Jazz fans can soak up the visceral vibes from a Jannus Landing visitor.
By TONY GREEN
Published July 17, 2003
[Publicity photo]
Stanley Clarke’s latest album, 1,2, to the Bass, ranges from spoken word to hip-hop and smooth modern soul.
Stanley Clarke is a Grammy-winning virtuoso electric bass player who sent scores of acolytes scurrying to the practice room in the '70s. He's a charter member of the jazz-rock supergroup Return to Forever (which, he says, may reunite in the near future). He's also a first-call film composer, with credits that include What's Love Got to Do With It?, Passenger 57, Boyz N The Hood and Romeo Must Die.
The essence of Stanley Clarke, however, dwells in a place ruled by butt-shaking rhythm and room-shaking woofers.
"Oh, man," said the Philadelphia native, who plays Jannus Landing on Friday. "I can run down all of the cold-bloodedest bass lines. You gotta have Be Yourself by Cameo in there. Then there's Mothership Connection by Parliament, Fantastic Voyage by Lakeside, Bernadette by the Four Tops, which isn't a funk bass line but is really complex and difficult . . . man, I can go on and on."
Classically trained technical prodigies like Clarke, 52, are more likely to gush over odd time signatures than pop tunes. But Clarke's ability to craft deadly bass guitar melodies is what keeps fans coming to his shows after three decades.
"Wherever I go, people remember tunes from my old catalog like School Days and Lopsy Lu," he said. "Every show you get people hollering out for one of those tunes. You have to have the ability to feel music in the gut. That's the only way to listen to it. And you can't fake it; you either have it or you don't."
This doesn't make Clarke's music any more palatable to smooth-jazz radio, he says. He can't get on some stations' playlists even when he's headlining a concert they're sponsoring.
But Clarke has developed a solid live show over the years. He's not shy about crossing boundaries. The same man who composes scores for movies like Panther and Down in the Delta has covered primal rockers like Louie Louie and Born in the USA . His past bandmates run the gamut from Chick Corea and George Duke to Jeff Beck and Keith Richards.
His latest album, 1,2, to the Bass ranges from spoken word (Oprah Winfrey's rendering of Maya Angelou's I Will Not Be Moved) to hip-hop (the title track, featuring rapper Q-Tip) and smooth modern soul (Where Is the Love, featuring Amel Larrieux and Glenn Lewis). He's proudest though, of his cover of Graham Central Station's Hair. Written by Sly and the Family Stone's Larry Graham, who invented the now-standard "slap" bass style, the song has been one of Clarke's longest running mantras.
"That is my favorite tune," he said. "I remember the first time I heard it, back in like '70-something. I was in San Francisco, and Carlos Santana called me and told me that Larry had his own band. When I walked in, he was playing that song, and I was like "oh . . . my . . . God!' When I left I said to myself that one day I was going to put that song on one of my albums."
The two bass titans actually shared a stage overseas several years back, in a bass shootout that still gets Clarke whistling.
"There is actually a bootleg video of that somewhere out there," he said. "Man, if you get it, invite some of your friends over, take the phone off the hook and get some beer and some popcorn. We did all the baddest stuff, like Thank you Falettinme Be Mice Elf, School Days and I Wanna Take You Higher. It was just me, him, a drummer and a stack of monster amp. Those melodies, those tunes were so bad, so strong by themselves, that you didn't even notice that there was no keyboards or guitar.
"Like I said, when you got those cold-blooded bass lines, you don't need anything else. They'll get you every time."
PREVIEW: Stanley Clarke, 8:30 p.m. Friday, Jannus Landing, 16 Second St. N, St. Petersburg. $20 advance, $25 day of show. (727) 896-2276.
