Sneak Peek: Stanley Clarke

Jo Reed: Here’s 2020 NEA Jazz Master Bassist Stanley Clarke talking about playing his first gig at the age of 15 at The Showboat Lounge in Philadelphia with Bayard Lancaster.

Stanley Clarke:  Well, Byard lived up the street from me, maybe three doors up and he was a really unusual character. He was an avant-garde saxophone player. So as I got to hang out with Byard more, it was myself and a friend of mine named Darryl, which is a year younger than me, he played drums, Byard was a little crazy, he says, "Listen, you want to do a gig at a world famous jazz club?" I said, "Oh. Yeah, yeah." So we go play the Showboat. He put sunglasses on me. I had this suit and the drummer was even younger and he put these big, wide sunglasses on that he had gotten in Paris and covered the guy's face, and we went in, and I remember the club owner looking at us like this, but let us go. We sounded great because we had a lot of energy and we had a lot of skills at that age. And it was great. That was my first experience playing in a jazz club. I loved it. I loved it.