july-august 2006 issue 284 free jazz now in our 32nd year &blues report www.jazz-blues.com Stanley Clarke & George Duke Together Again At Playhouse Square Stanley Clarke George Duke Published by Martin Wahl Communications T OGETHER AGAIN Editor & Founder Bill Wahl Layout & Design Bill Wahl Top 20 singles chart, helped to pro- pel the album to the top of the jazz Operations Jim Martin charts that year, and remains a top Pilar Martin request on Smooth Jazz and Urban Contributors Adult radio formats. They went on to Michael Braxton, Mark Cole, record two more albums together, Brian Gilmore, Chris Hovan, The Clarke Duke Project Vol. 2 in Nancy Ann Lee, Peanuts, Mark 1983 and 3 in 1988. Smith, Duane Verh and Ron In fact, although though they Weinstock. have remained great friends and oc- casionally collaborated and played Check out our costantly updated together on special occasions, it has website. Now you can search for CD actually been 15 years since they Reviews by artists, Titles, Record last toured together as The Clarke/ Labels, keyword or JBR Writers. 15 Duke Project back in 1991. years of reviews are up and we’ll be Demand for their special brand going all the way back to 1974. of jazz-funk continues to make the Clarke Duke Project, including Ron Address all Correspondence to.... Stanley Clarke & George Duke - 2006 Brunner on drums and Phil Davis on Jazz & Blues Report Bassist Stanley Clarke and synthesizers, one of the top touring 19885 Detroit Road # 320 keyboardist George Duke are to- attractions in the world. At each stop Rocky River, Ohio 44116 gether again. The Clarke Duke so far in current the tour, which be- Main Office ...... 216.651.0626 Project is now engaged a major gan May 25 in Raleigh-Durham, Editor's Desk ... 440.331.1930 U.S. and worldwide swing. Two cit- North Carolina, critical acclaim has [email protected] ies are included on the tour which been heaped upon bassist Stanley Web .................. www.jazz-blues.com readers of our pulp version either Clarke and pianist/producer George Copyright © 2006 Martin-Wahl Communications Inc. live in, or nearby. The band will be Duke for their bold forays into funk, No portion of this publication may be playing our home city of Cleveland jazz, R&B and rock. Those elements reproduced without written permission on Saturday, August 19 at the Ohio have served Clarke and Duke well, from the publisher. All rights Reserved. Theatre at Playhouse Square, and both collectively and solo, through hundreds of musical undertakings Jazz Report was founded in Buffalo New in Detroit on Saturday, September York in March of 1974 and began in Cleve- 23 at Music Hall Center For The and countless trips around the globe. land in April of 1978. We are subsidized Performing arts. In the midst of the Clarke Duke solely through advertisement and ask that The month of July will take Project tour, on June 27, George them to Europe, Eastern Europe Duke released his 31st solo CD, In you support our advertisers. a W division of artin-Wahl and Russia to appear at major jazz a Mellow Tone, which features such c o m m u n i c a t i o n s festivals as well as private venues. top notch musicians as drummer This part of the tour began with the Terri Lyne Carrington, saxophonist Montreux Jazz Festival on July 1. Everette Harp, bassist Brian They will also be playing in jazz Bromberg and other noteworthy mu- "Buffalonious" venues in in Russia in St. Peters- sicians. The CD showcases Duke’s burg and Moscow. unique take on jazz standards and Original mascot from The current tour also carries his own re-interpretations of his own the with it an anniversary celebration compositions. Stanley Clarke has Buffalo Jazz Report for Clarke and Duke. It has been also just released a new CD, also an days – mid '70s 25 years since they first joined acoustic affair titled Standards, with Created by forces in 1981 when they released Patrice Rushen and Ndugu Chancler. Christine Engla Eber their first self-titled album, The Both CDs are reviewed in this issue. Although Stanley Clarke and Watch for new t-shirts bearing his image–coming soon! Clarke-Duke Project. That album’s hit, “Sweet Baby,” reached the Pop George Duke are best known world- PAGE TWO July/August 2006 • Issue 284 Heights,” and doing workshops at various universities around the country. George Duke was recently inducted into the Okla- homa Jazz Hall of Fame for his contributions to jazz and music over a nearly 40-year career. It stated, “The Jazz Hall of Fame honored one of the great contempo- rary jazz producers, composers, arrangers and artists, the phenomenally talented George Duke. He received the Jay