Heads Up
2008
Jazz In The Garden
About This Album
After the 2008 Return to Forever reunion, Chick Corea formed an electric band with John McLaughlin, and Stanley Clarke put together this well heeled acoustic trio with Lenny White and Hiromi Uehara. The result was spectacular on both ends, but here Clarke and friends really get to the heart of contemporary jazz with a program of standards, originals from the bandmembers, and a focus on Clarke with his full, upright bass that had not heretofore been so pronounced since his early days. The trio sounds great and play to their strengths no matter what modern style they tackle. Uehara is very much into this music emotionally, and White does his usual yeoman job of creating taut rhythmic structures without getting in the way or grandstanding. Clarke's fingerpopping electric bass guitar work is put aside for a slight vibrato style that sets him apart, and keeps his estimable virtuoso reputation intact. Clarke and Uehara contribute compositions that exude not even a hint of nostalgia for the old, good days of jazz-rock fusion, but instead are seated firmly in new, soulful, contemporary ideas that flow and are not all that concerned with pyrotechnics. Their tribute to President Barack Obama on "Paradigm Shift (Election Day 2008)" musically reflects a long campaign with a quirky, bouncy, ultra rhythmic prologue leading to a modal, peaceful, and satisfying outcome.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and 9)

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