STANLEY CLARKE N 4EVER / CAPE MAY CONVENTION HALL / FRIDAY, 9:00 PM
The Story
A profoundly influential musical force from the ‘70s to the present, five-time Grammy Award winner and National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Jazz Master Stanley Clarke will make his first visit to the Exit Zero Jazz Festival with his exciting new band, N 4EVER. Accompanied by a dynamic crew of young virtuosos — violinist Evan Garr, pianist-keyboardist Cameron Graves, saxophonist Emilio Modeste, guitarist Colin Cook and drummer Jeremiah Collier — the revered elder statesman of the bass will perform new genre-bending material touching on rock, funk and hip-hop while also addressing his jazz fusion legacy with Return To Forever and as a prolific composer-bandleader in his own right over the past five decades.
The Philadelphia native came up playing in New York during the early ‘70s with such iconic jazz musicians as Curtis Fuller, Pharaoh Sanders, Dexter Gordon and Stan Getz. After meeting Chick Corea in 1972, they formed Return To Forever, which was primarily an acoustic, Latin flavored groove in its earliest incarnation. Follow their hugely influential 1973 album, Light as a Feather, the band transitioned to its second incarnation, recasting the group as a fusion powerhouse on Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy and subsequent albums like Where Have I Known You Before and the best-selling Romantic Warrior. After RTF disbanded, Clarke toured with the New Barbarians (with the Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards and Ron Wood) in 1979, then formed the Clarke/Duke Project with former Frank Zappa keyboardist George Duke. In 1988, he played in the band Animal Logic with drummer Stewart Copeland of The Police and in 2005 he toured as The Trio with banjo virtuoso Bela Fleck and violinist Jean-Luc Ponty. In 2008, Clarke formed SMV with fellow electric bassists Marcus Miller and Victor Wooten, later recording the album Thunder. In addition to recording 20 albums as a leader, Clarke has also written dozens of scores for television and movies, including Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, Boyz n the Hood, Panther, Passenger 57, Barbershop: The Next Cut, Undercover Brother and What’s Love Got to Do With It.
The Sound
In the context of his intricate, often challenging compositions, Clarke will showcase his unparalleled chops on upright bass on “No Mystery,” the expansive title track of Return To Forever’s Grammy-winning album from 1975, and also on “Song for John,” the tune he co-wrote with Chick Corea on his 1975 album Journey to Love. And he will unleash his signature Alembic electric bass chops the grooving “1, 2, to the Bass” and his exhilarating, anthemic encore number, “School Days,” title track from his acclaimed 1976 solo album.
