OK, I have Schoold Days and I love it to death. It's easily one of my favorite albums. Problem is, it's the only Stanley Clarke I have. I have one other song called "Lopsy Lu" which I downloaded a long time ago, also a cool song. I've heard very little of his other stuff, what I have heard was way too "smoothe jazz" for me.
So I ask you, fellow TBers, for help. I know Stanley has a rather extensive discogrophy, so I want as much of his stuff as I can get without having to hear those whiney Kenny G-esque sax lines. I want anything that's at least a little like School Days, or not. Whatever's good. You know what I mean.

Check out Return To Forever.

Check out "If this bass could only talk", it's an awesome album! Also, check out "Stanley Clarke", the album Lopsy Lu s on, thats another belter! Stan is one of my favourite bassists, and yes, Return To Forever are cool too!

Any albums for Return To Forever? I know it was Chick Corea's band, and I've heard the song "Romantic Warrior", but that's pretty much all I know about them. Oh, and I've seen Vic and Reggie Wooten play Vulcan Worlds on the BassDay 98 DVD, but that's all the RTF exposure I've had.

personally, some of my favorite stanley is his upright work on joe farrell's "moon germs" album...or some stuff like spain off of chick corea's "light as a feather"

the thing about return to forever, is you have to find the "solo albums" of the guys in the band, cause the only actual return to forever album i can think of is "romantic warrior" if im wrong, someone correct me, please.

for his electric stuff check out "i wanna play for you" theres alot of discoish stuff on the first half of the album, but theres some amazing versions of his bigger songs on it...."journey to love" is good as well, silly puddy has to be one of the greatest licks he's put on the ebg.

i have "at the movies", but thats all the stuff he's done with film scoring, its cool to see how he's moved from the lanky kid with the double bass to this amazing film composer....

have fun lookin for his stuff man

get the Bassic Collection, every song is awesome on this compilation.

Live (1976-1977)

Two great albums from RTF would be "Romantic Warrior" and (one of my favorite records in general) "No Mystery". The latter is more of Funk on PCP with some Jazz and Prog thrown in to add more to mix. Stanley's tone on tracks like "Flight Of The Newborn" you can hear slight grit in his slap/fingerstyle tone, nothing short of amazing sounding.

Stanley is a great artist, but he has a problem...when he doesn't really have a grand statement to make with his music, he puts out crap. Therefore he has about 5 albums that could be considered statements.

First album
School Days
Rocks, Pebbles and Sand
If This Bass Could Only Talk
1-2-3 to the Bass

All the rest of his albums might have a song or two that are good, like "Modern Man" has "Rock and Roll Jelly," which is fantastic, but he's said himself that if he hasn't got a grand statement to make, he'll "mark time," which is code for "put out crap."

What do you guys think of "Live at the Greek", with Billy Cobham, Najee, Larry Carlton and Deron Johnson?

+1 on Romantic Warrior. also, RTFs "Where Have I Known You Before" is smokin.'

Check out Chick Corea's solo record "My Spanish Heart" - there is a great acoustic tune called "Armando's Rhumba" done with Chick on piano, the legendary Stephane Grappelli on violin and Stanley on upright bass that just kills. Stanleys work on the whole recording is great too.

Way back when, there were only a few guys doing new/creative stuff sorta reinventing the bass - you had Jaco, Stanley, Jeff Berlin, Mark Egan, maybe a couple other cats... so there's no doubt regarding Stanley's legacy on the bass. But that said, I saw him live recently and I thought the show was really boring. It was like, look how fast I can play, I'm so cool. I mean, it was fun 20 years ago but lets do somthing different now. Most of the set was this spacey background keyboard with Stanley playing "lead" bass over top of it, just doing these sloppy 32nd and 64th note scale runs and incoherent slapping all over the place. He even had another bass player holding down the rythym. In fact, Jean Luc Ponty opened up for him and I thought his bass player was tremendous - a Zimbabween (sp?) with a great sense of groove, great fingerstyle, slap, tasteful yet smokin. He had all the pieces and fit right in the pocket. I thought Stanleys set sounded really stale after that.

Live (1976-1977)

+1mil. Definitely pre-smooth Stanley. One of my all-time favorite albums. Although "Light as a feather" would be up there too.

Stanley Clarke
School Days
Rocks Pebbles and Sand
Live at the Greek
Live 1976 1977
Vertu

I like these the most. I have most of his stuff but these are the ones I go back to the again and again.

+1mil. Definitely pre-smooth Stanley. One of my all-time favorite albums. Although "Light as a feather" would be up there too.

