The Stanley Clarke Band
The Message
Mack Avenue
Bassist Stanley Clarke’s first appearance in Glasgow in many years last summer reminded fans of his own singular talent and introduced them to a trio of young accomplices of conspicuous skill, not the least of them being the brilliant pianist from Tbilisi, Georgia, Beka Gochiashvili.
Barely into his twenties, Gochiashvili thrilled at every opportunity and while Clarke obviously runs the show on an album that covers the bassist’s interests in pop-soul, classical music, rap and the sort of high production sounds that he’s brought to his work in film soundtracks, the pianist’s contributions ring out strongly.
The piano, bass and drums feature Alternative Facts is almost worth the admission by itself, with Gochiashvili playing with energy, quick- thinking creativity and physical joyfulness.
Elsewhere, Clarke demonstrates supple mastery of both electric and acoustic basses on the bass guitar and synth produced title track and his reading of Bach’s Cello Suite 1 (Prelude) on double bass. The quartet that mesmerised Glasgow is both supercharged and augmented on a revisit to Return to Forever’s After the Cosmic Rain and the spirit of Clarke’s late conspirator, George Duke hovers on To Be Alive’s partying, parting groove.
ROB ADAMS
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here