Stanley Clarke Returns to Yoshi's

Bassist Stanley Clarke was barely out of his teens when he exploded into the jazz world in 1971. Fresh out of the Philadelphia Academy of Music, he arrived in New York City and immediately landed jobs with famous bandleaders such as Horace Silver, Art Blakey, Dexter Gordon, Joe Henderson, Pharaoh Saunders, Gil Evans, Stan Getz and a budding young pianist-composer named Chick Corea. With Corea, Clarke would take the music world by storm alongside Lenny White and Al DiMeola in Return to Forever. Now some 40 years later, Clarke returns to Yoshi's in April, bringing with him his prodigious and unparalleled talents.

All of these musicians immediately recognized Clarke’s ferocious dexterity and complete musicality on the acoustic bass. Not only was he an expert at crafting bass lines and functioning as a timekeeper – in keeping with his instrument’s traditional role – but the young prodigy also possessed a sense of lyricism and melody distilled from his bass heroes Charles Mingus, Scott LaFaro and others, as well as non-bass players like John Coltrane. Clarke envisioned the bass as a viable, melodic solo instrument positioned at the front of the stage rather than in a background role, and he was uniquely qualified to take it there.

The vision became a reality when Clarke and Corea formed the seminal electric jazz/fusion band Return To Forever. RTF was a showcase for each of the quartet’s strong musical personalities, composing prowess and instrumental voices. “We really didn’t realize how much of an impact we were having on people at the time,” Clarke recalls. “We were touring so much then, we would just make a record and then go back on the road.” The band recorded eight albums, two of which were certified gold (Return To Forever and the classic Romantic Warrior). They also won a GRAMMY (No Mystery) and received numerous nominations while touring incessantly.

Then Clarke fired the “shot heard round the world,” the one that started the ‘70s bass revolution and paved the way for all bassists/soloists/bandleaders to follow. In 1974, he released his eponymous Stanley Clarke album, which featured the hit single, “Lopsy Lu.” Two years later, he released School Days, an album whose title track is now a bona fide bass anthem.

“School Days” has since become a must-learn for nearly every up-and-coming bassist, regardless of genre. Aspiring bassists must also master the percussive slap funk technique that Clarke pioneered as well. While Sly and the Family Stone’s Larry Graham had already developed a rudimentary slap technique, Clarke took the idea and ran with it, adapting the technique to complex jazz harmonies. “Larry started it, but he had only one lick,” says Clarke. “I took it from there. A lot of guys could jam all day in E, but couldn’t play it over changes.”

Clarke became the first bassist in history to headline tours, sell out shows worldwide, and craft albums that achieved gold status. At 25, he was already regarded as a pioneer in the jazz fusion movement. He was also the first bassist in history to double on acoustic and electric bass with equal virtuosity, power and fire. In his ongoing efforts to push the bass to new limits, he invented two new instruments, the piccolo bass and the tenor bass. The piccolo bass is tuned one octave higher than the traditional electric bass. The tenor bass is tuned one fourth higher than standard. Both of these instruments have enabled Clarke to extend his melodic range to higher and more expressive registers.

Clarke teamed up with keyboardist George Duke in 1981 to form the Clarke/Duke Project. Together they scored a top 20 pop hit with “Sweet Baby,” recorded three albums and continue to tour together to this day. Clarke’s involvement in additional projects as leader or active member include: Jeff Beck (world tours, 1979), Keith Richards’ New Barbarians (world tour, 1980), Animal Logic (with Stuart Copeland, two albums and tours, 1989), the “Superband” (with Larry Carlton, Billy Cobham, Najee and Deron Johnson, 1993-1994), The Rite of Strings (with Jean-Luc Ponty and Al Di Meola, 1995 and 2004) Vertu’ (with Lenny White, 1999) and “Trio!” with Bela Fleck and Jean Luc Ponty, 2005.) Clarke’s creativity has been recognized and rewarded in every way imaginable: gold and platinum records, GRAMMY Awards, Emmy Awards, virtually every readers and critics poll in existence, and more. He was Rolling Stone’s very first Jazzman of the Year, and bassist winner of Playboy’s Music Award for ten straight years.

