.-Disc 1:# "Sweet Little Rock N Roller" – 4:20...


As a co-leader/band member

  • Flora Purim
    Flora Purim
    Flora Purim is a Brazilian jazz singer known primarily for her work in the jazz fusion style. She became prominent for her part in Chick Corea's landmark album Return to Forever...

     – Butterfly Dreams
    Butterfly Dreams
    - Personnel :* Flora Purim - vocals* Joe Henderson - flute, tenor saxophone* George Duke - electric and acoustic piano, clavinet, synthesizer* David Amaro - electric and acoustic guitar* Ernie Hood - zither* Stanley Clarke - electric and acoustic bass...

    (1973)
  • Echoes of an Era
    Echoes of an Era
    Echoes of an Era is an album by American R&B/jazz singer Chaka Khan with Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke and Lenny White, released in 1982 on Elektra Records....

     (with Chaka Khan
    Chaka Khan
    Chaka Khan , frequently known as the Queen of Funk, is a 10-time Grammy Award winning American singer-songwriter who gained fame in the 1970s as the frontwoman and focal point of the funk band Rufus. While still a member of the group in 1978, Khan embarked on a successful solo career...

    )
  • Echoes of an Era 2 Live (with Nancy Wilson
    Nancy Wilson (singer)
    Nancy Wilson is an American singer with more than 70 albums, and three Grammy Awards. She has been labeled a singer of blues, jazz, cabaret and pop; a "consummate actress"; and "the complete entertainer." The title she prefers, however, is song stylist...

    )
  • The Griffith Park Collection
  • The Griffith Park Collection 2 In Concert
  • Fuse One
    Fuse One
    Fuse One were a group of Jazz musicians who collaborated for two albums released on CTI Records and one album released on GNP Crescendo Record Co..The albums Fuse One and Silk were produced by Creed Taylor...

     (CTI) (1980)
  • Fuse OneSilk (CTI) (1981)
  • Clarke/Duke Project (with George Duke
    George Duke
    George Duke is a multi-faceted American musician, known as a keyboard pioneer, composer, singer and producer in both jazz and popular mainstream musical genres. He has worked with numerous acclaimed artists as arranger, music director, writer and co-writer, record producer and professor of music...

    ) (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
    The Manhattan Project (album)
    The Manhattan Project is a jazz fusion album, the only recording to be made by a band of the same name comprising Wayne Shorter, Michel Petrucciani, Stanley Clarke, Lenny White, Gil Goldstein and Pete Levin. The arrangements were written by Lenny White and Gil Goldstein, and the album was recorded...

     (with Lenny White, Michel Petrucciani, Wayne Shorter) (1989)
  • Animal Logic
    Animal Logic (album)
    Animal Logic is an album by Animal Logic.-Track listing:*All songs Arranged and Produced by Stewart Copeland & Stanley Clarke*All songs by D. Holland, except......

     (with Stewart Copeland
    Stewart Copeland
    Stewart Armstrong Copeland is an American musician, best known as the drummer for the band The Police. During the group's extended hiatus from the mid-1980s to 2007, he played in other bands and composed soundtracks...

    , Deborah Holland
    Deborah Holland
    Deborah Holland was the lead singer and songwriter of Animal Logic featuring Stanley Clarke and Stewart Copeland. Beginning her musical studies at age 14, Holland attended the Berklee College of Music and Rutgers University, from which she received her B.A...

    ) (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
    The Rite of Strings
    The Rite of Strings is a collaborative album by virtuosi Al Di Meola, Stanley Clarke and Jean-Luc Ponty, recorded after their world tour in 1995...

    (with Al Di Meola and Jean Luc Ponty) (1995)
  • Vertu’ – Stanley Clarke, Lenny White, Karen Briggs, Rachel Z, Richie Kotzen (1999)
  • McCoy Tyner with Stanley Clarke and Al Foster (2000)
  • Thunder
    Thunder (SMV album)
    Thunder is the debut album from bass supergroup SMV. The album was released on August 12, 2008.-Track listing:# "Maestros de Las Frecuencias Bajas" – 2:52# "Thunder" – 6:37...

    , as SMV
    SMV (band)
    SMV is a bass supergroup formed in 2008. The group's name comes from the first initials of each of its members, Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller, and Victor Wooten...

     (with Marcus Miller
    Marcus Miller
    Marcus Miller is an American jazz composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. Miller is best known as a bassist, working with trumpeter Miles Davis, singer Luther Vandross, and saxophonist David Sanborn, as well as maintaining a prolific solo career...

     and Victor Wooten
    Victor Wooten
    Victor Lemonte Wooten is an American bass player, composer, author, and producer, and has been the recipient of five Grammy Awards....

    ) (2008)
  • Jazz in the Garden
    Jazz in the Garden
    Jazz in the Garden is the debut release from the Stanley Clarke Trio, featuring pianist Hiromi and drummer Lenny White. It was released in 2009 on CD and vinyl...

    (The Stanley Clarke Trio with Hiromi and Lenny White
    Lenny White
    Leonard White III, better known as Lenny White is an American jazz fusion drummer, who is best known for playing in Chick Corea's Return to Forever.-Biography:...

