I am glad to see my brothers... to kiss the sea shore sand and drink out of a calabash”. The Afro-Americans and the Africans have outgrown the ‘back to Africa’ syndrome and the Garveyite sentiment of the early 1900s. No need for a waste of emotions and needless shedding of tears. It is enough that the Afro-Americans visit and share ‘jazz’. None of that Percy Sledge ‘Where are de Zulus’ stuff!
Clarke only wanted to communicate that his hands and fingers were sore after he had picked, strummed and slapped the strings on the acoustic bass whilst his accompanists were on recess. In any case, he had already thanked the organisers of the North Sea Jazz Festival for inviting him to the celebration of its fifth birthday as South Africa celebrated 10 years of non-racial democracy. He expressed that musically with a radical rendition of John Coltrane’s ‘A Love Supreme’ which ‘Trane’ celebrated on a recording some forty years ago.
This gave him the opportunity to introduce Camerounian born bass player, Hughes Sabel Lecco, and the Jean Luc Pontey’s 23-year-old French protégé Mads Tolling on violin.
Together with drummer Trevor Ira Lawrence and keyboardist, Nick Smith, Clarke produced a music that requires a special ear and worldview.
Picture a boulder rolling down Table Mountain. The rock musicians might generate a similar level of energy. But the jazz musicians control and manipulate the energy so that the boulder follows the path of the veins that feed the nervous system so that no accidental shocks bruise the soul.
Clarke paid tribute to big band leader and composer, Charles Mingus. “We are now going to play a song by a bass player whom I found playing when I was a little boy like this. He wrote this song for a friend of his who died. Its called ‘Good Bye, Pork Pie Hat’.”
The jazz literati would have known immediately that the song was a dedication to the next most important tenor saxophone voice after Coleman Hawkins, Mr. Lester ‘Pres’ Young. It was a memorable presentation of a song written for a soft-spoken saxophonist who couldn’t have found a more suitable music mate than Billie Holiday.
Clarke played another ballad from a selection of songs by Miles Davis and gave praise. “Miles was the kind of person who would go ahead and play a song that you would not expect Miles to play,” he said. Janet Jackson also sings this song, he revealed.
It was good stuff for the head and an excellent update on experimental music by one of the masters who gave the bass its contemporary sound. At times it sounded like there was more metal than music in the slapping and picking that crashed the strings against the necks of the bass guitars.
Clearly, Clarke was a bit bothered by the sound that seemed to bounce off the high ceiling and the tin sheets that built the hall at Kippie’s auditorium. He made no fuss about it and continued to do the best to deliver the goods he had travelled thousands of miles to give.
You might want to listen to Clarke’s latest recording ‘1,2, To the Bass. The album contains the Willima Salter, Ralph MacDonalt composition ‘Where is Love’ which was nominated for the Grammies in the category of R&B performance by a duo or with vocals.
Glen Lewis and Amel Larrieux do the vocals on that nominated track. The record comes after a ten-year drought of recording and also has contributions by Indian violinist, Dr Subramaniam, flautist Hubert laws, keyboardist, George Duke and a Maya Angelou’s poem recited by Oprah Winrey; ‘I shall not be moved’.
Clarke who has done movie score for 48 films says; “I really latched on to film because there are a lot of different types of music in film composing. There is the opportunity for a little more creativity. There are more opportunities to do music that you would not put on one of your albums”.
In films like Poetic Justice, Boyz N the Hood and Higher Learning, Clarke does hip-hop whilst he also does orchestral material in several films. All work by Stanley Clarke is worth the jazz connoisseur’s ear, time and money. Happy listening.