Always in search of new challenges, Clarke turned his boundless creative energy to film and television scoring in the mid-1980s. Starting on the small screen with an Emmy-nominated score for Pee Wee’s Playhouse, he transitioned to the silver screen as composer, orchestrator, conductor and performer of scores for such blockbuster films as Boyz ‘N the Hood, What’s Love Got To Do With It?, Little Big League, Passenger 57, Poetic Justice, The Five Heartbeats, Romeo Must Die and The Transporter. He even scored the Michael Jackson video Remember the Time, directed by Jon Singleton. His latest TV project was recently scoring and writing the theme for the ABC Family Network series Lincoln Heights.

“Film has given me the opportunity to write large orchestral scores and to compose music not normally associated with myself,” says Clarke. “It’s given me the chance to conduct orchestras and arrange music for various types of ensembles. It’s been a diverse experience for me musically, made me a more complete musician, and focused my skills completely.” His 1995 release, Stanley Clarke at the Movies, is a testament to this heightened level of musicianship.

In October 2007, Clarke released The Toys of Men, a 13-track CD that featured the rising jazz star, vocalist/bassist Esperanza Spalding, who was awarded the 2011 Grammy for Best New Artist. The Toys of Men also included acoustic bass interludes that provide a stirring counterpoint to Clarke’s more well known fiery electric bass attack.

In the summer of 2008, Clarke reunited with pianist Chick Corea, drummer Lenny White and guitarist Al Di Meola for the highly-anticipated and extremely successful Return To Forever world tour. February 2011 Return to Forever tours Australia and New Zealond. In August 2008 Clarke then teamed up with fellow bass titans Marcus Miller and Victor Wooten – collectively known as S.M.V. – and released Thunder, their earth shaking debut collaboration. The impact of both supergroups has resonated throughout every corner of the jazz world. In 2009 Clarke released, Jazz in the Garden, is the bassist’s first acoustic jazz trio album, and features Japanese pianist Hiromi Uehara and drummer Lenny White.

Clarke’s newest release (June 2010) is The Stanley Clarke Band with Ruslan Sirota and Ronald Bruner, Jr., featuring pianist Hiromi. The album was awarded a 2011 Grammy for Best Contemporary Jazz Album. He was also nominated for the “No Return” cut on the CD as Best Pop Instrumental Performance. Clarke feels that this album’s music is new and different from just about anything he’s done before. The range of collaborative material here has allowed him to venture to new levels of experimentation utilizing his arsenal of bass instruments. He compares this new CD to the first three albums of his solo career on Nemperor Records, Journey to Love, Stanley Clarke and School Days, with long extended electric pieces – a kind of journey.

Not one to rest on the laurels from his various pursuits as a composer, performer and recording artist of 40 albums and 60 film scores, the Fall of 2010 marked Clarke’s launch of his own record label, Roxboro Entertainment Group. This business venture includes music publishing for his own and other musicians’ work, as well as the development of various projects aimed at music education. “When you are starting a record company, diversity plays a major role,” says Clarke. “All of Roxboro’s artists come from different locations in the world and offer remarkable cultural differences.” The first two CD releases in January 2011 are from guitarist Lloyd Gregory and multi-instrumentalist Kennard Ramsey. The next two albums on the Roxboro Entertainment Group label will be later in the year. They will be keyboardist Sunnie Paxson and Ukrainian-born Ruslan Sirota, pianist, arranger and keyboardist, who collaborated on The Stanley Clarke Band.

