Fri 25/07/08
 
 
   
Strasbourg / St. Denis

Roy Hargrove

Enchanted Lady
Milt Jackson and Ray Brown
From This Moment On
Diana Krall
I'm All Right
Madeleine Peyroux
 
   
 
Not yet a member? | sign Up
 
 

Stanley Clarke Interview - Talks About Return To Forever


This summer Return To Forever, Chick Corea (keyboards), Stanley Clarke (bass), Lenny White (drums) and Al Di Meola (guitar), reunite for an unprecedented return to the concert stage after more than 25 years apart.

Iconic electric bassist Stanley Clarke spoke to www.ijazz.org in depth about his influences and the origins of the band and how the music impacted on the 1970s music scene.



To commemorate the World Tour 2008 they have personally selected and overseen the careful remixing and remastering of their ground-breaking repertoire, The Anthology, which will be released by Concord Records on May 27, 2008. Clearly, contemporary bands like Medeski, Martin and Wood, Rudder, Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, the Flecktones et al have felt the imprint of RTF's iconic canon.

Even the hip hop contingent has found riffs for clever sampling and artists including Lupe Fiasco and Dr. Dre acknowledge the power of the group's grooves. The packaging of this new collection is no less definitive than the music it exhibits. Designed by Peter Gabriel's (Real World) Creative Director, Marc Bessant the comprehensive and personal nature of this release is displayed in its ample parts. Never-before-seen photos of the band, individual recollections from each band member and a deeply honorific and entertaining narrative liner essay from Miles Davis reissue producer Grammy-winner Bob Belden all contribute to the top-notch treatment this collection exudes on every page (and every groove.)

There is a moment in a short clip (view at www.return2forever.com) where the band ensconced at famed Mad Hatter studios rips through a tune fueled by the stomp funk bedrock of Stanley & Lenny, ignited by Chick's analog keyboards and gem-cutting flurries from Al's beautiful inlaid wood guitar and you can't imagine it's been 25 years plus. It's as though they just stepped out for a cup of coffee (albeit a long one) came back in and (jazz) rocked out again. A brief reunion in 1982 set a seed in the collective field for this reassembly of talents whom now, almost organically find it the right time to play together again.

Long-time fans and new converts should also take heart that the ready for prime time again RTF is already talking about new material and recording as well as DVD projects and continued touring. This collection will relight the fires of the loyalists and find new cachet in the hip, musical youth of the jam generation.

 
 

Stanley Clarke Interview - Talks About Return To Forever

This summer Return To Forever, Chick Corea (keyboards), Stanley Clarke (bass), Lenny White (drums)...

Read More

Rewind That! - Verve Remixed 4 - Your Guide To Jazz's Hottest Remix Series

Verve Remixed 4, music’s most respected and emulated Remix series once again breaks new grou...

Read More

Roy Hargrove - The Trumpet King Returns - Listen Up!

If there’s one trumpeter alive today that could hope, in some small way, to be as cool as ...

Read More

Lizz Wright - Artis Feature and Video

With Lizz Wright's first two Verve releases, Salt and Dreaming Wide Awake, establishing her as o...

Read More

Herbie Hancock: Jazz Giant - Artist Feature

Mercurial jazz giant and piano icon, Herbie Hancock perhaps unwittingly, perhaps not, underlined...

Read More

Looking Ahead – New Faces For 2008

It’s hard to imagine a year more musically diverse than 2007 but 2008 already promises gre...

Read More

Clare Teal Artist New Album - Watch Exclusive Videos

Once describing herself as “quite unashamedly northern” jazz singer Clare Teal’s...

Read More

2007 Universal Jazz – The Critic’s Choices

Another year has flown past and with it there have been more great musical achievements from jaz...

Read More

Diana Krall - Creating Modern Classics

It’s that rare compliment that goes beyond mere superlatives, that signifies a musician ha...

Read More

UCJ @ The London Jazz Festival 2007

It’s time of year again, when we get ready for another jam packed London Jazz Festival, held...

Read More

Kurt Elling - Crooner For The 21st Century

In an age where the jazz scene is ankle deep in female jazz singers and where the male ones can'...

Read More

The Bad Plus Get Heavy – Exclusive Interview

Few piano trios in jazz can produce the same explosive power as The Bad Plus. Even fewer ha...

Read More

Ella Fitzgerald - The First Lady Of Song - 90th Anniversary

In the golden age of American jazz there was no finer female jazz singer than Ella Fitzgerald. P...

Read More

Jane Monheit - Exclusive Interview

Having burst on to the jazz scene just seven short years ago Jane Monheit has reached a new zenith i...

Read More

Cheltenham Jazz Festival: The Hills are Alive with the sound of Jazz

A firm fixture among the very best UK jazz events of the year The Cheltenham Jazz Festival always pa...

Read More

Natalie Cole - Rhythm and Blues Return

Natalie Cole's stunning new album Leavin' is simultaneously a bold point of departure and a moving...

Read More

John Patitucci - Interview Feature

The last thirty years in jazz have seen the rise of many exceptional electric bassists leading, mo...

Read More

London Jazz Festival 2006 Feature

Firmly established as a major event in the UK's cultural calendar, the London Jazz Festival in assoc...

Read More

Richard Bona - Talent Supanova

The easy-going native Cameroonian who's lived in Paris, and now New York, Richard Bona is one of the...

Read More

Ray Sings, Basie Swings - Feature and Video

"Ray Charles and Count Basie were two of the most charismatic personalities I've ever known. I lov...

Read More

The Critics' Choice - The Best Of 2006

While Hollywood remains happy to rely on formulaic sequels these days, in music an artist r...

Read More

Ashley Khan - Exclusive Impulse! Story Interview

Author of the acclaimed books on both the making of Miles Davis’ Kind Of Blue and John Coltrane's&...

Read More

Diana Krall - Album Interview

"This album coincides with a happier time in my life. I think it's very obvious in the music. It ref...

Read More

Chick Corea Interview - The Ultimate Adventure

Corea has one of the sharpest musical minds on the planet, he rarely misses a trick but he also know...

Read More

Jackie Green - Real American Hero - Album Feature

Hot on the heels of the success of tough soulful singer songwriters like Ryan Adams and Jim White co...

Read More

Shadow Seeker - Dhafer Youssef Exclusive Interview

With one of the most haunting, powerful and emotionally charged voices on the planet Tunisian born D...

Read More

Babel - Music from and Inspired by the Motion Picture

Babel - Music from and Inspired by the Motion Picture is released on Concord Records on the 11t...

Read More

Gilles Peterson - Exclusive Video Interview

When Gilles Peterson bought a collection of 1960s British jazz some years ago he unearthed a musical...

Read More

Al Jarreau - Exclusive Interview

Al Jarreau is a Grammy Award winning soul superstar, forever remembered for his 'Moonlighting' the...

Read More