Stanley Clarke

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Clarke was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Having graduated from the Philadelphia Musical Academy, he moved to New York City in 1971 and began working with famous bandleaders and musicians including Horace Silver, Art Blakey, Dexter Gordon, Joe Henderson, Pharoah Sanders, Gil Evans, Stan Getz and Al Di Meola.

Return to Forever
During this period he joined the fusion group Return To Forever led by pianist Chick Corea. The group became one of the most important fusion groups and released several successful and musically highly varied albums. Clarke also started his solo career in the early 1970s and released a number of albums under his own name. His most famous album is School Days (1976), which along with Jaco Pastorius’s self-titled debut is held up as one of the greatest bass albums in the history of Jazz Fusion.

His albums Stanley Clarke (1974) and Journey to Love (1975) are also notable.

Style
Clarke’s electric bass style is a combination of many factors.

Equipment - Clarke has always been very strongly associated with Alembic basses and the vast majority of his recorded output has been produced with one model of Alembic or another, particularly a dark-wood-colored custom bass in the Series I body style. These basses are handmade neck-through instruments made from a mixture of exotic woods and a proprietary active pickup system that is powered from an external preamplifier. Clarke also utilizes full-range amplification for his basses, more in keeping with a keyboardist’s rig than a bassist’s or guitarists.
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Top Albums

  • School Days
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  • Stanley Clarke
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  • Journey To Love
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  • If This Bass Could Only Talk
    Stanley Clarke Play
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Top Tracks

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  • BrunoPuffVargas

    I love this guy!!!

    20 days ago

  • mUCUS32

    use to live and breathe stanley and RTF in the 80s, god I could dust off my 2 vinyls of the clarke duke project ...... my record player she dont work though!

    January 2012

  • Gurnkge_Giskrd

    qué manos tan mounstrosamente divinas vi tocar el bajo y el contrabajo en el riviera maya jazz fest!!!!!

    November 2011

  • Firstlittlejo

    You tube shows dozens of folks doing their version of "Good bye pork pie hat" and a few live with Stanley and friends. No one comes close to his version!! Live at the Greek is the Best!!! Too bad not on you tube. Billy Cobham, Larry Carlton, Najee and Deron Johnson really compliment Stanley and knock this version out of the park!! I want video of this Now!!!!

    November 2011

  • musicsdope

    Fuck man, this dude can play some bass!

    November 2011

  • Firstlittlejo

    Just checking in.

    October 2011

  • amniocentesis

    Hate to break it to you Carlospant; Jaco isn't anything. He's dead.

    October 2011

  • fastfoodhiphop

    Swung On

    September 2011
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