Search - Stanley Clarke :: Modern Man

A Total Experience!

Andre' S Grindle | Bangor,ME. | 10/05/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Those of you who remember George Duke's 1977 Epic debut album

'From Me To You' will have a good clue as to how Stanley Clarke's

'Modern Man' album sounds.Clarke tries to orchestrate a very

lavish production here-mixing keyboards,horns and strings into

the mix and often downplaying his bass playing.The title cut,

"More Hot Fun"-a reprise from 'School Days',to a certain

extent the funky 'Slow Dance'and most heavily on the charged up

rocker "Rock N' Roll Jelly".And unlike before Clarke's highly

flawed and surreal vocal style makes sense on the vocal pieces.

And unlike his former leader Chick Corea Clarke doesn't choose

to weigh down 'Modern Man' with silly or childish musical ideas.

And even if he adds a strange element of folkey pop to some of the songs,whitch is very atypical of fusion in general,'Modern

Man' is one of Stanley Clarke's 'head projects' that actually

works in the end.It will be necessary to put some time into this

album (if you can find the CD like I did) but for those who do

there are many rewards for your openness.

"

A great experience in popular jazz music

Zoltan Kovacs Jr. | Szeged, Hungary | 11/01/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I was about 3 years old when Stanley Clarke did this wonderful album with so many great musicians together. My father, who is still a music fanatic, picked lots of jazz music from all over the world, mainly from Germany and sometimes in small shops in Hungary. Yes, it was during the communism era, in Hungary.



So, when I was a child, my father listened to such music a lot, including Chick Corea, The Crusaders, B.B. King, Weather Report, Blood Sweat and Tears, War, Chase and lots more. He is still a music fan who collects huge amounts of music.



When I became 18, I collected some interesting music for background material in a radio camp, in Hungary. It was 1993. I accidently found my father's tape with 'Modern Man' which was recorded back in the early 1980s when the Hungarian Radio was broadcasting a big amount of quality music regulary. So I took Stanley Clarke's wonderful music and tried to show to other people in the camp.



Unfortunately I lost this copy in the camp. And unfortunately the tape became out of usage: noone uses tapes for home entertainment today in the age of the DVDs. I wasn't able to listen Stanley's music during 11 years, but I always remembered many songs, mainly the 'More Hot Fun' and 'Dayride'.



This year I accidently downloaded some samples from the internet and during the last month I was able to put together the whole album from internet resources --- except the last song, 'Closing'. Great songs, I can still feel the same old happiness like a child in the house of my father. :-)



After 11 years I can emphasize that 'Modern Man' is still much better than I thought when I was 18. A wonderful music, I cannot stop singing it in my spare time. Congratulations to everyone who contributed in Stanley's project.



Last year (2003) I was in Annapolis, MD, USA in August when Stanley gave a performance in the Ram's Head Pub. Unfortunately I wasn't able to listen to him that day. But today I could tell him that his project, recorded in 1978, is still a great experience when someone wants to listen valuable popular jazz music. Congratulations, and thank you, everyone, who contributed!"

Stanley: producer

Seacouch | Seattle, WA USA | 06/14/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Good album. After School Days and Journey to Love, and the Return To Forever Albums, Stanley was at his peak; his reputation as a virtouso was well-established. I saw him on this Modern Man tour; he was (at least in his mind) a rock star. You can see on this album that Stanley's focus is starting to shift from bass playing to producing. Was he maturing? Yes, I suppose, but his playing went downhill from this point on, as did his albums, when the bass playing was no longer his focus (to his credit; he's built a nice long career as a producer/soundtrack composer). His production sounds good, sometimes very good. I like the remakes of Hot Fun and Dayride (from RTF's No Mystery). I've seen this CD selling for ~$50. Probably not worth it unless you're a Stanley fanatic or need to complete a collection.

"