CM  Stanley, I’ve got so much to ask you I don’t really know where to start but I think I would like to start by congratulating you on the award of the Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the University of Arts last week. 

SC  Oh yeah thank you that was quite an honour.  It was nice to go back to Philadelphia and I have so many friends and family there - they sort of all came out of the woodwork to see me. It was a lot of fun.

CM  I guess that type of award must reinforce what I know is your very strong belief in music education. 

SC  Oh yeah absolutely, I’ve been very big on music education and even in a wider scope, I think just education in general would solve a lot of problems in the world. Many things that we see in the world today - if you can sort of get to the kids at an early age and educate them properly, you would handle a lot of things even poverty. 

But specifically in music, I have a scholarship and every year we have some sort of event and we raise money for kids to sort of further their education in music.  It’s a lot of fun and I have a lot of friends that support that effort and you know it’s really a great thing. 

CM  I think last year that took the form of the “Night School” DVD… 

SC  Yeah, that was a hell of a cast - all those people there and it was an organisational nightmare but at the end of the day it was well worth it.  It’s nice, the kids really liked it and it was a good thing to do and it was nice to see all those players come out and lend their support to that. 

CM  Now I’ve got to confess to you that I haven’t seen that DVD yet but I am gonna correct that very soon. 

SC  Yeah, check it out. You know what’s cool about that DVD, there’s something on there for everybody. There’s all kinds of music all kinds of performers.  I mean from Stevie Wonder singing the blues and then he breaks into Coltrane’s ‘Giant Steps’ -  kinda surprised us because he’s been practising and then you have Béla Fleck with Stewart Copeland and myself – a really interesting group there. 

And you know Flea was playing, eight bass players all playing ‘School days’ at the same time - it was a lot of fun. A lot of fun. 

CM  That’s gotta be heard hasn’t it really.  I think so. Stanley can we talk about your new CD?

SC  Yeah sure.

CM  I’ve been playing it like crazy. I was playing it about 5 minutes before I picked the phone up and to me it’s full of really passionate music, obviously the title track and the ‘Chateauvallon’ tribute.  Did you feel like it was gonna turn out so passionate while you were recording? 

SC  Yeah it’s usually what happens.  It’s funny when you make a passionate recording I think the ingredients you have to have - obviously the composition has to be there and very kind of direct but then the players have to sort of some sort of connection to what you’re trying to do. 

I was fortunate these young players that I used - I don’t think anyone was older than 26 at the time.  You know the drummer Ronald Bruner was like 24, now let’s see Ruslan Sirota I think was 25.  The oldest one, Mads Tolling the violinist, I believe was 26. 

These guys grew up listening to fusion music and actually they were very young when we were out there doing it but they loved it so much and always wanted to be a part of that and play it.  So when I brought this music out, particularly the long song  ‘Toys of Men’ it was very challenging, challenging for them like you know it wasn’t just your normal R&B track or smooth jazz track or just you know straight ahead jazz - it was something that was more involved, they had to practise, get it together and of course I explained to them what I was trying to convey. 

And they understood and appreciated that because these guys - the keyboard player is Israeli and the violinist is from Denmark and Ronald is from L.A. and many times they are talking about social issues and things, and of course everyone talks about the war and I was very lucky at that time, the guys understood exactly what we were trying to do and I think that’s why we got a really stellar performance on that ‘Toys of Men’ particularly. 

It’s a great piece and they played the hell out of it and I was very lucky.

CM  They did.  It must be exciting to see how Esperanza Spalding is emerging both as a vocalist and as a songwriter. 

SC Yeah and she’s really a talented girl you know.  Just as good as a bass player.  It’s nice to see somebody young like that really doin’ it – it’s nice. 

CM  Now she’s known maybe exclusively for her acoustic bass playing and your own acoustic playing on this CD is very, very fiery.  Are you reaffirming somehow your commitment to that instrument? 

SC  It’s a funny thing actually. I always tell people that I’m an acoustic bass player who plays electric.  I never really studied the electric bass like a lot of guys do today – they go to school, they study and all that but I wasn’t fortunate at that time.  There were no electric bass teachers out there.  There wasn’t a standard curriculum out there for the electric bass. 

CM  True, true.

SC  And so, it’s funny, the majority of the fame that I have, I’m sort of known as an electric bass player.  People have heard me with Return to Forever, George Duke/Stanley Clarke Band et cetera and it’s kinda funny when I run into someone who says “wow, I didn’t know you played acoustic bass” - usually somebody younger you know (laughs)…

CM  Right…

SC …and it cracks me up you know, but I have this great dining room in my house with large ceilings…

CM  I read about this!

SC  … yeah and I recorded some of the bass stuff right there

CM  Fantastic!  Now just to go back to the title track for a second – I’ve listened back to it several times and it feels very cinematic.  I just wondered, for someone who’s composed so much music for movies, is that almost inevitable maybe? 

SC  Yeah that happens to me sometimes you know.  The music is definitely inspired by a theme and as a film composer that’s kind of what you’re doing.  You look at something visually and you compose but you can also read a script and compose music from that point of view too, I can see that music very easily in a film so that’s kinda cool. 

CM  It took me back because when I was listening to the Clarke-Duke Project 3 album there’s a song on there called “Find Out Who You Are” and it has that same kind of intensity, that cinematic thing going on in there. 

SC  Exactly, exactly.  That’s funny, I was in Australia a couple of months ago with George Duke and we were talking about that tune “Find Out Who You Are”.  That’s a really cool tune you know… 

CM  It’s fantastic 

SC  … and so I definitely know what you mean. 

CM  Some of the tracks that I’m playing most on the CD are the ones where the funk is really down and gritty like “Bad Asses” and it sounds like you’re really enjoying playing hard, funky music on there. 

SC  Yeah, you know also playing with Ronald on drums, he’s kind of a new sensation in the ‘States on drums, kind of a new kid that’s out there.  At least all the drummers are looking at him and going “oh man, this guy has a lot of chops, very exciting” and so you know it’s really inspiring to play with a drummer who can really hang out with you, ‘cos he can hang you know (laughs). 

CM  Well, you guys about an hour ago just bust up my car speakers because I was listening to ‘Bad Asses’ driving home and it’s almost too much when you’re driving.  It’s fantastic. 

SC  Yeah. 

CM  Now from my own personal experience Stanley, I’ve been a fan since the mid-70’s and I’ve been lucky enough to see you play live three times during the 80’s.  You were with George twice and I saw you in London with Animal Logic once and you seemed to be having an absolute ball.  I wondered if live playing still gives you that same kick, that same pleasure. 

SC  Oh yeah.  It really does.  I’ve actually been enjoying playing lately more than I did when I was younger.  I think what happens as you get older, you play your instrument better.  And the only thing you lose when you get older – you basically lose a little bit of stamina.  It’s just natural when you get older, but what I do is I work out – I don’t allow myself physically to get much older (laughs). 

I just really stay in shape, and it’s fun to do that.  And the other thing is I love playing with young people.  I have nothing against playing with the older players but I really like playing with the young players. 

CM  Well that sort of takes me to a quote that I read just recently – you basically talked about pushing your ability as far as you could, you said you were playing music that you could only play if you kept yourself in good shape.  And you made sure that you used up every drop. 

SC  Yeah, there’s some of this – ‘Toys of Men’ - you can’t be in a wheelchair playing that (laughs) put it that way. 

CM  (laughing) I guess not.  I talked about the shows that I saw you do. And there was one show that I saw you do in Birmingham in the UK and you were playing a very quiet passage and all of a sudden a guy from the back screamed ‘School Days’.  Does that still happen everywhere you play? 

SC  Pretty much so.  The song is kind of a bass anthem – that’s what a lot of other bass players say.  It was kind of a ‘coming out’ song for bass players you know.  I’m really lucky – a guitar player named Larry Carlton said it best “Stanley, everybody’s not fortunate enough to have a career song”.  A song that kind of defines your career and I was very lucky, that was kind of a ‘stepping out’ song. 

And it’s a song that pretty much every bass player knows.  They play it and it’s a song that’s just for the bass.  A guitar player can play the line but it ain’t gonna be like a bass player playing the line.  And it’s one of those things – I feel really blessed that I was able to do that.

It’s funny, when I wrote that song I was watching Return to Forever winning a Grammy on television.  I was in my bedroom, I was holding the bass, and Mel Torme comes up and says “Return to Forever, winner for ‘No Mystery’”.  And I got so happy, so excited, I had this bass and I looked over at my wife at that time and I said “this is great”.  I hardly even knew what a Grammy was, but we won something and I just started playing a bass line, started messing around. 

I was very happy - way up in the stratosphere and so this is what came out and I’m just a believer that when your energy is right, it doesn’t matter what you’re doing – whether you’re a writer, whether you’re a player or just a thinker trying to think of something to do with your life – there’s no baggage there.  Even if it’s just for a second, you’ll come out with something that’s usually very profound and something that can drastically alter your life in a really good way. 

And that was it – I wrote about 75% of the song in about 5 minutes and then later I came back and added a couple of other little things just to make it more like a song but the basic essence of the song was because I won a Grammy with RTF and I was very happy (laughs). 

CM  So that’s where all that energy comes from because it just punches straight in doesn’t it? 

SC  Yeah and still to this day when I play it I feel that same energy and play that bassline and for anybody that plays it, it’s a piece of the ‘energy world’ that anybody can share.  They want to play it, they can join in (laughs). 

CM  I remember the very first time I heard it.  I just said “you’re kidding me – bass players don’t do that”.  Important song for me, like all of your fans I know. 

Stanley, just recently I was fortunate enough to speak with Marcus Miller… 

SC  Yes 

CM  …and he mentioned a recording project that you’re involved in with him and Victor Wooten. 

SC  Yeah, it’s kind of our little big secret. 

CM  It’s getting bigger all the time! 

SC  It’s a remarkable record actually.  It’s three bass players playing and the music is really not what you’d think it would be.  I mean, it is but it isn’t.  It works a lot better than one would think.  One would think three bass players playing at the same time would be pretty mumbled. 

But these guys are such good musicians - Marcus is an A1 producer, Victor is a tremendous virtuoso on the bass and a great force.  I bring what I bring and we have some really, really nice stuff.  In my opinion it’s going to be an album that bass players will kind of look at and go “man!”  This is one of those records where we’re really pushing the bass forward. 

The bass, for me, out of all the instruments is the one that’s taken quantum leaps as far as how you use the instrument.  A lot of the other instruments jumped 10 years ago and they’ve kind of stayed there.  The bass was a little slow but in the last 10 years it’s pushed through and that’s evident in the amount of players who have records out of different types of music.  Whether they’re European bass players, Asian bass players, American bass players, South American. 

There’s some amazing bass players all over the world that are doing some amazing stuff.  And this is going to be a really cool record for people to listen to and say “wow, this is interesting” but at the same time it has all the things that you would want to hear in a record like that.  It’s extremely funky sometimes – it’s almost embarrassing it’s so funky (laughs). 

CM  I’m looking forward to that! 

SC  Yeah, you’re gonna like it and then there’s other times when it’s so melodic I can’t believe it.  I play this beautiful piece that Marcus wrote – I think it’s called ‘Milan’ – and it sounds like Italian music and I’m playing acoustic bass, bowing this beautiful thing that he wrote and Victor has this technique where he sounds like an acoustic guitar and mandolin and all.  You hear everything there – it’s all there. 

CM  I hope that’s going to be available soon Stanley.  Marcus said you were about 70% through it then… 

SC  It will be.  The record will come out this year.  We’re just struggling to finish it but still keep the integrity there.  And then of course we’re doing our tour - in August we start and it’s going to be quite something.  It’s really going to be an unusual tour – something really fresh, really different. 

CM  Fantastic!  Just coming back to the present day a little bit Stanley, there’s a lot of excitement around at the moment about the reuniting tour that you’ll be doing with Return to Forever starting in May… 

SC  Absolutely – that’s really going to be very powerful.  I spent the day with Chick yesterday and I hung out with Al Di Meola last night.  We’re just getting our music together, and I look back at the music and there’s really some pretty remarkable stuff we were doing back then.  Amazing writing – back in those days, there were a couple of bands: there was Return to Forever, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Weather Report, I think Larry Coryell had a band and Herbie Hancock.  

The thing I thought that distinguished RTF was that we were heavy into composition.  We really spent a lot of time, most of our songs were pre-arranged.  And I was going through all the music because we have to memorise about twenty-five tunes… 

CM  And some of the pieces are real long too… 

SC  Really long and complicated.  And I was sitting with Al Di Meola the other day and heard “oh how the hell are we gonna do this?!”  (laughs).  I said “man I don’t know but we better get started” (laughs). 

So, we’ve been remembering things and what’s funny is that if you play it a little while, it all comes back and it’s really some remarkable stuff and the cool thing is that everybody plays better now.  We play our instruments actually better, so it’s going to be a nice tour – I’m really excited about it. 

CM  Now, the tour is going to start in May in Austin, Texas and I’ve been looking at the pictures of the theatre this afternoon.  It’s absolutely beautiful.  Is new material going to be recorded coming out of this maybe? 

SC  Yeah, we’ll probably have a couple of new pieces.  We decided that we were going to play a lot of our old music because the last time we had a reunion we actually didn’t play any old music – we just wrote a whole new thing.  We’re going to do a couple of new things but we’re going to focus mainly on the old music. 

But because we play better I think and we’re basically jazz musicians underneath all that, the songs are going to be different anyway – that’s just the way it is.  That’s what happens with musicians such as ourselves – you never really play anything the same every night.  Never, never, it’s almost impossible. 

It’s going to be fun. 

CM  Well, I’m kind of envious of the fans in the US who are going to see you in May.  I hope that we get to see you in the UK before too long… 

SC  Yeah, I think we will.  I mean Montreux, Switzerland ain’t that far.  You should just pop over there… 

CM  True… 

SC  ..because we’re going to play there two nights in Montreux, Switzerland and that’s a great festival you know.  Sometimes when I’m not playing there I just go there, I just go there to hang out because I really like that environment.  Take a short, little pop over there…  check it out! 

CM  That’s in July I think, isn’t it? 

SC  Yeah. 

CM  Your new record company is Heads Up Records and I happen to know that your old buddy George Duke signed not too long ago… 

SC  Yeah.  I actually want to do another record with George.  I’m hoping that maybe we can start recording it at the end of the year, maybe the beginning of next year.  I love playing with George – I love it. 

CM  So… you guessed what my next question was then…  Is there going to be a Clarke-Duke Project 4? 

SC  There has to be (laughs). 

CM  Yeah, there does have to be.  It’s been too long. 

Stanley, it’s been an absolute pleasure to talk to you.  Thank you so much for making the time to speak with me this afternoon… 

SC  All right man! 

CM  .. and I want to wish you every success with the new CD, with the tour with RTF and with the tour with Marcus and Victor once that starts.  There’s so much, I can’t even remember it all. 

I wish you all the best for this year Stanley and thanks for taking the time out of a very, very busy schedule to talk to me. 

SC  Thanks a lot, my friend.