THE STANLEY CLARKE TRIO: JAZZ IN THE GARDEN

Stanley Clarke is one of greatest bass players from fusion classic era. Made his name playing in Return to Forever, he started solo career later. And if some earlier solo albums are still interesting, very soon he started to flirt with disco, and went to more commercial direction.

In 2008 Return To Forever was re-united in their classic line-up and traveled the world with very successful world tour ( recorded on double CD, by the way). Soon after Chick Corea collaborated with John McLaughlin with similar world tour ( and double live CD as well). Clarke with another Return To Forever musician, drummer Lenny White, founded The Stanley Clarke Trio ( with young Japaneese piano jazz star Hiromy Uehara.

So, on this album you will find kind of classical jazz trio ( bass-piano-drums), playing acoustic post-bop and contemporary jazz. There are some jazz standards and some members original compositions.

The music is what the best modern acoustic jazz trio can play - mid-tempo melodic tunes , warm, nostalgic, very intelligent and stylish. All musicians are of highest class, so any modern jazz lover will be pleased by listening of this album. Japaneese traditional "Sakura Sakura" will touch your heart as well as Uehara's "Sicilian Blue". You can't find so warm and tender playing without flirting with pop-music in modern jazz very often!

Last album composition "Under The Bridge" is unusual jazz-cover of known Red Hot Chilly Pepper song!

Very recommended to any jazz lover. For fusion purists - not too much of fusion could be found there. But I think it will be one of the best contemporary jazz albums of 2009!

Returning to the modern contemporary but no way a straight conventional jazz and reverting to acoustic bass, having a trio including Hiromi lets no musician sleep on their laurels. Hiromi and Clarke are eager to experiment with textures and forms without sounding aggressively while White supports the flow seamlessly. You won't notice the typical 5/4 jazz pattern in many songs (One exception being "3 wrong notes", "Brain training" and "Solar"), all songs have a custom modern signature. The music is not really linked to jazz fusion, it's more laid-back but equally thought-provoking and exploratory - if you listen to "Take the Coltrane" - you'll see what irregularity I mean - the bass and drums are full of changes. "Isotope" has virtuoso jamming mainly by Hiromi, stunning chords and intensity of playing. "Solar" is the most upbeat song here and it reveals a lot of energy with soloing by each member. There is a surprinsingly good cover of the Red Hot Chili Peppers "Under the bridge" with piano being the best instrument, excellent playing and jazz chord sequence again. A really nice collaboration!