Every pro electric-bass player and their mothers wore out the grooves of this record when it first came out, trying to cop Clarke's speedy, thundering, slapped-thumb bass licks.
Yet ultimately, it was Clarke's rapidly developing compositional skills that made this album so listenable and so much fun for the rest of us, then and now.
The title track not only contributed a killer riff to the bass vocabulary; it is a cunningly organized piece of music with a well-defined structure.
Moreover, Clarke follows his calling card with two tunes that are even more memorable -- the sauntering ballad "Quiet Afternoon" and an ebullient, Brazilian percussion-laced number with a good string arrangement and a terrific groove, "The Dancer." Clarke also brings out the standup bass for a soulful acoustic dialogue with John McLaughlin on "Desert Song." Evidently enthused by their leader's material, David Sancious (keyboards) and Raymond Gomez (guitars) deliver some of their best solos on records -- and with George Duke on hand on one cut, you hear some preliminary flickerings of Clarke's ventures into the commercial sphere.
But at this point in time, Clarke was triumphantly proving that it was possible to be both good and commercial at the same time.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | School DaysStanley Clarke | Stanley Clarke | Play | 07:48 | 17 MB | 0 MB |
| 2 | Quiet AfternoonStanley Clarke | Stanley Clarke | Play | 05:08 | 11 MB | 0 MB |
| 3 | The DancerStanley Clarke | Stanley Clarke | Play | 05:24 | 12 MB | 0 MB |
| 4 | Desert SongStanley Clarke | Stanley Clarke | Play | 07:29 | 17 MB | 0 MB |
| 5 | Hot FunStanley Clarke | Stanley Clarke | Play | 02:55 | 6 MB | 0 MB |
| 6 | Life Is Just a GameStanley Clarke | Stanley Clarke | Play | 08:57 | 20 MB | 0 MB |
| 37 mins | 86 MB | |||||
| 0 mins | 0 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Al Aarons | Brass |
| 2 | Marilyn Baker | Strings |
| 3 | Jeff Beck | Guitar |
| 4 | Stewart Blumberg | Brass |
| 5 | George Bohannon | Brass |
| 6 | Lynn Dreese Breslin | Art Direction |
| 7 | Gerry Brown | Drums, Handbells |
| 8 | Gerry Brown | Bells, Drums, Handbells |
| 9 | Thomas Buffum | Strings |
| 10 | David Campbell | Strings |
| 11 | Earl Chapin | Horn |
| 12 | Buddy Childers | Brass |
| 13 | John Clark | Horn |
| 14 | Stanley Clarke | Arranger, Bass (Acoustic), Bass (Electric), Bells, Chimes, Composer, Conductor, Gong, Guitar, Guitar (Bass), Guitar (Electric), Handbells, Humming, Keyboards, Percussion, Piano, Piccolo Bass, Primary Artist, Producer, Soloist, Vocals |
| 15 | Billy Cobham | Drums, Guest Artist, Moog Synthesizer |
| 16 | Chick Corea | Keyboards |
| 17 | Rollice Dale | Strings |
| 18 | Bob Defrin | Art Direction |
| 19 | Robert Dubow | Strings |
| 20 | George Duke | Guest Artist, Keyboards, Synthesizer |
| 21 | Jon Faddis | Trumpet |
| 22 | Robert Findley | Brass |
| 23 | Steve Gadd | Drums, Guest Artist |
| 24 | Ray Gomez | Guitar, Guitar (Electric), Guitar (Rhythm), Soloist |
| 25 | Peter Gordon | Horn |
| 26 | Janice Gower Adele | Strings |
| 27 | Janice Gower | Strings |
| 28 | Gary Grant | Brass |
| 29 | Milt Holland | Congas, Guest Artist, Percussion, Triangle |
| 30 | Charles "Icarus" Johnson | Guitar |
| 31 | Icarus Johnson | Guitar, Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric) |
| 32 | Karen Jones | Strings |
| 33 | Dennis Karmazyn | Strings |
| 34 | Tom "Bones" Malone | Trombone |
| 35 | Gordon Marron Strings | Strings |
| 36 | Lew McCreary | Brass |
| 37 | John McLaughlin | Guest Artist, Guitar, Guitar (Acoustic) |
| 38 | Jack Nimitz | Brass |
| 39 | William Peterson | Brass |
| 40 | Alan Rubin | Trumpet |
| 41 | David Sancious | Guest Artist, Guitar, Guitar (Electric), Keyboards, Mini Moog, Moog Synthesizer, Organ, Soloist |
| 42 | Ken Scott | Engineer, Producer, Remixing |
| 43 | Dalton Smith | Brass |
| 44 | Lew Soloff | Trumpet |
| 45 | Jerry Solomon | Assistant Engineer |
| 46 | Lya Stern | Strings |
| 47 | Ron Strauss | Strings |
| 48 | David Taylor | Trombone |
| 49 | Ed Thacker | Assistant, Assistant Engineer |
| 50 | Marcia Van Dyke | Strings |
| 51 | Lenny White | Drums |
| 52 | Wilmer Wise | Horn |
| 53 | John Wittenberg | Strings |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |