Personnel includes: Stanley Clarke (vocals, various instruments, guitar, Oberheim synthesizer, acoustic, electric & piccolo basses); Gwen Owens, Cathy Carson, Juanita Curiel (vocals); Al Williams (soprano & baritone saxophones); Bob Malach (tenor saxophone); Tom Scott (lyricon); James Tinsley, Al Harrison (trumpet); Freddie Hubbard (flugelhorn); Michael Garson (piano, Fender Rhodes piano, Oberheim synthesizer); Bayete Todd Cochran (piano, organ, Oberheim & ARP 2600 synthesizers); Ronnie Foster (piano); George Duke (Yamaha electric piano); Phil Jost (organ); Lee Ritenour, Raymond Gomez, Jeff Beck (electric guitar); Darryl Brown (drums, cymbals); Harvey Mason, Steve Gadd (drums); Dee Dee Bridgewater (background vocals).
Personnel: Stanley Clarke (vocals, guitar, electric guitar, organ, keyboards, synthesizer, Oberheim synthesizer, talk box, acoustic bass, electric bass); Dee Dee Bridgewater (vocals, background vocals); Juanita Curiel, Gwen Owens, Cathy Carson (vocals); Jeff Beck, Lee Ritenour , Ray Gomez (guitar, electric guitar); Tom Scott (saxophone, alto saxophone, lyricon); Stan Getz (saxophone, tenor saxophone); Alfred Williams (saxophone); Al Williams (soprano saxophone, baritone saxophone); Bob Malach (tenor saxophone, trumpet); James Tinsley (trumpet, piccolo trumpet); Al Harrison (trumpet); Freddie Hubbard (flugelhorn); George Duke (piano, grand piano, electric piano, keyboards, synthesizer); Mike Garson (piano, Fender Rhodes piano, keyboards, synthesizer, Oberheim synthesizer); Todd Cochran (piano, organ, keyboards, synthesizer, Oberheim synthesizer); Ronnie Foster (piano); Phil Jost (organ, keyboards); Peter Robinson (keyboards, synthesizer); Perry Robinson (synthesizer); David DeLeon (electric bass, bass guitar); Darryl Brown (drums, cymbals); Harvey Mason, Sr. , Gerry Brown , Steve Gadd (drums); Airto Moreira (percussion).
Stanley Clarke stretches his muscles and comes up with a mostly impressive, polystylistic, star-studded double album (now on one CD) that gravitates ever closer to the R&B mainstream. Clarke's writing remains strong and his tastes remain unpredictable, veering into rock, electronic music, acoustic jazz, even reggae in tandem with British rocker Jeff Beck. Clarke's excursion into disco, "Just a Feeling," is surprisingly and infectiously successful, thanks to a good bridge and George Duke's galvanizingly funky work on the Yamaha electric grand piano (his finest moment with Clarke by far). The brief "Blues for Mingus," a wry salute from one master bassist to another (Mingus died about six months before this album's release), is a cool acoustic breather for piano trio, and the eloquent Stan Getz can be detected, though nearly buried under the garish vocals and rock-style mix, on "The Streets of Philadelphia." Yet even the talented Clarke in full creative flower couldn't quite fill a double set with new material, so he has a tendency to reprise some of his old memorable riffs a lot, and there are several energetic snapshots of his live band in action. In its zeal to get this two-LP set onto one disc, Epic deleted three of the original 15 tracks -- including at least one gem, the sizzling hard rocker "All About" -- and scrambled the order of the remaining tunes. Which is dumb, because the missing tracks only take up a bit less than 12 minutes of playing time, not enough to overload a 65-minute disc. Hunt for the double-LP version if you can still play vinyl. ~ Richard S. Ginell
