Posts Tagged ‘Montreal Jazz Festival’

Jazz Legend Stanley Clarke Presents Invitation Concert Series At The Montreal Jazz Festival June 28 – July 1, 2012

Jazz bassist Stanley Clarke. Photo Credit: Steven Parke.

Stanley Clarke was honored at the Montreal Jazz Festival with the 18th prestigious Miles Davis Award in 2011. This award is presented to tribute a great international jazz musician for his entire body of his work and influence in regenerating the jazz idiom. An extension of the award is the privilege to host a four-night Invitation Series of his choice June 28 – July 1, 2012. These include an acoustic evening with jazz pianist Hiromi, a concert with this Harlem String Quartet, a bass extravaganza with SMV aka Clarke, Marcus Miller and Victor Wooten and a final evening with the Stanley Clarke Band.

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) June 28, 2012

Stanley Clarke was honored at the Montreal Jazz Festival with the 18th prestigious Miles Davis Award in 2011. This award is presented to tribute a great international jazz musician for the entire body of his or her work and for that musician’s influence in regenerating the jazz idiom. An extension of the award is the privilege to host a four-night Invitation Series of his choice. Clarke’s Invitation Series at the festival will take place this year June 28 – July 1.

“In addition to being honored with the Miles Davis Award last year, I was even more surprised when I was invited to come up with four shows that I could pretty much put together as I wanted. Of course, I would have loved ten shows. I went crazy with ideas,” reflects Clarke. “This is such an exciting opportunity. My career has always been about a celebration of the bass and its possibilities. I’ve continually tried to present the bass in many different and unexpected ways and the concerts I’m planning for the Invitation Series are a further expansion of this.”

The first concert 8:00pm. Thursday, June 28, at the Theatre Jean-Duceppe of Place des Arts will be an acoustic duet with the high-energy pianist Hiromi in “An Acoustic Evening with Stanley Clarke and Hiromi.” Clarke and Hiromi have worked on two albums together, “Jazz In the Garden” and the Grammy Award winning “Stanley Clarke Band.” In September of this year, they will be performing their acoustic duet at New York’s Blue Note and in Boston

“A pairing of only bass and piano is somewhat unusual,” Clarke says. “This duet with Hiromi is certainly an example of ‘less is more.’ I’ve performed with Hiromi as an acoustic duet approximately twelve times and it’s always been met with incredible audience reaction. It’s great fun for me in that Hiromi and I tend to feed off of each other’s artistry. We enjoy the tightness of the improvisation so much that 90-minute concerts inevitably extend to at least two hours.”

The next evening, 8:00pm, Friday, June 29, also at the Theatre Jean-Duceppe of Place des Arts, Clarke and the Stanley Clarke Band will participate in an exciting concert with the renowned Harlem String Quartet. This performance will encompass an innovative fusion of classical music and jazz. It so happens that Clarke is currently working on a classical bass album to be released later in the year.

“Classical acoustic strings are something I grew up with. I’ve had plans to jump into this world for sometime and have written lots of arrangements.” Clarke continues, “Much of jazz music is not just the notes, but the actual sound represented. Here the drums will be light. Notes meant for the piano in a song like ‘No Mystery’ will go to strings. It should be interesting, inventive and most of all fun.”

The third concert is an extraordinary master bass summit with SMV, aka Stanley, Marcus Miller and Victor Wooten. This takes place at Theatre Maisonneuve of Place des Arts on the festival grounds. Saturday, June 30 at 9:30pm. Each of the bass players are at the top of their game and all are innovators in their own right. SMV toured in 2008 and a subsequent well-received album, “Thunder,” came out of the tour. The audience will be awed at the virtuousity and amazed at the musicality and individuality of the three bass players’ performing together.

The final concert of the Invitation Series is with his own Stanley Clarke Band Sunday, July 1, 8:00pm, Theatre Maisonneuve of Place des Arts. Keyboardist Ruslan Sirota and drummer Ronald Bruner, Jr. have been touring with Stanley for over six years. Along with Stanley they won 2011 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album, “The Stanley Clarke Band.” Guitarist Charles Altura will be joining them. Altura also performed on the Grammy Award-winning album.

“What can I say about the Stanley Clarke Band? They’re soldiers. I love these guys,” remarks Clarke. “It’s been a rewarding experience to watch these young players grow. I’ve wanted to give them the apprenticeship and opportunities that people like Art Blakely and Horace Silver among others gave me. Now I believe Ruslan and Ronald are capable as individuals to go out on their own…but, I hope they stay with me for awhile yet. They keep my spirit young.”

