I Wanna Play For You

Performer: Stanley Clarke (Double Bass)
Artist: George Duke; Lee Ritenour; Tom Scott; Freddie Hubbard; Harvey Mason; Steve Gadd; Jeff Beck; Dee Dee Bridgewater
Engineer: David Leonard; Ed Thacker
Producer: Stanley Clarke
Distributor: Sony Music Distribution (

Notes: Personnel includes: Stanley Clarke (vocals, various instruments, guitar, Oberheim synthesizer, acoustic, electric & piccolo basses); Gwen Owens, Cathy Carson, Juanita Curiel (vocals); Al Williams (soprano & baritone saxophones); Bob Malach (tenor saxophone); Tom Scott (lyricon); James Tinsley, Al Harrison (trumpet); Freddie Hubbard (flugelhorn); Michael Garson (piano, Fender Rhodes piano, Oberheim synthesizer); Bayete Todd Cochran (piano, organ, Oberheim & ARP 2600 synthesizers); Ronnie Foster (piano); George Duke (Yamaha electric piano); Phil Jost (organ); Lee Ritenour, Raymond Gomez, Jeff Beck (electric guitar); Darryl Brown (drums, cymbals); Harvey Mason, Steve Gadd (drums); Dee Dee Bridgewater (background vocals). Stanley Clarke stretches his muscles and comes up with a mostly impressive, polystylistic, star-studded double album (now on one CD) that gravitates ever closer to the R&B mainstream. Clarke's writing remains strong and his tastes remain unpredictable, veering into rock, electronic music, acoustic jazz, even reggae in tandem with British rocker Jeff Beck. Clarke's excursion into disco, "Just a Feeling," is surprisingly and infectiously successful, thanks to a good bridge and George Duke's galvanizingly funky work on the Yamaha electric grand piano (his finest moment with Clarke by far). The brief "Blues for Mingus," a wry salute from one master bassist to another (Mingus died about six months before this album's release), is a cool acoustic breather for piano trio, and the eloquent Stan Getz can be detected, though nearly buried under the garish vocals and rock-style mix, on "The Streets of Philadelphia." Yet even the talented Clarke in full creative flower couldn't quite fill a double set with new material, so he has a tendency to reprise some of his old memorable riffs a lot, and there are several energetic snapshots of his live band in action. In its zeal to get this two-LP set onto one disc, Epic deleted three of the original 15 tracks -- including at least one gem, the sizzling hard rocker "All About" -- and scrambled the order of the remaining tunes. Which is dumb, because the missing tracks only take up a bit less than 12 minutes of playing time, not enough to overload a 65-minute disc. Hunt for the double-LP version if you can still play vinyl. ~ Richard S. Ginell

Philadelphia-born bassist Stanley Clarke got his start playing with straight-up jazzers (Horace Silver, Joe Henderson), but became known as one of the prime movers in the jazz-rock fusion movement of the 1970s. His virtuosic technique on both the electric and the acoustic bass made him a superstar of the instrument. Clarke skillfully blended rock, jazz, and funk, on solo recordings, as a member of fusion supergroup Return To Forever, and in collaborations with keyboardist George Duke and others. Clarke's distinctive slapping technique has influenced numerous technically stunning players, from Bela Fleck accompanist Victor Wooten to Miles Davis cohort Marcus Miller.

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