Stanley Clarke, Classic and Smooth jazz Artist

Stanley Clarke is a bassist and founding member of Return to Forever, one of the first jazz fusion bands.  He has composed music for films and television and has worked with musicians in many genres.  Clarke gave the bass guitar a prominence it lacked in jazz-related music.

Born: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S

Genres: Jazz, Jazz-fusion, Funk, Rock, R&B

Stanley Clarke was born in Philadelphia. His mother sang opera around the house, belonged to a church choir, and encouraged him to study music. He started on accordion, then tried violin.  But he felt awkward holding such a small instrument in his big hands when he was twelve years old and over six feet tall.  No one wanted the acoustic bass in the corner, so he picked it up.  He took lessons on double bass at the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia, beginning with five years of classical music. He picked up bass guitar in his teens so that he could perform at parties and imitate the rock and pop bands that girls liked.

Clarke attended the Philadelphia Musical Academy (later known as the Philadelphia College of the Performing Arts, and ultimately as the University of the Arts, after a merge with the Philadelphia College of Art) and after graduating moved to New York City in 1971.

His recording debut was with Curtis Fuller. He worked with Joe Henderson and Pharoah Sanders, then in 1972 with Stan Getz, Dexter Gordon, and Art Blakey, followed by Gil Evans, Mel Lewis, and Horace Silver.

Stanley Clarke wanted to become the first black musician in the Philadelphia Orchestra until he met jazz pianist Chick Corea.  In 1973, he and Corea founded the band Return to Forever. The first edition of Return to Forever performed primarily Latin-oriented music.  This band consisted of singer Flora Purim, her husband Airto Moreira (both Brazilians) on drums and percussion, Corea’s longtime musical co-worker Joe Farrell on saxophone and flute, and Clarke on bass.  Their first album, titled Return to Forever, was recorded for ECM Records in 1972.  Their second album, Light as a Feather (1973), was released by Polydor and included the song “Spain”.

After the second album, Farrell, Purim and Moreira left the group to form their own band, and guitarist Bill Connors, drummer Steve Gadd and percussionist Mingo Lewis were added. Lenny White (who had played with Corea in Miles Davis’s band) replaced Gadd and Lewis on drums and percussion, and the group’s third album, Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy (1973), was then rerecorded (the first recording, featuring Gadd on drums, was never released and has since disappeared).

Biographical information courtesy of Wiki, for more reading see link below.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Clarke