Stanley Clarke

Stanley Clarke has long stood out as a trailblazing force on jazz bass, a player whose lyrical lines and sophisticated harmonic command lifted the instrument from its customary place in the rhythm section to the status of a featured solo voice. He first gained wide attention in the 1970s as a charter member of Chick Corea’s pioneering fusion ensemble Return to Forever, contributing to pivotal recordings such as the 1971 album Light as a Feather and the 1975 Grammy-winning No Mystery. At the same time he launched a parallel solo career whose early highlights included School Days in 1976 and If This Bass Could Only Talk in 1988, releases that freely mixed funk, R&B, post-bop, and modal jazz.

Beyond his longstanding association with Corea, Clarke has frequently joined forces with like-minded peers. A notable early success came with the 1981 hit “Sweet Baby,” drawn from the first of three collaborative albums he made with keyboardist George Duke under the Clarke/Duke Project banner. Further partnerships yielded Animal Logic alongside the Police drummer Stewart Copeland, Rite of Strings with RTF alumnus Al Di Meola and violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, and Thunder, the inaugural outing by the all-star bass trio S.M.V. that also featured Marcus Miller and Victor Wooten. Clarke remains a headliner in his own right; he shared a Grammy with Corea and RTF drummer Lenny White for the 2011 album Forever and continues to front the Stanley Clarke Band, whose personnel shifts with each project.

Philadelphia-born in 1951, Clarke discovered music early and received encouragement from his mother, a church choir singer who performed opera at home. He began on accordion before moving to violin and cello, ultimately choosing the bass during studies at Philadelphia’s Settlement Music School. Five years of classical training followed, and he initially envisioned a symphonic career. A weeklong engagement at age fifteen with saxophonist Byard Lancaster at the historic Showboat Lounge, however, ignited a lasting commitment to jazz. Throughout high school he balanced jazz gigs with pop and rock dates, later refining his technique at the Philadelphia Music Academy while continuing to perform locally. It was during one such performance that he first encountered keyboardist Chick Corea, who would become a key collaborator.

After graduation Clarke relocated to New York City, where he quickly secured work with Art Blakey, Horace Silver, Dexter Gordon, Joe Henderson, Pharoah Sanders, Stan Getz, and numerous others. While touring with Getz he renewed his acquaintance with Corea and helped establish the landmark fusion group Return to Forever. Throughout the 1970s he toured and recorded extensively with RTF, whose rotating cast at various points included saxophonist Joe Farrell, percussionist Airto Moreira, vocalist Flora Purim, drummers Steve Gadd and Lenny White, and guitarist Al Di Meola. The band achieved both creative distinction and broad commercial appeal, performing worldwide, and in 1975 Clarke earned his first Grammy for RTF’s No Mystery, honored in the Best Jazz Performance by a Group category.

Parallel to his RTF commitments, Clarke pursued solo projects that further showcased his fluid, lead-oriented approach to the bass. His debut album as a leader, the expansive and funk-tinged Children of Forever, appeared in 1973. He subsequently recorded several acclaimed releases for Nemperor Records, most prominently the breakthrough School Days. That set, which enlisted keyboardist George Duke, drummer Billy Cobham, guitarist John McLaughlin, and additional guests, reached number 34 on the Billboard 200 and number two on the Jazz Albums chart. Follow-up efforts included Modern Man in 1978 and I Wanna Play for You in 1979. Session work during the same period found him alongside Gato Barbieri, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Freddie Hubbard, and Stan Getz. His expanding reputation beyond jazz circles was underscored by his membership in Rolling Stones bassist Ron Wood’s all-star outfit the New Barbarians and a 1979 tour with guitarist Jeff Beck.

In the early 1980s Clarke reunited with longtime associate George Duke for The Clarke/Duke Project, scoring a Top 20 pop hit with “Sweet Baby” and releasing a second album and tour in 1983. He continued issuing his own jazz-, funk-, and R&B-inflected recordings, among them 1985’s Find Out!—the first release credited to the Stanley Clarke Band—and 1986’s Hideaway, which featured George Howard, Angela Bofill, Herbie Hancock, and Stewart Copeland. He next teamed again with Copeland for two albums under the Animal Logic banner. The decade closed with 1988’s more post-bop- and modal-jazz-oriented If This Bass Could Only Talk, which again included Copeland along with Wayne Shorter, Allan Holdsworth, and tap dancer Gregory Hines.

Clarke maintained a busy schedule through the 1990s, reuniting with Duke for the album 3 and releasing his own East River Drive in 1993. He began scoring films, providing the soundtrack for the 1992 Wesley Snipes vehicle Passenger 57. A reunion with Al Di Meola and Jean-Luc Ponty produced the 1995 album The Rite of Strings. In 1998 he assembled the Superband, which toured with Lenny White, Larry Carlton, Billy Cobham, Najee, and Deron Johnson. The following year he formed the comparable all-star group Vertú, performing and recording with drummer White, Rachel Z, Karen Briggs, and Richie Kotzen. Subsequent releases included 1, 2, to the Bass in 2003 and Standards in 2006, the latter a collaboration with pianist Patrice Rushen.

Additional all-star ventures followed, notably S.M.V., the bass supergroup comprising Clarke, Marcus Miller, and Victor Wooten. The trio’s self-titled debut appeared on Heads Up in 2008. Two years later Clarke received his second Grammy, for Jazz Instrumental Album, with The Stanley Clarke Band, a project that featured Japanese pianist Hiromi, keyboardist Ruslan Sirota, drummer Ronald Bruner, Jr., and numerous guests.

In 2012 Clarke traveled to France for a concert marking violinist Ponty’s fiftieth anniversary as a recording artist; the event also included guitarist Biréli Lagrène and later inspired the trio’s 2015 album D-Stringz, issued on Impulse!. Clarke returned to his band format with 2018’s The Message, which introduced pianist Beka Gochiashvili, keyboardist Cameron Graves, and drummer Mike Mitchell. The next year he composed the score for the fashion documentary Halston, blending jazz-combo textures, orchestral writing, and synthesizer elements.