Bass virtuoso and composer Stanley Clarke is slated to return to the New Jersey Performing Arts Center on November 9 with his group, 4 Ever. The NEA Jazz Master who has also composed scores for films such as “Boyz N the Hood,” and “Barbershop,” will bring his unique blend of jazz-fusion and unmistakable low-end to Prudential Hall, performing a selection of tunes that highlight Clarke’s storied career.
Clarke came to prominence as a member of Return to Forever alongside late keyboardist Chick Corea, renowned drummer Lenny White, and later, New Jersey guitarist Al DiMeola. The group were successful in popularizing electric fusion, which incorporated elements of rock, funk, and classical music into jazz. The group, alongside contemporaries like Weather Report, helped push jazz centric music further into the mainstream during a period where the music may have been considered less accessible by contemporary audiences. Clarke would continue to find success, composing for films and spearheading a successful solo career that spawned records like 1976’s “School Days.”
Stanley Clarke N 4 Ever highlights young, emerging voices in jazz alongside Clarke. The lineup features Jeremiah Collier on drums, pianist Beka Gochiashvili, Colin Cook on guitar, and saxophonist Emilio Modeste. “In jazz, it’s easy to forget that the great innovators — people like Miles Davis and John Coltrane — were in their twenties and thirties when they were reshaping the sound of music,” Clarke told the AmNews via e-mail in an interview ahead of the performance. “So much of the evolution and innovation in jazz has always come from the youth, and I believe it always will. That energy, that willingness to take risks and explore new directions, is what keeps this music alive.” Together, two generations of master improvisors will lend their unique voices to compositions by Clarke, Return to Forever, and more.
“You know, I’ve always felt that communicating through the arts is kind of like a universal solvent, it breaks down the walls between people, but it does it in a subtle way, without force,” Clarke explained, referencing the power of art amidst today’s divisive socio-political climate. “With everything going on in the world, all the divisions we see, art still has this quiet kind of magic that pulls people together. It reminds us, in the most honest and beautiful way, who we really are: creative, connected, and spiritual.”
Find tickets to the show at NJPAC at njpac.org.