And thunder struck

Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller and Victor Wooten performed at the House of Music

Once upon a time, in the television program “Jam-5” (hard rock on Channel One - there was such a thing!) there was a story about how three virtuoso bass guitarists gave a joint concert at a certain music exhibition. It was interesting how these three and their bass instruments divided up the responsibilities. One played a repeating ostinato figure, the second a motive, the third a solo on a fretless six-string bass, on which he could hit quite high notes. No one bothered anyone, and it looked grandiose. But it was hard to imagine that such a funny idea could get any kind of continuation. Still, three bass players are too much.

However, ten years later after the events described, the idea was continued by jazzmen. Well-known to our public, Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller and Victor Wooten teamed up into one team, SMV, recorded an album and went on tour. The tour is called “Thunder”, Muscovites saw and heard this program second in Europe (before us, the bassists performed in Finland, and before Suomi - in Japan and Singapore) exactly on the birthday of the great George Gershwin. A nice start, in short.

Clark, Miller and Wooten are three generations of jazz bassists. Stanley Clarke, one might say, is a living classic. Miller is a one-time collaborator of Miles Davis (the “techno-jazz” Davis from the Tutu album), the author of half a dozen excellent solo albums, scores for blockbusters, and a Grammy Award jury favorite. Wooten is a virtuoso, experimenter, and author of eclectic solo albums and video schools. However, eclecticism and positive energy are the “trick” of the creativity of all three. That’s why they sang so well, and I don’t want to quote the word sung, because the bass instruments of the glorious trinity sing, and if they thunder, it’s very rarely and where they need to be.

On the stage of the spacious Svetlanovsky Hall of the House of Music there are keys, a drum set, a saxophone, a bass clarinet and three bass guitars, two of which all fans of jazz-rock and fusion know by sight: Miller’s Fender Jazzmaster and Clark’s Alembic Bass. A keyboard player and a drummer appear on stage, who, by the way, also turned out to be interesting and creative musicians. A minute later the owners of the bass guitars appear, and from that moment on it is simply impossible to take your eyes off what is happening on stage. The interaction, mutual understanding and mutual feeling of this dream team, which, by the way, formed not so long ago is amazing - the musicians first played a joint jam in October 2007, and began working in the studio last winter. They played mostly new material, no overused themes or standards. Miller periodically took up the saxophone and bass clarinet, Stanley Clarke performed a stunning solo on the double bass, and Wooten occasionally played through a device that changed the sound beyond recognition. His bass sang like some Fender Rhodes. With such a floating sound, it was possible to misbehave a couple of times. For example, to everyone’s delight, weave in the theme from Henry Mancini’s “The Pink Panther” and the Beatles’ Norwegian Wood. Klahr, Miller and Wooten managed to divide responsibilities so much that three basses on one stage seemed not like a trick, but like a completely normal, productive and fresh format. That is, this is not thunder. More like lightning.

Alexander BELYAEV