Stanley Clarke with "The Stanley Clarke Band"
Yoshi's in Oakland, Friday April 1st through Sunday, April 3rd
Friday, Saturday 8pm & 10pm $30


Sunday 2pm Kids Matinee $5 Kids, $22 Adults (with kids), $30 Adults (general)
Sunday 7pm $30

The Static Illusion Methodical Madness Music Series

The Static Illusion Methodical Madness Music Series, (or S.I.M.M. Music Series), is a musician run bi-monthly music performance series bringing highly professional and truly adventurous music that would not normally be heard or supported by mainstream society. Since 2001 the SIMM Series has been curated by Outsound Presents and local improvisers/composers/sound artists Rent Romus and Bill Noertker. They present a cross section of sound artists and musicians from the experimental improvisation and composition genres. This Sunday's event features T.D. Skatchit & Company, 
featuring Tom Nunn and David Michalak on "skatchboxes
" with vocalists 
Aurora Josephson, Bob Marsh and Ron Heglin
. Opening the performance is Ross Hammond on guitar electronics and David Boyce on saxophones.


T.D. Skatchit & Company is a duo featuring Tom Nunn & David Michalak playing Skatchboxes. As the story goes, one day while on a visit to his cousin’s workshop, David picked up the combs and began to play the Skatchbox. Thomas sat in amazement at this first performance on his new invention. And so T.D. Skatchit was formed to spread the Skatch throughout the land performing with other traveling minstrels at carnivals & sideshows or wherever people would listen. They continue to explore the sounds of Skatch in combination with other instruments. On their 2nd CD called, Skatch Migration they feature many performers which include the vocalists performing this evening.



First there was the Electric Light then The Talking Machine. Now witness The Skatchbox; a new musical invention by Thomas Skatchit. Built out of cardboard boxes and played with combs, this recession era wonder conjures up sounds previously unknown to man. The mere sweep of the comb across the box creates a new universe of sound reminiscent of wind, the seashore, trees rustling, birds singing, frogs croaking and other magical sounds.
"I want to see a Skatchbox in every American home.", says Skatchit.

Sacramento guitarist Ross Hammond has been playing music on large stages and in small corners on the West Coast and beyond for the past decade. He has received the Sacramento News and Review music award for Best Area Jazz Musician in 2008, 2009 and 1999 (with Chili Palmer Project) and received a Critic’s Choice award for Special Achievement in 2007.
Hammond currently hosts “Nebraska Mondays,” a weekly improvised music series at Luna’s Cafe in Sacramento.

The SIMM Music Series, the Luggage Store performances and the Outsound and Edgetone New Music Festivals produce some of the most forward thinking and experimental music the Bay Area has to offer. For those wanting to take a walk on the wild side, you simply must make it to some of these incredible performances.

The SIMM Music Series
Alternate Sundays 7:30-10pm
Sunday March 20th, 7:30pm T.D. Skatchit & Company
Tom Nunn and David Michalak - skatchboxes

featuring the many voices of skatch with vocalists 
Aurora Josephson, Bob Marsh and Ron Heglin

8:30pm Ross Hammond - guitar electronics/David Boyce - saxophones duo
Admission $10 general $8 students & seniors
All ages welcome.

Trilok Gurtu and Simon Phillips' "21 Spices"

Trilok Gurtu and Simon Phillips have long wanted to make music together, and they did so in May 2010. These two leading drummers worked together within the framework of an NDR Big Band production. Arranged by Wolf Kerschek, directed by Jorg Achim Keller and supported by Michel Alibo on double bass and Roland Cabezas on guitar, this collaboration with the NDR Big Band was pure musical enjoyment. In a mix of studio and live recordings, the album documents for all those who could not attend the program’s premiere at the Drums’ n’ Percussion Festival in Paderborn on May 21, 2010, or the Elb jazzfestival in Hamburg the furious energy of a drummers’ cooperation which was raised to a new level of tonal diversity and musical refinement through the NDR Big Band’s backing. Producer Walter Quintus was responsible for the audiophile sound.

