When we talk about the biggest bass players in history, then Stanley Clarke would satisfy both meanings of the adjective - he is indeed one of the greatest bass instrumentalists in the world, but also one of the most physically corpulent bass masters. The double bass looks like a regular bass guitar in his hands and the actual bass guitar seems like the size of a regular guitar when he picks it up. I had the chance to see him live with no other but the great Return to Forever some few years ago in Skopje. Since it was Corea’s third concert on the Skopje Jazz Festival, he kind of let the audience to concentrate on Stanley’s performance. It was a pleasure for the ears and eyes because Stanley was so relaxed and amused at the same time, that he immediately established a great communication with the people present in the venue. As much as I respected him before, after that night, I started to adore him.
Stanley Clarke is one of the most innovative and influential bass players of all times. He is best known for his work with Return to Forever, but his solo career is also quite impressive. Alongside hundreds of albums and live shows he’s been a part of, Clarke is well-known for his numerous film and television scores. Immediately after his graduation from Philadelphia Music Academy, he moved to New York City and began working with the most popular bandleaders and musicians of the era, including Horace Silver, Art Blakey, Dave Brubeck, Dexter Gordon, Gato Barbieri, Joe Henderson, Chick Corea, Pharoah Sanders, Gil Evans and Stan Getz.
Clarke started his solo career in the early 1970s and released a number of albums under his own name. His best-known solo album is School Days (1976), which, along with Jaco Pastorius's self-titled debut, is one of the most influential solo bass recordings in fusion history. His albums Stanley Clarke (1974) and Journey to Love (1975) are also notable.
Clarke released The Toys of Men 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 the Contemporary Jazz Chart of Billboard magazine. The album examines the subject of war, and it includes performances by Esperanza Spalding, Ruslan Sirota, Paulinho da Costa and Mads Tolling.
When playing electric bass, 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-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").
THE LOW ENDVOL.1: THE BASS THE LOW END VOL.2:CHARLES MINGUS THE LOW END VOL.3:PAUL CHAMBERS THE LOW END VOL.4: NIELS-HENNINGØRSTED PEDERSEN THE LOW END VOL.5: RON CARTER THE LOW END VOL.6: STEVE SWALLOW
