Stanley Clarke

斯坦利.克拉克，1951年6月30日于美国费城出生的Stanley Clarke，是目前BASS界的巨擘，虽然他在爵士乐上拥有超人的天份，但是他事业的重心却没有放在爵士乐上。
Stanley Clarke在学习BASS前，他曾弹过手风琴及大提琴 高中时就有丰富的组团经验，70年代移居到纽约后，便与Pharoah Sanders合作；之后与Stan Gets、Gils Evans、Art Blakey等人的合作中，大家都对Stanley Clarke的天份留下深刻的印象。 然而Stanley Clarke真正的崛起则是在Chick Corea的rock fusion专辑Return to Forever里的表现，更早于Jaco，他以纯熟的技巧，惊人的速度，将贝斯当作主奏乐器的概念，引起了极大的回响。
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.