Stanley Clarke - The Message

STANLEY CLARKE BAND

45 years after his album debut, four-time Grammy® Award-winning bassist Stanley Clarke shows he is still unapproachable on both the electric and acoustic, wielding a vision of fusion and funk, breakbeats and bass-interpreted cello suites with a little help from friends like rapper/beatboxer Doug E. Fresh and trumpeter Mark Isham. Backed by a young versatile band and a collection of tunes written in the midst of a tumultuous tour of Europe, The Message swells with an abundance of strength, soul and astounding musicianship. Clarke comments: “The guys in this band are consummate young musicians with musical spirits that are very old.” In 2016 Clarke brought a band through Europe consisting of keyboardists Cameron Graves and Beka Gochiashvili and drummer Mike Mitchell. When a terrorist attack left them stranded in Paris, Clarke asked them to hunker down and compose. “We were in this great hotel and the owner was a fan,” remembers Clarke. “I said, ‘Can you put these three guys in a room where no one can hear them?’ He found a room and after two days, they wrote compositions that reflected their worldview and included their versatility in many different musical genres. A lot of this stuff I would have never written in a million years.” A few days later the band entered ICP Studios in Belgium and recorded an abundance of material. Clarke returned to his home in Los Angeles with the tapes and began to tinker. “Once I got the raw material, I fleshed it out. My ability is to orchestrate and arrange. I’m very good with taking anything and turning it into something.” Much of the material from their Paris adventure is collected on this album. “Our message is simple. It is a message of love. There is nothing really profound about our message. It’s just love. A lot of artists have said it in their own way. This is ours.”

Price: $22.98