I was lucky to see Stanley as a young, hard working, fast rising upright bass player on the Northeast Corridor scene in the early 70's.
His approach was full and rich, with ample embellishments, but nothing superfluous. His walking was sublime.
And physically, this was a cat who looked created and ordained to be on this earth to play the double bass.
I had long been mesmerized by Ron Carter's hands, and Stanley's were (are) at least their equal. They belonged on that instrument.
I understand why Stanley became interested in electric bass. He got to see Colin Hodgkinson night after night with the opening act Back Door during a two week Return To Forever run at Ronnie Scott's (with Flora, Airto, Farrell). A fair amount of what Stanley did on electric early on comes from Colin.
You want to be a star, make more money, have a solo career in the music of that time period, you play electric bass. Understandable.
This is pre-Jaco, so a virtuoso like Stanley had no guideposts to mark the path. He, Alphonso Johnson, Anthony Jackson and others had to chart their own courses.
But...I am not a big fan of Stanley's electric work. The brittle, twig snapping tone, the shallow, uninteresting tunes, the flurries of meaningless showy notes, and the sight of him playing a short scale Alembic about three sizes too small for him, with those huge hands making him look like a mantis securing its prey. I was a big fusion fan, listened to his records as soon as they came out, and just could not get with the concept.
My favorite Stanley electric work was when he played a Ric on Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy, the first electric RTF record. The bass looked more appropriate for him, and he was still primarily being a bass player, not lurking as a chops monster waiting for his turn to explode. He got a unique rubbery sound out of the Ric - in fact, I was stunned when I found out that it WAS a Ric.
Stanley was never held back by my indifference to what he was doing. His early electric work is dearly loved by many. Each pair of ears to its own.
