Jazz bass giant Stanley Clarke brings band to Yoshi's in Oakland
Legendary jazz bass player Stanley Clarke returns to Yoshi's for a three-night run with his latest band starting Friday night.
One of the most prodigiously talented bassists to emerge during the '70s, Clarke was born and raised in Philadelphia, moving to New York after graduating from the Philadelphia Musical Academy. He would play with an array of established jazz greats including Horace Silver, Art Blakey, Dave Brubeck, Joe Henderson, Pharoah Sanders and Stan Getz. It was working with Getz that put Clarke in contact with keyboard player Chick Corea, who would become one of his major collaborators.
While widely recognized as a gifted young bass player, Clarke would rise to star status as part of Corea's band Return to Forever. Initially playing a Latin-influenced style of mostly acoustic jazz (save for Corea's Fender Rhodes electric piano), the group would go full fusion on the 1973 album Hymn to the Seventh Galaxy. Broadening the vocabulary of the electric bass with his groundbreaking slap-and-pop technique that expanded on the style borrowed from Sly and the Family Stone innovator Larry Graham, Clarke rose to become of the jazz world's preeminent virtuosos on the instrument. The group would reach greater heights after the 19-year-old six-string phenom Al DiMeola replaced departing guitarist Bill Connor for a run of best-selling, influential fusion albums starting with Where Have I Known You Before in 1974.
Clarke would stay busy through the '70s between his successful solo career -- his albums Journey to Love and School Days remain jazz-funk landmarks -- and extensive collaborations with players like guitar hero Jeff Beck and keyboardist George Duke. Clarke would later find another creative outlet as a respected soundtrack composer (including such hit movies as Boyz N The Hood, the Tina Turner biopic What's Love Got To Do With It, Romeo Must Die and The Transporter, but he has remained active as both a recording artist and touring musician, branching out by playing on two Paul McCartney albums in the early '80s and teaming with Police drummer Steward Copeland in the rock band Animal Logic.
More recently, Clarke participated in the Return to Forever reunion that produced several live recordings and led a jazz power trio featuring Japanese pianist Hiromi and his RTF bandmate Lenny White on drums. While the Yoshi's website doesn't provide details on the current band he's touring with, Clarke's latest ensemble N 4EVER with drummer Jeremiah Collier, guitarist Colin Cook, pianist Beka Gochiashvili and saxophonist Emilio Modeste has explored a mix of Return to Forever songs and Clarke originals.
Stanley Clarke
Friday-Sunday, Feb. 14-16, times vary, $45-$94
Yoshi's
