Stanley Clarke

During his four decades as a professional musician Stanley Clarke has been a towering influence on the jazz electric bass. Ever since renouncing his ambition to become the first black musician in the Philadelphia Orchestra and deciding instead to team up with pianist Chick Corea, Clarke has been an inspiration to bass players the world over. His combination of funky slap bass licks interspersed with playing full chords was unique at the time and has subsequently been copied by many musicians. It's a style which Clarke honed to perfection on the title track of his 1976 album 'School days'.

His melodic approach to jazz, or jazz fusion as it was then known, opened up the genre to a much wider audience than it had previously enjoyed. As well as going to number two in the Jazz Charts, the album 'School Days' also reached number 34 on the mainstream Billboard 200. During his career Clarke hasn't confined himself to the jazz genre and has had a number of successful forays into rock including collaborations with Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards in the band New Barbarians and also with Stewart Copeland's critically acclaimed Animal Logic project. He has also tried his hand at score writing with film and TV credits including 'Pee-wee's Playhouse', 'Passenger 57' and 'Boyz N the Hood'.

He launched his own record label, Roxboro Entertainment Group, in 2010, and proved that he could still produce music himself with 'The Stanley Clarke Band' which earned him a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album in 2011. He won again for Best Jazz Instrumental Album for the record 'Forever' which he recorded with Chick Corea and Lenny White in 2012. He continues to record music with Corea as well as Return to Forever and many other artists.