    ) (2009)

As a producer

  • In The Dark, Roy Ayers
    Roy Ayers
    Roy Ayers is an American funk, soul, and jazz composer and vibraphone player. Ayers began his career as a post-bop jazz artist, releasing several albums with Atlantic Records, before his tenure at Polydor Records beginning in the 1970s, during which he helped pioneer jazz-funk .- Biography :Ayers...

  • Loading Zone, Roy Buchanan
    Roy Buchanan
    Roy Buchanan was an American guitarist and blues musician. A pioneer of the Telecaster sound, Buchanan was a sideman and solo artist, with two gold albums early in his career, and two later solo albums that made it on to the Billboard chart. Despite never having achieved stardom, he is still...

  • Just Family, Dee Dee Bridgewater
    Dee Dee Bridgewater
    Dee Dee Bridgewater is an American Jazz singer. She is a three-time Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter, as well as a Tony Award - winning stage actress and host of National Public Radio's syndicated radio show JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater...

  • I’m Ready, Natalie Cole
    Natalie Cole
    Natalie Maria Cole , is an American singer, songwriter and performer. The daughter of jazz legend Nat King Cole, Cole rode to musical success in the mid-1970s as an R&B artist with the hits "This Will Be ", "Inseparable" and "Our Love"...

  • Hollywood, Maynard Ferguson
  • Free Flight
    Free Flight (band)
    Free Flight was an American jazz ensemble, led by Jim Walker.Other members include Peter Erskine, Milcho Leviev, Ralph Humphrey, Brian Pezzone, Jimmy Lacefield, and Mike Garson, who played on Beyond the Clouds....

     – Illuminations
  • Rodney Franklin
    Rodney Franklin
    Rodney Franklin is an American jazz pianist and composer.At the age of six he took jazz piano lessons at Washington Elementary School...

     – Diamonds Inside of You
  • Howard Hewett
    Howard Hewett
    Howard Hewett is an American R&B and gospel singer and former lead vocalist of the R&B group Shalamar.Raised in Akron, Ohio, Hewett moved to Los Angeles. He would eventually meet Soul Train dancer and future first wife Rainey Riley-Cunningham, then a secretary of the show's creator and original...

     – I Commit to Love
  • Kent Jordan – No Question About it
  • Ramsey Lewis
    Ramsey Lewis
    Ramsey Emmanuel Lewis, Jr. is an American jazz composer, pianist and radio personality. Ramsey Lewis has recorded over 80 albums and has received seven gold records and three Grammy Awards so far in his career.-Biography:...

     & Nancy Wilson – The Two of Us
  • Jeff Lorber
    Jeff Lorber
    Jeff Lorber is an American Grammy Award-nominated keyboardist, composer, and record producer.After leading his own group, The Jeff Lorber Fusion, he went on to pioneer the smooth jazz genre....

  • Marilyn McCoo
    Marilyn McCoo
    Marilyn McCoo is an American singer, actress, and television presenter, who is best known for being the lead female vocalist in the group The 5th Dimension, as well as hosting the 1980s music countdown series Solid Gold...

  • Brenda Russell
    Brenda Russell
    Brenda Russell is an American-Canadian singer-songwriter and keyboardist. Known for her eclectic musical style, her recordings have encompassed several different genres, including pop, soul, dance, jazz and adult contemporary...

  • Shalamar
    Shalamar
    Shalamar was an American music group, primarily of the 1970s and 1980s, that was originally a disco-driven vehicle created by Soul Train booking agent Dick Griffey and show creator Don Cornelius. They went on to be an influential dance trio, masterminded by Soul Train producer Don Cornelius...

     – The Look
  • Billy Shields
    Billy Shields
    William Dean "Billy" Shields is a former American football offensive tackle in the National Football League. He who played eleven seasons for the San Diego Chargers , the San Francisco 49ers , the Kansas City Chiefs and the New York Jets . Shields attended Georgia Institute of Technology...

     – Shieldstone (Optimism Records)
  • Jim Walker – Private Flight
  • Lips (Bobby Malach, Al Williams, Al Harrison, James Tinsley, Ronnie Foster
    Ronnie Foster
    Ronnie Foster is an American funk and soul-jazz organist, and record producer. His albums recorded for Blue Note Records in the 1970s has obtained a cult following after the emergence of acid-jazz.-Biography:...

    , Lenny White
    Lenny White
    Leonard White III, better known as Lenny White is an American jazz fusion drummer, who is best known for playing in Chick Corea's Return to Forever.-Biography:...

    , Marcus Miller
    Marcus Miller
    Marcus Miller is an American jazz composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. Miller is best known as a bassist, working with trumpeter Miles Davis, singer Luther Vandross, and saxophonist David Sanborn, as well as maintaining a prolific solo career...

    , Raymond Gomez, Nick Morock, Donald Blackman, Leon "Ndugu" Chancler and Clarke) (Nemperor Records
    Nemperor Records
    Nemperor Records is an American jazz and pop record label, originally distributed by Atlantic Records from 1974 to 1977, and then CBS Records from 1978 onward, and is currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment....

    /CBS Records
    CBS Records
    CBS Records is a record label founded by CBS Corporation in 2006 to take advantage of music from its entertainment properties owned by CBS Television Studios. The initial label roster consisted of only three artists; rock band Señor Happy and singer/songwriters Will Dailey and P.J...

    , 1978)
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK