STANLEY CLARKE

Stanley Clarke. Marcus Miller. Victor Wooten.

If you know anything about jazz fusion, funk, or the electric bass, these men need no introduction. These three bassists - some of the best players alive - are responsible for revolutionizing the electric bass and demonstrating what the instrument is really capable of. So what happens if you stick all three of them into the same band? Let's find out.

After a brief symphonic intro in the opening track "Maestros De Frecuencias Bajas", your ears are greeted by a pounding, funky electric bass line and you know just what you're getting into. I would admittedly not consider most of the music on this album jazz fusion; it falls more into the realm of jazz-funk.

This record has a nice mix of original material as well as old favourites that are given the three-bass treatment. The title track, "Thunder", is probably the highlight of the album with its flashy playing and perfect interplay of basses. While most of the compositions here are strong, with so much emphasis on bass lines there seems to be a lack of strong, quality melodies. In addition, although the band seems to be trying to mix things up occasionally, the album could really benefit from even more diversity.

You wouldn't think that having three bassists in a band would sound natural, but these guys weave together flawlessly. By playing in different registers and taking on distinct roles, each bass part sounds crisp and the sound very rarely gets muddled up - something you might expect to happen when you throw so many low-range instruments into the mix. Each of the bassists takes turns alternating between traditional bass lines, lead playing, and soloing, and all three guys are exceptional at every role.

Don't be fooled into thinking that this album is entirely about bass, though; sure, it's the focus of the majority of the record, but it's not all that's here. There are a slew of guest and session musicians who contribute their expertise to this album as well, including fusion hero Chick Corea (who offers a great piano solo on "Mongoose Walk") and George Duke. Marcus Miller himself adds a plethora of instruments to this release, including bass clarinet, saxophone, and the much-loved minimoog.

If you're like me and love the electric bass, S.M.V.'s Thunder is a release you don't want to miss. If bass and jazz-funk is not something you're all that into, however, this record isn't going to do too much to change your mind despite the lineup and great concept. It has a few shortcomings, no doubt, but overall Thunder is a solid debut release.

It's quite surprising that this album is featured here at this site as the music is practically nothing being progressive. In fact one of the songs featured in this album "Sweet Baby" was becoming radio hit at that time with many radio stations always put this song on air everyday. One thing that really interest me to have this album was the bass playing style of Stanley Clarke that sounded very dynamic by the standard of the past when this album was released. Look at the opening track Wild Dog which demonstrates bass guitar serves as melody of the song. I then become a fan of this album merely because of Stan's dynamic bass playing. Almost in every track he plays his bass that way.All tracks are basically an R&B style and basically easy listening where any music buffs would easily digest.

For prog heads, nothing is memorable from this album even though this is not a bad R&B album at all. It's for collectors only, I think - those who want to complete their Stanley Calrke collection.

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

The vocals no doubt will be the "make it or break it" for most music fans. Stanley's debut is an instrumental jewel to be sure and for me rivals his self-titled follow-up as my favourite from him. The vocals are provided by a male and a female and lets just say it's hard for me not to smile when either of them are singing. Both are so into their vocals and i'm sure most would roll their eyes at them. I don't mind them but I wouldn't play this in front of anyone either (haha). It's hard not to compare this to Chick Corea's debut album "Return To Forever". The title being the obvious link. Chick does play some amazing electric piano on this record and he also produced it. He adds clavinet and also acoustic piano on one track only. Lenny White is his usual brilliant self on the drum kit. We also get flute and some guitar.

I was glad to see Hugues mention the Zeuhl flavour on the opening track because to my ears it was pretty strong. We also get that Zeuhl flavour on the closing number. It's just so cool to hear Clarke throbbing away while White pounds it out as we get that Zeuhl rhythm with Corea playing electric piano over top. The male vocals are the focus though to start on the title track "Children Of Forever" then it becomes Zeuhl-like around 1 1/2 minutes in. It's pretty intense after 3 minutes. The flute comes and goes throughout. Vocals are back before 6 1/2 minutes. Female backing vocals 8 1/2 minutes in to the end. "Unexpected Days" is mellow with a light beat, keys, flute and bass as the female vocals join in. It picks up after a minute as male vocals join in. These contrasts continue. I like the instrumental section 3 minutes in. Love the electric piano. She's back 4 minutes in. "Bass Folk Song" opens with flute and more then Clarke comes to the fore with a bass solo. Electric piano and flute join in as the drums continue. The bass is chunky. It's intense after 2 minutes and we get some clavinet too. Great sound again 6 1/2 minutes in as it turns intense.

"Butterfly Dreams" opens with acoustic piano as male vocals join in along with bass, drums and flute. Intricate but uptempo guitar comes in when the vocals stop. Vocals are back and he's doing his Sinatra impression. So much going on 5 minutes in. "Sea Journey" is the 16 1/2 minute closer. Flute, drums, keys and bass standout early then the female vocals join in. Love the instrumental section before 3 minutes with the bass, drums and electric piano dominating. Zeuhlish is the word. The intesity lifts around 6 minutes and vocals return. Bowed bass after 8 minutes with electric piano and drums creates an amazing soundscape after the vocals have stop. Flute before 12 minutes then the intensity breaks 12 1/2 minutes and the vocals return once again. There's that Zeuhl flavour again after 14 minutes. Nice.

For me this is a solid 4 stars but buyer beware as the vocals aren't for everyone.

I do not know if Fusion is a branch of Progressive. Fusion is certainly a branch of Jazz. However, it is no longer a Jazz Jazz but a mix of Jazz & Rock music with other genres, marked on a chaotic mix programmed with extreme difficulty executive. Without going into speeches of little interest here, is to frame the right thing, so that certain artists become easy to understand. Let's face it, this is the case of Stanley Clarke, bassist of the best I ever have heard.

"Stanley Clarke" (his second solo album) is a clear example of Rock & Jazz, Classic Fusion in short, dominated by guitar and bass guitar. In it we also find a great deal of melody, something that might be interesting, except that it is Rock part, Hard Rock. Technically, "Stanley Clarke" is a Jazz album, not unlike many others. Yet it has something mystical, innovative Rock field. Not by chance, I like it if I consider it a great Rock album with Jazz compositions.

However, I must say, sincerely, that "Stanley Clarke" is an album that I just heard but that I understood immediately. Say with certainty that the work of Stanley Clarke is astounding technique and heat, the guitar of Bill Connors is very hard rock and very addictive, as is technical and full of heat the drums of Tony Williams. In all this it should be noted that "Stanley Clarke" has aged very well indeed.

In concluding these brief notes, I can not say that "Stanley Clarke" is a masterpiece of Prog. However, it is a masterpiece of fusion and of 70's music.

On this eponymous second solo album, Stanley Clarke, as a rhythm man, is fond of the formula of playing a line, and playing very similar one at a lower pitch. As a soloist, he tears up his instruments without mercy, choking nearly every traditional sound out of four strings- pops, slaps, slides, growls, and more. Littered with funkadelic bass grooves, the music remains at once accessible and challenging.

"Vulcan Princess" The backbone of this slippery opener is a spurting, growling bass riff. It blends symphonic progressive rock with frantic jazz funk. This is a rendering of the tune "Vulcan Worlds" from Return to Forever's Where Have I Known You Before, released that same year, which is interesting since Bill Connors plays the guitar on this album, having just left Return to Forever and being replaced by a 19-year-old Al Di Meola, so this is an opportunity to compare styles.

"Yesterday Princess" "Vulcan Princess" drifts right into this calmed piano and vocal piece, offering a more restful experience.

"Lopsy Lu" Clarke dives into a bass solo over a bed of easygoing drums, and other instruments join in soon enough. This shows the man's versatility both as a soloist and in a supportive role. The keyboards are lot of fun here, warbling all over the place, and the electric guitar adds significant bite.

"Power" After a wild drum solo of an introduction, the music settles into a psychedelic pop-and-slap groove, augmented by electric piano and biting guitar. While it remains interesting and energetic throughout, it is little more than a repetitive jam with a few progressive passages and an exciting build to a climax of electric guitar screaming.

"Spanish Phases for Strings & Bass" As the name might suggest, this is a quieter piece, and involves Clarke having at an upright.

"Life Suite" Acoustic guitar and piano play gently yet unsettlingly. The second part launches into a powerful passage of quick, hypnotic jazz with grand brass flourishes, although I can't say I care for the sputtering drumming. The sliding bass riff during the synthesizer solo is mesmerizing also. Part three is elegantly pleasing, almost classical music. The fourth and final part of the suite adopts an almost disco vibe, led by Clarke's spunky bass riff, with a volley of electric guitar shot over it. The eerie bit that opened the suite briefly returns to conclude it.

80s was the bad era of music. Not just Prog, but music in general. While some new genres and artists emerged, others hit the rock bottom here and from there they crawled their way back to /not to the top, but at least higher places.

This album is bad, but still can be listened, but only if you have a soft spot for melodies. I do, but this is way too strong (or rather weak) coffee for me. And I don't drink nor like coffee.

Musically, this is slow disco stuff & pop most of the times. At least, there weren't electronic drummers in this era, it would make it much worse. Worse ? If it even can be applied, given nature of this music, are there even shades of badness and shallowness ?

1(+), anti-Prog album and even these melodies are so sweet and cheap that my head hurts.

Stellar personnel in an above the average album

I'm not much of a solo album man. Artists usually make their solo albums with b-sides, songs that were not good enough to fit in the albums of their main projects, etc, and the very few solo albums that I own prove that, but Stanley Clarke's School Days is surely an exception to that.

Released in the same year as the masterful Romantic Warrior, Clarke's fourth solo album School Days shows a a side of this fantastic bassis that we cannot see in Return To Forever: instead of the elaborate, multilayered and colorful music we got used to listen him play, School Days has a more plain and straightforward perspective, stripped from what some may call as excessive demostration of musicianship. Don't let the wide array of jazz stars deceive into thinking otherwise, this is very different from his other works.

If you keep that in mind, there are not may downsides to point out here. Yes, the music is simpler, there are some more popular musical outfits in many parts, specially in the closing piece Life is Just a Game and just some (and really dated) bad musical choices, also in the closing piece, but that is it. No major flaws, no big issues beyond that.

One thing that I don't really consider a flaw, but could surely be a matter of improvement, is increasing the participation of the guest musicians. There are so many talented and capable people playing here that could get so much more room or that get outshined by the bass, such as Billy Cobham's drums, believe it not, because they are only there to play the parts they are supposed to. You can only but wonder what could have happened if they were given more space.

The albums as a whole is very fun to listen to. There are, as you can obviously imagine, huge bass parts and the bass plays a proeminent role in all of the album, after all it is a solo album by a jazz bassist. The best songs, however, are those that have some more space for the other people to shine, such as the title track, School Days, the second song, Quiet Afternoon, and the fourth song, Desert Song.

Grade and Final Thoughts

Clarke's more straightforward and simpler music in his fourth solo album has hooked me for good, despite some possible improvements that i believe were possible concerning all the musicians that played here. If you like his work at Return to Forever and wish to taste a different side of his music, this would be a good place to start.

Well this is really where Stan stops being "The Man", to become a pop-rock star wannabe and completely fails. Possibly the album present in the PA database with the least excuses for being completely crap. Indeed with Stanley Clarke and George Duke's credentials and previous achievements, it's quite hard to believe they released this piece of crud. AFAIAC, they don't even have the excuse of having to adapt to the 80's, because both were more jazzmen than pop stars, and none of the jazz guys compromised to commercial soup like these two (mind you, Herbie was not exactly filled with artistic aesthetics with his Rock It, but at least that track and album were groundbreaking). Anyway the two giants are part of a trio, where Robinson handles the drums.

Right from the opening notes of the instrumental Wild Dog,, you know we're headed for trouble (even if it is the album's best track), and the Louie Louie RnR cover is simply atrocious: it sounds like a bad new wave version with a bass solo. Things get worse with a tear-jerking syrupy Sweet Baby that you'd swear would find space on a Lionel Ritchie album. Same crap for the following or rest of garbage tracks, the soppy I Just Want To and ultra electro-funk Let's Get Started, but rock bottom is hit with the losing Winners and its disco beat. Only the short and side-closing instrumental Books track doesn't stink too much andconfirms that Clarle's songwriting is indeed better than Duke's.

It's rather hard to believe that this album was once released as a Contemporary Masters Columbia Jazz series (with the red frame around the artwork), because not only does it suck big bones, but it's absolutely nothing to do with Jazz. Just a piece of early 80's funk-disco crap, and probably one more album that Stan The Man would rather forget he ever made. Best avoided at all costs,

Surprisingly enough after the no-specific line-up of Play For You, this album has Stan sharing the spotlight with three white boys who appear to be rockers, and indeed Rock, Pebbles & Sand is Stan's hardest album (to my knowledge anyway), but it doesn't stop it from sounding very AOR, post the few opening tracks. Nevermind the hope-inducing rock motorcycle artwork, this album stinks.

Despite the rather hard-rocking start of Danger Street and the Motor-driven intro All Hell Broke Loose, a fast-driving instrumental that rocks and overruns the engine and transmission and leads into the soft-starting synth-layered title track, another instrumental, where Stan's bass rules. Things go awry when the overestimated Underestimation enters and we get Stan's now acceptable vocals, but the songwriting is uninspired or simply it sounds like [&*!#]. Things go really wrong with the awful dreck track of You/Me Together, a soppy, sugared horrible love song sounding like a pre-Whitney track recorded in Houston. It gets even worse with the atrocious electro-funky We Supply (yup, they do?. loads of crap), but the following three-part 11-mins+ Story Of A Man And Woman is simply laughable, despite a semblance of prog stance, it is ruined by a disco beat and over-soulish vocals and backing vocals. This is still a remnant of the Modern Man-type of songwriting, but it loses its credibility, despite some good instrumentation passages. Shitty late 70's synth sounds just kill this semi-ambitious and proggy piece. This track is cheese enough to prepare a fondue for a whole barmy, but it's clearly the best on the flipside and the finale is rather correct.

It's rather hard to believe that this album was once released as a Contemporary Masters Columbia Jazz series (with the red frame around the artwork), because not only does it suck big bones (well the second half aqnyway), but it's absolutely nothing to do with Jazz. Just a piece of early 80's funk-disco crap, and probably one album that Stan The Man would rather forget he ever made. Best avoided, despite a correct start, but much worse is to come.

A strange album, this is Clarke's 6th and it's half-live album (Calderone Theatre in June 78), but most of the usual suspects are not very present: Duke on 2 tracks, Dee Dee on one and Back & Gadd only on one. Clarke is letting his afro haircut grow in search of obvious pop-star recognition and indeed the music is taking that direction. Curiously recorded in the UK for the studio, while the other half is an LA thing, the album is rather disjointed, often veering to disco with those clapping beats. Notable jazzmen Stan Getz and Freddie Hubbard and guitarist Ritenour make one appearance each, but none leave a lasting impression, except on the guest list.

Opening on the pleasant bluesy-funk vocoder-filled complex funk-jazz title track (it would easily find space on Modern Man as would the short Strange weather), the album's first side quickly slips into a soul-disco-ish-funk MOR/AOR stuff that can only irritate (Feeling, ), despite the obvious talent of all concerned. Streets is reminiscent of a funkier version that era's Santana, while Together again is insufferable with those awful fake handclaps.. The Mingus homage is short and uninteresting and way too standard-jazzy for the rest of the album.

The flipside is mainly live and includes Clarke classics School Days and Quiet Afternoon, and we are finding the excellent JR/F that we know Stan The Man can do (so why doesn't he in the studios?), and obviously these tracks triple the album's value to most progheads. Indeed Clarke's nine-man band (including a four-man horn section) is quite gifted and the rawk the heck out of you. Strangely enough, they chose to insert a Beck/Gadd/Cochran track from the previous year, but it goes almost unnoticed in the middle of the Calderone Theatre tracks. If it wasn't for this live facet, the overall level of the album would probably sink deep because the first side is completely disjointed and wouldn't be worth the proghead's attention.