samedi 24 octobre 2026
Stanley Clarke - The Stanley Clarke Family (The Complete Albums Anthology)
An innovative jazz bass superstar, Stanley Clarke is an immensely adept and highly acclaimed performer, whose melodic and harmonically rich approach to playing the bass revolutionized its role from being simply a part of the rhythm section to becoming a front-stage lead instrument. Emerging in the 1970s as a founding member of Chick Corea's groundbreaking fusion band Return to Forever, Clarke helped redefine the sound of jazz, appearing on such landmark albums as 1971's Light as a Feather and 1975's Grammy-winning No Mystery. He also embarked on his own influential and commercially successful solo career, issuing albums like 1976's School Days and 1988's If This Bass Could Only Talk, many of which found him exploring a broad array of sounds, from funk and R&B to post-bop and modal jazz. In addition to his work with Corea, Clarke has often paired with his similarly inclined contemporaries. He scored a hit with "Sweet Baby" from 1981's The Clarke/Duke Project, his first of three albums with keyboardist George Duke. Other collaborations followed, including Animal Logic with the Police's Stewart Copeland, Rite of Strings with fellow RTF bandmate Al Di Meola and violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, and Thunder, the debut from his bassist supergroup S.M.V. with Marcus Miller and Victor Wooten. A marquee draw on his own, Clarke continues to collaborate often, picking up a Grammy with Corea and RTF drummer Lenny White for 2011's Forever, and regularly leading the Stanley Clarke Band with an ever-evolving lineup of artists.
Born in Philadelphia in 1951, Clarke developed an interest in music at a young age, and was encouraged by his mother, a church choir member who often sang opera at home. Starting out first on accordion, then violin and cello, he eventually settled on the bass while attending Philadelphia's Settlement Music School. For five years, he took classical bass lessons, and originally set his sights on playing in a symphony orchestra. However, a gig at age 15 playing with saxophonist Byard Lancaster during a week of shows at the landmark Showboat Lounge solidified his passion for jazz. By high school, he was working regularly, splitting his time between jazz gigs and shows playing in pop and rock bands. He then honed his skills studying at the prestigious Philadelphia Music Academy, all the while continuing to gig around town. It was during this period that he first met future bandmate and collaborator keyboardist Chick Corea while playing a show.
Upon graduating, he moved to New York City and quickly found work with a bevy of luminaries, including Art Blakey, Horace Silver, Dexter Gordon, Joe Henderson, Pharoah Sanders, Stan Getz, and others. It was while playing with Getz that he reconnected with Corea and co-founded the landmark jazz fusion outfit Return to Forever. For most of the 1970s Clarke toured and recorded with RTF, joined at various times by bandmates saxophonist Joe Farrell, percussionist Airto Moreira, singer Flora Purim, drummers Steve Gadd and Lenny White, guitarist Al Di Meola, and others. Along with having a strong creative influence, the band enjoyed enormous popularity, and toured the world often. In 1975, Clarke picked up his first Grammy for RTF's No Mystery, which took home the award for Best Jazz Performance by a Group.
Away from Return to Forever, Clarke continued to pursue his solo career and gained increasing acclaim for his fluid bass style, which found him moving away from the instrument's traditional rhythm section role and playing lead lines and improvising. In 1973, Clarke made his debut as leader with the expansive, funk-infused Children of Forever. He then signed with Nemperor Records and issued a handful of highly acclaimed albums, including the breakthrough School Days. Featuring contributions by keyboardist George Duke, drummer Billy Cobham, guitarist John McLaughlin, and others, the album was a major success for Clarke, hitting number 34 on the Billboard 200 and number two on the Jazz Albums chart. More albums followed, like 1978's Modern Man and 1979's I Wanna Play for You. There were also sessions with Gato Barbieri, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Freddie Hubbard, Stan Getz, and others. As evidence of his growing profile outside of the jazz world, he also joined Rolling Stones bassist Ron Wood's all-star band, the New Barbarians, and toured with guitarist Jeff Beck in 1979.
In the early '80s, Clarke teamed with longtime friend and colleague keyboardist George Duke for The Clarke/Duke Project. They scored a Top 20 pop hit with "Sweet Baby," and paired again in 1983 for a follow-up and tour. He issued several more of his own jazz, funk, and R&B-infused efforts, including 1985's Find Out! (his first under the Stanley Clarke Band moniker) and 1986's Hideaway, which featured George Howard, Angela Bofill, Herbie Hancock, and Stewart Copeland. The bassist then paired again with Copeland for two albums in the fusion project Animal Logic. He closed out the decade with 1988's more post-bop and modal jazz-leaning If This Bass Could Only Talk, which also featured Copeland as well as Wayne Shorter, Allan Holdsworth, and tap dancer Gregory Hines.
Clarke stayed active throughout the '90s, reuniting with Duke for 3 and issuing his own 1993 album, East River Drive. He expanded into film music, supplying the soundtrack to the 1992 Wesley Snipes' Passenger 57. He also paired with longtime associates Al Di Meola and Jean-Luc Ponty for 1995's The Rite of Strings. In 1998, he founded the Superband, touring alongside Lenny White, Larry Carlton, Billy Cobham, Najee, and Deron Johnson. He also formed the similar all-star outfit Vertú in 1999, touring and recording with drummer White, Rachel Z, Karen Briggs, and Richie Kotzen. In 2003, he released 1, 2, to the Bass, and then paired with pianist Patrice Rushen for 2006's Standards.
More all-star groups followed, including S.M.V., a jazz bassist supergroup featuring the talents of Clarke alongside Marcus Miller and Victor Wooten. The trio released its debut self-titled album on Heads Up in 2008. Two years later, he picked up his second Grammy, this time for Jazz Instrumental Album, for The Stanley Clarke Band, which included Japanese pianist Hiromi, keyboardist Ruslan Sirota, drummer Ronald Bruner, Jr., and a slew of guest performers.
