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Lenny White and Stanley Clarke

http://youtu.be/jDTdXODP5u0

Since the beginning of time, drummers and bassists have had a special bond. You can see this affinity in the way that Stanley Clarke and Lenny White play together creating a power house rhythm section no matter who they’re playing with whether it be Joe Henderson, Return to Forever, or in their own duo. Even in the video up above you can see Stanley and Lenny maintaining eye contact and strong communication throughout the whole performance as Joe Henderson and Chick Corea decorate their rhythms. Not only do the two virtuosos have chemistry as musicians, they have also known each other for quite some time developing a lifelong friendship. “I met Lenny when I was playing with Horace Silver. I was about seventeen or eighteen when Lenny came up to me and introduced himself in some seedy jazz club (Which Lenny informed me was actually the landmark East Village club called Slugs). Lenny was kind of looking out for me I think making sure I didn’t go down the wrong path. Lenny was that dude.” Said Stanley. Since this day the two have worked on several projects and toured many times together. When I asked Stanley what their most memorable times were together he said “Playing with Joe Henderson because that’s where we cemented our relationship and Return to Forever reaped the benefits of Lenny and I having spent a couple years playing together. When Lenny came in the band it was like the band exploded because we had something that was pretty tight. I didn’t have to learn to play with Lenny.” For one week in April, Stanley and Lenny will be reuniting once again at The Blue Note in New York with Ruslan Sirota and a few other special guests throughout the week (April 22-27, 2014). I am personally looking forward to this show very much and if you’re going to be in town I highly recommend that you check it out! See our TOURS page for further info on tickets and dates.

Stanley Clarke ACME Studio Pen

In a collaboration with ACME Studios, Stanley created a design for his very own pen. The top half of this sleek black pen has a gorgeous illustration of the headstock of his famous Alembic Electric Bass. When you flip the pen over, contrasting the electric bass, is the head of an acoustic bass. If you didn’t know, although Stanley’s career is most well known for playing the electric bass in ways unheard of, he was classically trained his whole life playing the upright acoustic bass. This pen captures Stanley’s musicality perfectly. Check out Stanley’s video talking about the pen!