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The Stanley Clarke Trio (l-r): Hiromi, Clarke, Lenny White
Clarke and the late Jaco Pastorius were the most influential electric bassists of that era, in any genre. Though Clarke and his contemporaries became known playing electric jazz, history sometimes overlooks that many of them cut their teeth playing acoustic music.
"When I started recording as a leader, the majority of music I did was electric," Clarke recently told DCist. "But prior to those early records, all I did was play acoustic bass and acoustic jazz music."
One need only look to Clarke's stellar work on saxophonist Stan Getz's Captain Marvel (1972) to hear Clarke's formidable upright chops. Amazingly enough, though he continued to play acoustic bass regularly, Clarke never put out an entirely acoustic album as a leader until this year, which saw the release of Jazz in the Garden. The group featured on this recording will appear in concert tomorrow night at the Barns of Wolf Trap.
For this project, Clarke recruited his longtime colleague, White, because it was "important to have someone that really, really understood the language." He also called on Hiromi, the sensational young pianist out of Japan, whose mentors include the great Ahmad Jamal.
"I heard about Hiromi from Chick Corea and quite a few others," Clarke explained. "In a lot of ways, she's the most celebrated young instrumentalist in Japan right now."
Hiromi and Clarke contributed all of the originals on the album, which was recorded live in the studio, with Clarke re-interpreting some material from his deep catalog. These compositions stand along side jazz classics like Miles Davis's "Solar," Ellington's "Take the Coltrane," and Clarke's tribute to an early mentor, Joe Henderson's "Isotope." The most ear catching tunes are an unexpected take on "Under the Bridge" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and "Sakura Sakura" a gorgeous Japanese folk melody set in a contemporary jazz context. The group's playing is highly interactive, with no one player leading while the others follow.
"A lot of trio albums were keyboard oriented. I wanted to do something different," Clarke said. "My approach to the acoustic bass is not just playing behind someone, but also playing alongside someone."
The material on the album is open enough that it leaves plenty of space for some intense group improvisation, and high level playing is what tomorrow's audience should expect.
"We're people who are at the top of our game as far as our instruments are concerned," Clarke asserted. "We play the hell out of our instruments."
The Stanley Clarke Trio will perform Thursday night, Oct. 15, at the Barns of Wolf Trap. 8 p.m. $45
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Stanley, I understand you can fill Wolf Trap, but I will gladly pay the premium to see you at Blues Alley!