Cool. Wasn't Light As A Feather a Chick Corea (or Return to Forever) album? Steve Bailey talks about that on the Bass Extremes DVD, it's actually a really funny scene.
They wrote a song dedicated to Stanley and he was talking about the influence he had on him. He said something about "those triplets he did on that Light As A Feather thing, on the upright bass?". Apparently, Bailey had heard the song but never knew how Stan was doing it. He just knew there were really really fast triplets going up and down the neck. He shows you the insane shredding scales that he thought Stan was doing, and that he spent days and weeks practicing to sound like Stanley. Then says "Then one day, I saw him on TV and.....he....he did this." and just slid his left hand up and down the neck nice and smoothe, plucking triplets along the way. He looked so upset.

What do you guys think of "Live at the Greek", with Billy Cobham, Najee, Larry Carlton and Deron Johnson?

one of my favorite live cds in my library. very very very good cd that I got by accident on clearance on a used rack in hollywood.

Definitely recommend:

SOLO:

Stanley Clarke
Journey to Love
School Days
Live 1976-1979
If Only This Bass Could Talk
About half of "I Wanna Play For You"

With RTF:

Hymn of The 7th Galaxy (he played a Gibson EB-3 on this one)
Where Have I Known You Before (switched to Alembic)
No Mystery
Romantic Warrior


AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE:

Rocks Pebbles & Sand (just plain corny and stooooopid!)
Modern Man
all the Clarke/Duke Project albums (unless you like really sappy pop)
ANY of his 80's albums like "Time Exposure", "Find Out" , "Let Me Know You" etc. just pure CRAP!

"Where Have I Known You From Before" was my favorite CD for like 6 months, and I still love it to this day. It's some of the most rocking playing from Stanley... the energy level is so high. And the tone... one of of the sickest Alembic tones I've ever heard!

Return to forever - Light as a feather
definitely an eye opener...

as well grab a copy of
"right of strings" with Stanley and AlDimeola and Jean Luc Ponty
great great stuff
- Tom

Stanley is a great artist, but he has a problem...when he doesn't really have a grand statement to make with his music, he puts out crap. Therefore he has about 5 albums that could be considered statements.

First album
School Days
Rocks, Pebbles and Sand
If This Bass Could Only Talk
1-2-3 to the Bass

Jimmy-
IIRC...
Clarke's "First (solo) album" was Children Of Forever (Key-rap, IMO)...the self-titled Stanley Clarke, w/ "Lopsy Lu", was his 2nd solo album.
Anyway, IMO, the self-titled album, Journey To Love, & School Days are the solo albums I'd want first.
RTF? Romantic Warrior, No Mystery, Light As A Feather & maybe Hymn Of The 7th Galaxy.

I agree with Raps about the Joe Farrell album, Moon Germs...Clarke-Herbie-DeJohnette as the rhythm section.
Another acoustic album worth looking into is Stan Getz' Captain Marvel w/ Tony Williams, Corea, & Clarke.

Live (1976-1977)Funny you mention this as I just bought this today! Found it in the used section at Planet Music! This one is way better than that 'Live At The Greek' cd! I felt that one was horrible!

First off, I have to say Light as a Feather is a must-have.


Seeing Stanley and Gregory Hines on the Arsenio Hall Show is really what made me pick up bass... so works off of If this Bass could only Talk was my first exposure to him.

What do you guys think of "Live at the Greek", with Billy Cobham, Najee, Larry Carlton and Deron Johnson?
Yessssss, I think this album is amazing. Eventhough I am not a big fan of Cobham style (man those snares rolls...) I really dig Larry Carlton (he seem to always play the right stuff). Interestingly, it's when SC is on the double bass that it sounds the best: the All blues take is pretty good.

AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE:

Rocks Pebbles & Sand (just plain corny and stooooopid!)
Modern Man
all the Clarke/Duke Project albums (unless you like really sappy pop)
ANY of his 80's albums like "Time Exposure", "Find Out" , "Let Me Know You" etc. just pure CRAP!
I don't agree with this, but it is a matter of taste.
Yes, looking back now those albums sound crappy, especially the drum machine, but there are good ideas in there
I particularly like "Time Exposure" for some of the Rhodes grooves and the slap bass work. A lots of thing to practice on.
Of notice: both Larry Graham and Louis Johnson are on that album.
The Clarke/Duke project "3" is pretty good though, very good Duke keyboard stuff. Some cover of Funkadelic/Parliament but nice strumming on the bass...
All this is obviously, again, a matter of taste.

Seeing Stanley and Gregory Hines on the Arsenio Hall Show is really what made me pick up bass...I have that recorded on VHS somewhere. I'll have to get it out and watch it.

I have that recorded on VHS somewhere. I'll have to get it out and watch it.
...really?... hmm... PM'd.