Tickets for the concerts are available at http://www.montrealjazzfest.com/artists/artist.aspx?id=489.

Composer, arranger, producer, bandleader and performer Stanley Clarke is celebrating forty-plus years as a consummate bass musician. He was the first bass instrumentalist to headline tours and has been sought out by the likes of Jeff Beck, Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards for numerous projects. He is a composer and arranger of over 60 film and television scores including “Boys N the Hood,” “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” “Romeo Must Die” and “The Transporter.”

Not one to rest on the laurels, Clarke launched the Roxboro Entertainment Group label in 2011, featuring debut albums from guitarist Lloyd Gregory; multi-instrumentalist Kennard Ramsey; keyboardist Sunnie Paxson; and keyboardist Ruslan Sirota. His twelve-year-old Stanley Clarke Foundation continues to award scholarships to educate promising young musicians.

Celebrating 31 years, Festival International de Jazz de Montreal is the biggest jazz festival in the world. The Montreal Jazz Festival annually offers about 500 concerts, of which three-quarters are free of charge, hosting about 2000 musicians, give or take a few, from over 20 countries. 2 million visitors arrive from all over the planet to an event, which has become the International Jazz rendez-vous and a laboratory for the creation of new talent.

Stanley Clarke Official Website: http://stanleyclarke.com
Roxboro Entertainment Group Website: http://roxboroentertainment.com
Stanley Clarke Foundation: http://stanleyclarke.org

See larger image Stanley Clarke Band (Audio CD) 2011 GRAMMY NOMINEE: BEST POP INSTRUMENTAL PERFORMANCE & BEST CONTEMPORARY JAZZ ALBUM Renowned bassist Stanley Clarke's new recording, The Stanley Clarke Band, is unlike his previous acoustic bass releases, Clarke feels that this album's music is fresh and different from just about anything he's done before. Produced by Clarke and Lenny White, the range of collaborative material on The Stanley Clarke Band has allowed him to venture to new levels of experimentation, utilizing his arsenal of bass instruments. Clarke compares this new release to the first three albums of his solo career: Journey to Love, Stanley Clarke, and School Days, with long extended electric pieces that take the listener on a kind of journey. "Technically, it's a Stanley Clarke record, but it's very much a band-oriented record at the same time," says Clarke. "I may be the leader, but everyone played an important role in what emerged. If a project like this can be looked at like a ship, I'd be the one steering the ship and keeping everybody on course. But all hands were definitely on deck, and everyone played an important role in getting us to our destination." Also a new foray for Clarke, the album includes original compositions from members of the band. He is joined by Stanley Clarke Band keyboardist Ruslan Sirota and drummer Ronald Bruner, Jr. - who have been performing and recording with him for the better part of five years. Innovative young musicians, they have virtually grown up in Clarke's band and bring a freshness he admires. Following 2009's highly-acclaimed Jazz In the Garden, this is featured artist Hiromi Uehara's second Clarke recording collaboration. Clarke's rugged and complex bass work serves as the ideal foil for her trademark fiery and expressive piano chops, as reflected through critics' praising it as "a superb trio effort" (Bass Player) and "one of the best jazz CDs of the year" (San Jose Mercury News). "There are people on The Stanley Clarke Band other than myself who have something to say," explains Clarke. "Everyone on this project brought their own music and their own ideas. The styles of the individual tunes may be different, but the continuous thread that runs through the whole record is the fact that we're all operating as a unit on each track." Among the additional players in the album's supporting cast are vocalist Cheryl Bentyne (a longtime member of The Manhattan Transfer); guitarists Charles Altura, Rob Bacon, and Armand Sabal-Lecco; saxophonist Bob Sheppard; bass synthesizer Lorenzo "Larry" Dunn (of Earth, Wind & Fire fame); keyboardist Felton Pilate; horn players Andrew Lippman and John Papenbrook; and drum programmers Chris Clarke and Jon Hakakian. Perhaps the most appealing aspect of The Stanley Clarke Band is the exceptionally organic nature of its genesis - the sense of grassroots creativity that existed outside of any efforts to tailor the music to any specific segment of the market. Clarke concludes, "This is the last electric album I'm going to do for awhile. The legacy of this release is that I'm providing lots of material and homework for a new generation of bassists to catch up with. I've worked hard to give the bass a distinctive voice, and I feel so excited about where it's going." List Price: $11.98 USD New From: $4.99 USD In Stock Used from: $2.48 USD In Stock