Every pro electric-bass player and their mothers wore out the grooves of this record when it first came out, trying to cop Clarke's speedy, thundering, slapped-thumb bass licks. Yet ultimately, it was Clarke's rapidly developing compositional skills that made this album so listenable and so much fun for the rest of us, then and now. The title track not only contributed a killer riff to the bass vocabulary; it is a cunningly organized piece of music with a well-defined structure. Moreover, Clarke follows his calling card with two tunes that are even more memorable -- the sauntering allad "Quiet Afternoon" and an ebullient, Brazilian percussion-laced number with a good string arrangement and a terrific groove, "The Dancer." Clarke also brings out the standup bass for a soulful acoustic dialogue with John McLaughlin on "Desert Song." Evidently enthused by their leader's material, David Sancious (keyboards) and Raymond Gomez (guitars) deliver some of their best solos on records -- and with George Duke on hand on one cut, you hear some preliminary flickerings of Clarke's ventures into the commercial sphere. But at this point in time, Clarke was triumphantly proving that it was possible to be both good and commercial at the same time.
As far as I know, Stanley Clarke was the inventor of the transcendent jass/funk electric bass solo. School Days is still one of my all-time favorite albums and tunes. Victor Wooten seems to be building on this fine precedent.
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p=. A million years ago, when Level 42 were at the height of their popularity, a bass-playing friend told me to check out Stanley Clarke if I liked that kinda bass. So when I found his _School Days_ in a crate on a street market, I was happy to spend the 10 Deutschmarks (maybe $ 5). There's a lot of great Jazz-Funk on the album, "The Dancer" especially, but my favourite turned out to be this l...
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Hi Moggers,Sorry for missing last week's JM post - computer meltdown just prior to the Xmas break (turned out to be defective memory. The computer's, not mine, but my wife thinks I have similar issues).Anyhow, for post # 10 in this mini series I'm offering up a little slice of McLaughlin sitting in on a session for Stanley Clarke's "School Days" album. Although McLaughlin started out as a ses...
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As far as I know, Stanley Clarke was the inventor of the transcendent jass/funk electric bass solo. School Days is still one of my all-time favorite albums and tunes. Victor Wooten seems to be building on this fine precedent.
More >
| Title | Lyrics | Buy |
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| 1 School Days |
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| 2 Quiet Afternoon |
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| 3 The Dancer |
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| 4 Desert Song |
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| 5 Hot Fun |
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| 6 Life Is Just a Game |
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 "School Days")
