Stanley Clarke
School Days

Unearthed from the dust of the attic along with other now worn-out CDs, I am about to listen to a work of incredible imagination and inventiveness. Stanley Clarke, bassist and double bassist with exceptional compositional and performance skills, created in the distant (but not so much) '76 a gem of that ambiguous microcosm defined as "jazz-fusion", but in this case incorporates with carefree eclecticism various "classical" and "modern" influences, skillfully amalgamated with great balance.

It begins with the title track, a rock that at first might be a bit too intrusive, but then gives way to a less tense, rather ethereal atmosphere on which good Stanley showcases all his flamboyant but never excessive bass skills. "Quiet Afternoon" is perhaps the most traditionally jazz fusion track on the record: a floating wave that crescendos into a decrescendo, an impressionistic and hypnotic sketch that in its sounds recalls the style of Pat Metheny (who would debut two years later)...

..but the apparent calm soon gives way to the swinging, orchestral funk of "The Dancer", a repetitive and captivating groove, over which guitar and keyboard inserts stand out, very wah-wah. But even here the frenzy doesn't last long, because fading in comes an acoustic but psychedelic track, where one delights on the double bass and acoustic guitar over a backdrop as loopy as it is intense..

...ole, two and a half minutes of funkiness and super-black, tense and almost "disco", compensate for the relaxation of the previous track.. And finally, a long piece, partly sung, summarizes the fundamental ideas of the album, melody and groove, orchestration and syncopated rhythms, solitary phrasing and surreal iterations, bringing to a peak an album of great inspiration.

Experimental yet rooted in tradition, acrobatic both in tension and tranquility, it is a milestone: it fits perfectly into the kaleidoscopic musical scene of the seventies, a hotbed of innovative and always fresh solutions.