It is not necessarily a plus in terms of musical enjoyment when two leading drummers take the stage together. However "21 spices" was a success, enthusiastically acclaimed by both press and public at several concerts last spring. For Wolf Kerschek, as arranger of these titles composed by Trilok Gurtu, had chosen the soloists for the NDR Big Band carefully. Two guests stood on the stage whose musical roots could hardly be more different: the Indian tabla specialist and drummer Trilok Gurtu, who was also involved in the conception together with the producer Joachim Becker, and the Briton Simon Phillips, who is famous through his work with the rock band Toto.

The result of the combination is all the more fascinating since the project was further spiced by Michel Alibo on the double bass and Roland Cabezas on guitar. "21 Spices" refers to the 21 musicians involved, who give the music character - sometimes strident, sometimes subdued - and have created an unusual sound experience. For example "Piece of Five", the introduction into the seven songs on the album which capture the essence of the encounter. It is an excursion through the musical worlds, at first seemingly classical with subdued, diffuse wind instruments and discreet tabla refined by a faint presentiment of fusion. this is followed by a gradually increasing sonority, led by Lutz Büchner's saxophone played expressively with elegant increases and decreases in intensity. It is the "opener" for the actual fireworks, which follow immediately after in "1-2 beaucoup" including Gurtu's striking speech percussion.

The structure shows the conductor Jörg Achim Keller understands how circumspectly to deal with the individualities of his guests. Trilok Gurtu, for example, is a pioneer of crossing style boundaries but his roots still lie firmly in the tradition of his Indian homeland. Born in Bombay and raised in a musical, cosmopolitan family, already as a child he played in various percussion groups. He left India in the seventies, found his way into the ethno-jazz scene through Charlie Mariano and travelled with such greats as Ohn Mclaughlin, Joe Zawinul and Pat Metheny during the following decade. Gurtu became a member of Oregon and his name soon also became symbolic of the demanding connection of percussive worlds. He has lived in Hamburg for a long time and has left his mark on world jazz history through his numerous projects including cooperation with Africans such as the singer Salif Keita.

On the other hand, for many Simon Phillips is the best, most precise, drummer today. He was born in London and was introduced very early into the world of professional music by his father, who was also a drummer. Phillips passed his baptism of fire as part of the team for "Jesus Christ Superstar". He became known to a larger public initially as Mike Oldfield's drummer and then, particularly, as Jeff Pocaro's successor in the high-class rock combo Toto. In the meantime the list of his recordings and work reads like an encyclopedia of rock history and stretches from Peter Gabriel and Gary Moore over Asia and The Who to Judas Priest and Joe Satriani. The bass guitarist Michel Alibo from Martinque is well known particularly to those familiar with the French and African jazz scene.

During the last decade he could be heard playing with, among others, Salif keita, Nguyên Lê and the band Sixun and also in some of his own projects. finally, the German-Spanish guitarist Roland Cabezas was born in Hamburg, has belonged to Trilok Gurtu'S working band for about three years and has received attention at the side of colleagues such As Jan Garbarek, Oumou Sangare and also David Knopler. So an illustrious team of soloists plays together for "21 Spices" and they have the additional luxury of being backed by an excellent Big Band.

The northern Germany radio (NDR) NDR Big Band is one of the highlights in the German jazz landscape. It goes back to the time after the war when the allies restructured the radio network and a radio dance orchestra was established. The programs were limited mainly to entertainment till the beginning of the sixties. From 1963, however, jazz projects were also increasingly included in the ensemble's repertoire. During the seventies, the dance orchestra slowly turned into a jazz Big Band all of whose soloists, due to their individualities and ideas, contributed to the creation of unusual programs.

