Whether a Stanley Clarke fan for more than 50 years or recently turned on to his infectious sound, fans welcomed the bassist and composer to a sold-out Kennedy Center performance and a standing ovation as soon as he stepped onstage with his “N 4Ever” band on May 31.
“It sounds exactly like Stanley,” said Arlington resident David Loevinger about the opening. “I’ve been a fan since the mid-70s. He looked so relaxed, pleased, comfortable, young, and energized.”
Clarke is a five-time Grammy Award winner and a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Jazz Master.
He played with other artists, but his rise to fame began when he co-founded Return to Forever, the jazz fusion group, with fellow NEA Jazz Master the late Chick Corea. Their group has been considered one of the most influential jazz fusion groups during the mid-1970s through the mid-1980s.
It was an exciting time in music with the mash-up of traditional jazz merged with rock music.
“I used to get a kick out of the jazz critics that put us down as if we were being dishonest,” said Clarke about reactions to jazz fusion in a NEA Jazz Masters podcast. “In fact, we were the honest ones. We were putting everything out there.”
His solo work and collaborations with the late George Duke elevated Clarke’s profile even more. For over 50 years, he has enjoyed an illustrious career in jazz as a recording artist, performer, composer, conductor, arranger, producer, and film score composer.
His scores include “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse,” “Poetic Justice,” “The Best Man Holiday,” “Barbershop: The Next Cut,” and more.
Clarke’s “Band N 4Ever” included keyboardist Cameron Graves, saxophonist Emilio Modeste, violinist Evan Garr, drummer Jeremiah Collier, and guitarist Colin Cook, who graduated from D.C.’s Duke Ellington School of the Arts.
It’s a tight band where arrangements allow for each musician to spotlight their talent.
The process known in jazz as “trading eights,” where musicians hand off to one another for eight bars of music, was heard frequently during the performance on May 31, just ahead of June’s Black Music Month kick-off.
Clarke played acoustic bass for this concert until the group returned for an encore to perform one of his biggest hits, “School Days,” when Clarke switched to the electric bass.
Unable to hold back their excitement, the audience rushed the stage.
“The Kennedy Center has volume restrictions, and we had to be careful,” said pianist Graves, who convinced Clarke to go for it with “School Days.” “It was such a rock and roll moment.”
