Clarke thumbs a ride with a triple-pickup Alembic Signature Standard. Photo courtesy of Concord Music Group
Your 2008 album, Thunder,
with Marcus Miller and Victor
Wooten is quite a contrast to
what you’re doing now. What
was it like playing with those
remarkable bassists?
You know, I’ve been playing
with other bassists for a long,
long time—back to New York
in the early ’70s with bass
choirs. I think it’s very important
to play with other bass
players, because it forces you to
really bring your musicality up.
You can’t just go in and survive
with technique. When I played
with Victor and Marcus, we
were lucky in that we had a natural
orchestration. Marcus loves
to play low all the time. Victor
likes to play in the middle, high
… well, he’s kind of
all over
the bass. I was playing tenor
bass and piccolo bass. I was the
guy laying out the harmony or
comping. If there was a melody,
I would either play it or support
the melody harmonically.
But it was a challenge trying
to come up with music
that works for three basses. I
don’t think many people know
this, but some promoters actually
didn’t want to have us play,
because they thought we would
blow up their PA or that it
wouldn’t sound musical—that
it would be just a bunch of
rumbles and that we were just
taking advantage of our names.
Obviously, that wasn’t the case.
It was a really fun experience
for me, because it forced me
and Marcus and Victor to really
play different. The only time
we played like ourselves was
when we played individual solos.
Marcus did that along with a
bass clarinet thing. I chose to
play an acoustic bass solo, which
was great, because I was in front
of a lot of kids who were there
because of Victor and had probably
never even seen an acoustic
bass. We plan to get back together
again maybe at the end of
next year. I told those guys that I
don’t know if I’ll even be playing
electric bass by then … we’ll see.
Let’s talk about gear. What
electric basses are you playing?
I still play an Alembic bass.
They just made a brand-new
one for me. It’s absolutely the
best Alembic bass I ever heard
in my life. I’ve been with those
guys a long time. I like playing
their basses. I would never
dare say that it’s the best bass
in the world—I don’t believe
in that kind of thinking—
but this bass is good for me
because I’m used to it. It’s got
a good sound.
Tell us about your electric-bass
amp rig.
I’ve been playing stereo bass
for a long time, so I have a
bi-amped system. My cabinet
configuration is either two 15s
on the bottom or 18s on the
bottom. And I have 10s, or
sometimes eight-inch speakers,
to deal with the treble.
Now this is something I got
from Chris Squire: I split off
the treble into another set of
speakers—usually small guitar
amps, just to give it a little
edge on the stage.
Because it’s a stereo rig, not
only do I have all the EQ possibilities
on the bass and the amp,
but I also have the ability to use
phasing between the low pickup
and the high pickup. Essentially,
it’s like I’m running two basses
at the same time. There are a
lot
of possibilities. And I’m using a
TC Electronic G-System. I had
to find something really clean
because the Alembic bass isn’t
naturally warm.
Clarke tracking his 2009 Jazz in the Garden album with pianist Hiromi
Uehara and drummer Lenny White.
Photo courtesy of Concord Music Group