In 1980 the pianist Dieter Glawischnig was made conductor of the ensemble; he was the right man for the job and turned The NDR Big Band into an orchestra which became known internationally for its unusual recordings. He invited guests such as Carla Bley, Joachim Kühn and Bennie Wallace for concert projects, created programs with Michael Gibbs, George Gruntz and Colin towns and ensured that the ensemble was one of the highlights of many festivals, such as Jazz Baltica. When he passed on his baton to Jörg Achim Keller in 2008, his Swiss colleague continued the brilliant work, which has made such musically complex fusions as "21 spices" possible.

In line with the NDR Big Band's method of working, projects such as with Jo?o Bosco, Omar Sosa or Trilok Gurtu and Simon Phillips are set up in the rehearsals and then presented at several concerts when they are recorded for the jazz world by the professional radio team. The "21 spices" recording, therefore, has the feeling of one single event which presents a special project with exceptional musicians arranged for a concert season.

Mixing live recordings with studio tracks, ‘21 Spices’ (named after the number of musicians involved) documents a work originally premiered at the Drums’n’Percussion Festival in Paderborn in May 2010. Occasionally strident, sometimes subdued, this recording is a unique excursion through contrasting musical worlds.

Hermann Lara's Uncommonly Good "New Mission"

One of the Bay Area's best saxophonists is the incomparable Hermann Lara. Celebrating the arrival of his debut CD, "New Mission", which was recorded live at the historic former Mercury & CBS Records Studios on Mission Street in San Francisco. New Mission delivers 11 original, classic set tunes in an array of jazz rhythms. Legendary guitarist and 6 time Grammy Nominee, Mike Stern, makes a special guest appearance and the all-star packed roster of musicians on this disc deliver what are sure to be some of most exciting musical moments of 2011.

Based in San Francisco, saxophonist and woodwind player, Hermann Lara holds a Bachelor's of Music from the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA (1996) and a few notches earned in the bandstand as well. As a husband, father, business man, teacher and musician he’s in a unique position to convey the complexities and beauty of modern life in America through music.

Usually found attached to an alto or tenor saxophone, Hermann is equally at home on all the members of the saxophone family. In addition to saxophone, he teaches and performs on flute and clarinet. Born into a musical family and raised in the vibrant and rhythmically pulsing Mission District of the 1970’s, Hermann absorbed the Latin rhythms of his Salvadoran family and the American jazz and R&B supplied by his barrió.

His father, a respected singer and guitarist, filled his household with great Latin American songs of the 1920’s and 1930’s,however, it was his next door neighbor, Art Sato, longtime KPFA jazz stalwart, who fruitfully altered his course by filling his ear with jazz early on. It was the music of Miles Davis, Junior Walker & Bird which kept him up late at night with a Walkman glued to both ears. By age 15, Hermann was performing with other young, local jazz musicians in the Bright Moments’ Music Lovers Club directed by the late bass legend Herbie Lewis.

In addition to studying with Herbie Lewis, Hermann studied at Capp Street’s Community Music Center with Ken Rosen and Lisa Pollard. Studies at the music center led Hermann to the Berklee College of Music on scholarship and to study with world renowned reed masters Joseph Viola, Billy Pierce, George Garzone, Jerry Bergonzi and Matt Marvuglio.

Hermann has performed with such music greats as Paquito Guzman, Pedro Arroyo, Giovanni Hidalgo and grammy winner Lalo Rodriguez. He’s recently recorded Fito Reinoso's Ritmo y Armonia, Tito y Su Son De Cuba and singer/songwriter’s JL Stiles and Amelia Ray.

In the SF Bay Area don’t be surprised if you catch him on stage with Michael Lamachia’s Organic Jive Collective, Stymie & the Pimp Jones Luv Orchestra, Bulk, The James Moseley Band, Bolero y Mas, Dandara and the Pragandaia Band, Cubanacan and many more. Hermann is currently a faculty member at the New Mozart School of Music in Palo Alto, CA teaching all the woodwinds and performance studies.

"New Mission" is an album well worth adding to your collection, from one of the most creative minds on the local scene.