In 2012, Clarke traveled to France to participate in a concert celebration of violinist Ponty's 50th anniversary as a recording artist. There, he joined Ponty and guitarist Biréli Lagrène in a performance that later led to the trio recording 2015's D-Stringz for Impulse! In 2018, Clarke returned to his band format with The Message, featuring pianist Beka Gochiashvili, keyboardist Cameron Graves, and drummer Mike Mitchell. The following year, the bassist supplied the score to the fashion documentary Halston, mixing jazz combo, orchestration, and synthesizer-based sounds.
vendredi 23 octobre 2026
mardi 20 octobre 2026
James ''J.T.'' Taylor - Collection
James "JT" Warren Taylor (born August 16, 1953) is an American singer who achieved fame as the lead singer of Kool & the Gang between 1979 and 1988.
Taylor joined Kool & the Gang in 1979 and remained with the group for nine years. His tenure as lead singer was the most successful era in the band's history with the albums Ladies' Night (1979), Celebrate! (1980) and Emergency (1984) and hit singles including "Ladies' Night", the US No. 1 "Celebration", "Get Down on It", "Joanna", "Misled", "Cherish" and "Fresh".
Taylor left the group in 1989 to begin a solo career but has reunited with the band a few times for concerts, also recording one last album with them in 1996.
Taylor joined the band in 1979 after the group auditioned for a lead singer. He noted that vocals added more warmth to the songs, especially to ballads, which the group had avoided as no one could sing them properly. Taylor also recalled some resistance from some members and the group of female singers they had used on The Force and Everybody's Dancin'.[1] In 1979, the band recorded and released Ladies' Night, which became their most successful album since their formation helped by the singles "Too Hot" and "Ladies' Night", which went to No. 5 and No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, respectively.[2] In January 1980, Ladies' Night was certified platinum by the RIAA for selling one million copies in the US.[3][4]
In September 1980, the band released the album Celebrate! It became a bigger commercial success than Ladies' Night; the lead single "Celebration" remains the band's only single to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. The song originated from the lyric "Come on, let's all celebrate" from "Ladies' Night" which inspired Robert Bell to write a song that he described as "an international anthem."[5][2] The band developed the song on a tour bus after attending the American Music Awards.[6] The song was used in national media coverage for the 1980 World Series, the 1981 Super Bowl, the 1981 NBA Finals, and the 1981 return of the Iran hostages.[5]
After the release of Something Special (1981), which continued the level of success of the previous two albums, the band recorded As One (1982), their fourth and final album with producer Eumir Deodato. The latter struggled to reach gold certification in the US, which led to the band's decision to end their time with Deodato as they had enough with the direction they had adopted.[1] They then decided to produce their next album, In the Heart (1983), by themselves with Jim Bonnefond as co-producer. The album contained the US top-five single "Joanna". The song was declared the most-played pop song in 1984 by Broadcast Music International.[7] Bonnefond stayed with the group for Emergency (1984), which remains their highest selling album with over two million copies sold in the US. It spawned four US top 20 singles, including "Emergency", "Cherish", "Fresh", and "Misled". This feat made Kool & the Gang the only band to have four top 20 singles from a single album in 1985.[8]
In June 1984, Kool & the Gang took time off from recording Emergency to perform at Wembley Stadium as part of a sold-out summer concert organised by Elton John.[8] That November, during a visit to Phonogram's offices in London, Bob Geldof arrived to pitch his idea of the multi-artist charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" to the label. Kool & the Gang participated in the project.[8][9][page needed]
The group's seventeenth album, Forever, was released in November 1986. The album included two hit singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart: "Victory" (US #10, R&B #2) and "Stone Love" (US #10, R&B #4). Two further singles, "Holiday" and "Special Way" were also released from the album; the former reached the top ten on the R&B Chart, the latter hit reached #6 on the Adult Contemporary chart.[10] By 1986, the band had scored 14 top 40 singles in the US since 1980, more than Michael Jackson.[11] In July 1986, the band recorded a special version of "Celebration" with different vocals that was used in an advertisement for Wendy's.[12]
In 1987, the band completed a 50-city tour of the US. The tour included the group establishing their own public service program, devised by Robert Bell and Taylor, which encouraged school children to pursue education, giving free tickets to those with perfect attendance.[13] The group rehearsed their stage show with a choreographer at Prince's studio at Paisley Park.[14] At the time of the tour's start, the band ceased producing adverts with Schlitz beer because of their new image towards children and that they felt it had run its course.[7] After the tour, Taylor left Kool & the Gang to pursue a solo career, but briefly returned in 1996 for the State of Affairs album. He has also reunited with the band a few times in live concerts.
In 2024, Taylor was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a member of Kool & the Gang.
In 1988, Taylor pursued a solo career and has released four solo albums to date.
He scored an immediate solo hit with "All I Want Is Forever", a duet with Regina Belle, which was featured on the soundtrack to the early-1989 Gregory Hines film, Tap. The song later appeared as a bonus track on CD editions of Taylor's debut solo album, Master of the Game, along with Belle's next solo album, both of which were released that same year. Master of the Game produced several additional hits, including the single "The Promised Land" which also appeared on the soundtrack of Ghostbusters II.
In 1991, Taylor released his second solo album, Feel the Need, which garnered the hits "Long Hot Summer Night" and "Heart to Heart", a duet with Stephanie Mills.
1993 saw the release of the singer's third solo album, Baby I'm Back, followed by his fourth solo album in 2000 titled A Brand New Me.
lundi 19 octobre 2026
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