Stanley Clarke

斯坦利.克拉克，1951年6月30日于美國費城出生的Stanley Clarke，是目前BASS界的巨擘，雖然他在爵士樂上擁有超人的天份，但是他事業(yè)的重心卻沒有放在爵士樂上。
Stanley Clarke在學習BASS前，他曾彈過手風琴及大提琴 高中時就有豐富的組團經(jīng)驗，70年代移居到紐約后，便與Pharoah Sanders合作；之后與Stan Gets、Gils Evans、Art Blakey等人的合作中，大家都對Stanley Clarke的天份留下深刻的印象。 然而Stanley Clarke真正的崛起則是在Chick Corea的rock fusion專輯Return to Forever里的表現(xiàn)，更早于Jaco，他以純熟的技巧，驚人的速度，將貝斯當作主奏樂器的概念，引起了極大的回響。
by Scott Yanow
A brilliant player on both acoustic and electric basses, Stanley Clarke has spent much of his career outside of jazz, although he has the ability to play jazz with the very best. He played accordion as a youth, switching to violin and cello before settling on bass. He worked with R&B and rock bands in high school, but after moving to New York, he worked with Pharoah Sanders in the early 70s. Other early gigs were with Gil Evans, Mel Lewis, Horace Silver, Stan Getz, Dexter Gordon, and Art Blakey; everyone was impressed by his talents. However, Clarke really hit the big time when he started teaming up with Chick Corea in Return to Forever. When the group became a rock-oriented fusion quartet, Clarke mostly emphasized electric bass and became an influential force, preceding Jaco Pastorius. But, starting with his School Days album (1976), and continuing through his funk group with George Duke (the Clarke/Duke Project), up to his projects writing movie scores, Stanley Clarke largely moved beyond the jazz world into commercial music; his 1988 Portrait album If This Bass Could Only Talk, and his 1995 collaboration with Jean Luc Ponty and Al DiMeola on the acoustic The Rite of Strings, are two of his few jazz recordings since the 70s.