Stanley

dukerutledge · #1 08-18-2006, 01:28 PM

There is a serious lack of love for Stanley Clarke on this forum. All I ever hear about is jaco and vic and maybe some ox and sheehan here and there. Where is all the love for Stanley? The man is amazing, he is one of the greatest bassists of all time and I guess hes been overlooked and lost to time.

Bass. · #2 08-18-2006, 01:47 PM

i for one will give MUCH love to the man.

ingenious. The solo on School days is by far my favourite bass solo. infact i'm going to listen to it right now.

and Bass Folk song... AMAZING

seansbrew · #3 08-18-2006, 02:13 PM

Much love for Stanley

seansbrew · #4 08-18-2006, 02:18 PM

Also, you will find quite a bit of discussion about Stanly in the double bass forums.

Peregrine · #5 08-18-2006, 02:19 PM

I think this performance of school days is great
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3MaUSbaqlg

Stanley is an excellent player.

LarryR · #6 08-18-2006, 02:20 PM

I was a Stan Clarke fan before Jaco. In fact, it was a Stanley Clarke concert (his School Day's tour) that I decided, "that's it", I'm gettin' an electric bass.

No disrespect to any talented musician, but, in my All-Star band in heaven, Stanley would get the slot before Jaco RIP.

Now, if you haven't yet, listen to Scottie LaFaro on the Bill Evans LIVE at Village Vanguard. I wonder if Scottie's playing influenced Stanley as to what's possible on bass.

hungrych · #7 08-18-2006, 02:35 PM

Stanley rocks! Alot more "fun" than many fusion bassists imo, and great on upright too.

Baryonyx · #8 08-18-2006, 02:58 PM

I love Stanley, and I too prefer him to Jaco, by a quite a long way! His album "if This Bass Could Only Talk" is brilliant, a favourite of mine for sure! I take quite a lot from Stanley, his style really grips me and catches my ear, and he's so explosive too! One minute he can be holding down the groove and maybe doing a little ornamentation on the top, the next he's ripping through an insane solo!

I prefer his solo stuf to his RTF, though the RTF stuff is still great!

The Owl · #9 08-18-2006, 03:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LarryR

I was a Stan Clarke fan before Jaco. In fact, it was a Stanley Clarke concert (his School Day's tour) that I decided, "that's it", I'm gettin' an electric bass.

No disrespect to any talented musician, but, in my All-Star band in heaven, Stanley would get the slot before Jaco RIP.

Now, if you haven't yet, listen to Scottie LaFaro on the Bill Evans LIVE at Village Vanguard. I wonder if Scottie's playing influenced Stanley as to what's possible on bass.

I seem to remember in some interviews Stan mentioning Scott LeFaro as an influence among many.

Really loved Stanley's work with RTF and his early solo stuff (s/t, Journey to Love, School Days) unfortunately though, he took a long detour into Schlock Land starting with "Modern Man" and didn't come out again until "If This Bass could Only Talk". Despite that, he still did his share of jazz playing with different folks during that time, just none on his own albums through the 80's. And even though I wasn't that nuts about the Vertu project (namely because of the keyboards) Stanley could stil summon up the fire of old!

His movie scoring abilities are pretty top notch, something he got into completely by no intention originally (it all started when he got asked to do some music for Pee-Wee's Playhouse back in the 80's).

Baryonyx · #10 08-18-2006, 03:19 PM

The thing that spoiled Vertu for me was that a) I felt it would have been much better as a typical power trio project. The violins and keys I though let it down

and B) Richie's playing just wasn't as good as it was back when he released his first solo album. His playing with Vertu was solid, but not a patch on what he had done, which soured me slightly. Stanley still tore it up though!

JimK · #11 08-19-2006, 06:10 AM

Clarke is great...his 2nd solo album was one of the ist 'Jazz' albums I ever bought (with my own cash).
"Lopsy Lu" is Victor's Open-Hammer-Pluck thing...only done in '74 or so.

I admit I took a Stanley-break after Time Exposure.

Couple of albums that may fly under the radar (both acoustic 4-tets, IIRC)-
[i]Captain Marvel-Stan Getz
[Moon Germs-Joe Farrell

jerry · #12 08-19-2006, 01:04 PM

The trilogy of his self titled album along with Journey To Love and School Days will forever be hard to beat in the world of electric bass. I don't think there is any lack of love for Stanley on these boards......I see people bagging on Victor and Jaco as much as praising them these days for some reason. But back on topic, Stanley will always be undeniably one of the greats of our chosen instrument.

Woodchuck · #13 08-19-2006, 02:10 PM

I don't think that Stan is overlooked, but I feel that "Vulcan Princess" has gone largely ignored.

WalterBush · #14 08-19-2006, 02:16 PM

Stanley is the reason I decided I needed to go to college and study music. I figured that even if I didn't want to play bebop, I wouldn't be a complete player without an education like Stanley's. And man, do I love his work with RTF and Chick's solo albums.

Franklin229 · #15 08-22-2006, 07:50 PM

I love Stanley but I honestly feel he stopped experimenting after RTF and got complacent. Unlike Jaco-Stanley became widely popular very early in his career, got a lot of press, attention and early success-maybe too much. "If This Bass Could Talk" was maybe his best most recent effort but not break away. That being said, he was more of an influence to me when I first started playing than anyone else.

seansbrew · #16 08-22-2006, 08:24 PM

Jaco was quoted as saying (in his biography) "Me and Stanley Clarke are the best."

m.oreilly · #17 08-22-2006, 09:12 PM

stan is a very talented man. i had to get past my early love of his electric finger wigglin' to really understand and appreciate his awesome work on the upright. +1 to jimks' mention of the early albums, and the owls' reference to scott. you can hear it imho (i was watching early rtf and later acoustic performances on youtube last night

, kinda got me going

)

Baryonyx · #18 08-23-2006, 06:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by seansbrew

Jaco was quoted as saying (in his biography) "Me and Stanley Clarke are the best."

Back in the 70's...I think he hit the nail bang on the head there! Can you imagine if those guys had ended up on stage together?

bassist15 · #19 10-06-2006, 10:14 AM

I read an interview with Stanley where it talked abotu him and jaco jamming early in their career. Stanley showed jaco some stuff , visa versa. Stanley was showing him slap and Jaco said he could play that way but didnt choose to play it regularly. Stanley also mentioned them jamming not to long before Jaco died.
- Ive been into Jaco since I started playing bass( Im 15 and been palying since 13) And I always knew of stanley but iI thought he was jsut a slap happy guy. I started listening to RTF and School Days on youtube. I WAS TOTALLY WRONG! Stanley is the man , chords , slap , fingerstyle-funk. The man does everything great. I need to get some RTF albums. Any suggestions to start?

MonetBass · #20 10-06-2006, 02:35 PM

+1. School Days, If This Bass Could Only Talk, Clarke/Duke III, and even the Passneger 57 soundtrack are all great. Fantastic player. Love his 'piccolo' bass stuff too.