Stanley Clarke 
Stanley Clarke
(Nemperor Records, 1974)

Ever since hearing this record, which I bought on a total whim (this method, by the way, rarely succeeds), I’ve been buying up everything Stanley Clarke plays on. However, I must say his self-titled album is still the champ. 

Some of the ones I’ve snapped up have been, frankly, shitty. His first solo outing is titled Children of Forever—despite the amazing cheeseball cover (his head motif repeated into the star systems and beyond), it’s total crap, besides one “Bass Folk Song” where he gets it together. But this self-titled album is a total winner from the wailing get go. Despite librarian’s lessons to the contrary, I guess it was (again) the cover that won me over: Afro and goatee-laden Clarke with his scarf and little bass on and his face all lit up with the unanswerable question, “Where to next?” Besides, it was only a couple of bucks. That’s what I love about vinyl: You can take a chance, and if you lose (you almost always lose) you’re only out a few bucks, plus you learned a lesson.   

This album does have shades of Return to Forever, Clarke’s hit fusion project with Chick Corea (the electric pianist on Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew), but it is mostly the sound of one fired-up young man into his own thing. He’s even orchestrating strings on this one. I find his basswork here to be exceptional, and I know I’m not alone in this sentiment. Clarke is considered fierce competition to the simultaneously hard-working Jaco Pastorius. It’s interesting how both these bass monsters emanated from famous fusion outfits as sidemen—Clarke from Return to Forever, Pastorius from Weather Report. And, not to get off topic, but when I first heard Weather Report, I didn’t at all understand it. Amazing surreal cover (once again), it sounded like ’80s music to me, like certain periods of Stevie Wonder. Outside of its context as timely and groundbreaking, sometimes older pioneer projects just sound corny. However, I am now a mild-to-medium fan of their work (though, again, I find Pastorius’ solo forays far superior, as I have a hell of a time even picking out his bass in much of Weather Report’s music).

Back to the discussion at hand though… Clarke turned down an offer to play with Miles Davis! I read this interview where Clarke says it is one of his big regrets, but he and Corea were “on a mission,” so at the time he refused to be poached even by Miles fuckin’ Davis. This solo album is on a mission too, and is dedicated to “the greatest man on the planet—L. Ron Hubbard.” My other favorite Clarke project besides this one and School Days is Return to Forever’s Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy (again, bought on sight because of the title… and, it’s actually totally incredible). This album definitively answers the question: What would happen if a bunch of incredible, otherworldly jazz musicians got into science fiction, mysticism, UFOs, spirit beings, and Scientology courses? The answer is that they would believe they were, in fact, aboard a craft orbiting Saturn, so they would nearly destroy their instruments in a quest to please their alien ancestors while welcoming all listeners aboard.

This album has hints of Stanley’s ideas about consciousness. The first track, “Vulcan Princess”, starts out all spiritual, with chiming bells and then a never-ending immortal bass groove that finagles a guitar into being before propelling the hidden yet true eternal groove aside for a funky trap of drums, which then sequesters a snap-slap-snap bass double track. And, you just can’t beat Stanley singing out, “Vulcan Princess, how I loved you through eternity” and feel that he means it. I like it when the guitar plays second fiddle to the bass. To me, this is the liberation of an instrument that has always been downtrodden and muddled. To be a bassist is to accept all the responsibility and little of the acclaim. Bitter bassists, unite in this album and all bass salvation albums of its kind! In it you will find the supreme union of the low and the high, and through the speakers’ resounding boom you shall free your bottomless soul!

Listen: “Vulcan Princess” [at youtube.com]

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