McShann Lifetime Achievement Award for his many years of musical contributions to jazz, pop, R&B, Blues and classical music in America and internation- ally.” Some interesting production projects are also in the works, including a foray into the Broadway Musical scene For more information on Stanley Clarke and George Duke, visit them online at www.stanleyclarke.com or www.georgeduke.com. For the benefit of our web readers, or local pulp Archival photo of Stanley Clarke and George Duke performance readers who are world travelers, or those who are into from the first Clarke/Duke Project tour in 1981 such tidbits, the July through September dates for the wide for their collaborative efforts with the C-D Project, Clarke-Duke Project Tour are as follows: each was a star in his own right before they joined 7/1 Montreaux, Switzerland - Montreaux Jazz Festival forces. Duke, born in California in 1946, studied music 7/2 Madrid, Spain - Festival de Jazz at San Francisco Conservatory and San Francisco State 7/5 Cartegena, Spain - Mar de Musicas College. He worked with Gerald Wilson and Bobby 7/8 Tabarka, Tunisia - Theatre de la Basilique Hutcherson, and then Don Ellis and Jean-Luc Ponty. 7/10 Stockholm, Sweden - Berns During the seventies, Duke worked two stints with Frank 7/11 Helsinki, Finland - House of Culture Zappa, and between those he worked for two years with 7/13 Budapest, Hungary - Millenaris Kht Cannonball Adderley. It was with Cannonball that he 7/14 Rotterdam, Netherlands - North Sea Jazz became very familiar to jazz audiences worldwide. He 7/15 Graz, Austria - Jazz Summer Graz co-led a group with drummer Billy Cobham for a while 7/17 Tel Aviv, Israel - Hangar (Bitan) 11 before delving into the record production aspect of the 7/19 Riga, Latvia - Riga Arena music business in the late seventies, producing efforts 7/21 Moscow, Russia - Ikra Club by Jeffery Osborne and others. 7/22 St. Petersburg - Jazz Q. Festival Stanley Clarke was born in 1951 in Philadelphia. 7/23 Wiesen, Austria - Festivalgelande He played accordion, violin and acoustic bass before 7/28 Tulalip,WA - Tulalip Ampitheatre taking up electric bass. He split Philly for New York City 7/29 Berkeley, CA - Berkeley Jazz Fest after high school after deciding to swith from his plans 7/30 Winter Park, CO - JVC Jazz Fest of being a classical musician in favor of jazz. He would 8/3 Jacksonville, FL - Florida Theatre find quite a bit of work, on both acoustic and electric 8/4 West Palm Beach, FL - Kravis Center bass, and landed a gig with Pharoah Sanders, followed 8/5 Gainesville, FL - Phillips Center for the PA by tours or recording dates with such top jazz names 8/12 Long Beach, CA - Long Beach Jazz Fest as Stan Getz, Dexter Gordon, Art Blakey, Horace Sil- 8/18 Richmond, VA - Kanawha Plaza ver, Gil Evans and drummer Mel Lewis. Then, while with 8/19 Cleveland, OH - Ohio Theatre the great tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson , he met 9/8 Lancaster, CA - Lancaster Perf Arts Ctr pianist Chick Corea and became a founding member 9/9 Reno, NV - Hawkins Ampitheatre of the supergroup Return To Forever, with which he 9/10 Guerneville, CA - Russian River Jazz Fest arts would go on to record eight albums. He worked with 9/23 Detroit, MI - Music Hall Center both jazz and rock groups after leaving RTF in ’77 and For The Performing arts hooked up with Duke forming the Clarke-Duke Project four year later. STANLEY CLARKE WEB SPECIAL! On a recent note, Clarke is hosting a new televi- Check out Brian Gilmore’s revisit sion series on BET-J entitled “On the Road with Stanley to Stanley Clarke’s song “School Clarke.” On the show Stanley visits Black musicians, Days” - from the mid-’70s album composers, conductors and educators around the coun- of the same name. It has been a try. He delves into the influence of Black music from its full 30 years already, and Brian origins to the development of jazz, its presence in film, spoke with Stanley and David television and theater, and the “Philly Sound” of his Sancious recently for the retro- hometown. The shows ran in June, but keep your eyes spective piece. In our August open for repeat showings. He is also currently scoring Special...only at jazz-blues.com a new TV show for The Disney Channel, “Lincoln July/August 2006 • Issue 284 PAGE THREE (Carey Bell, Lazy Lester, etc)- Blues fore Keb Mo and Bob Dylan. In addi- Harp Meltdown, Volume 3- Live; tion to his touring (usually with Kirk Nathan & the Zydeco Cha Chas- Joseph on sousaphone, Tim Green Hang It High, Hang It Low; David on sax and Eric Bolivar on drums), Junior Kimbrough- Shell Shocked; Osborne often writes for others.