Sonny Clark

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Conrad Yeatis "Sonny" Clark (* 21st July 1931 in Herminie , Pennsylvania ; † 13. January 1963 in New York City , New York ) was an American jazz pianist and - composer of hard bop .

life and work

Clark moved to Pittsburgh when he was 12 and played bass and vibraphone in high school, but also piano from the age of four. In 1951 he moved to California at the instigation of his brother, who was also a pianist. He played briefly with Vido Musso and Oscar Pettiford in San Francisco and then moved to Los Angeles . In 1953 he made his first recording with Teddy Charles 's West Coasters (Prestige) with Wardell Gray . In 1953 he played in Los Angeles with numerous West Coast jazz musicians, which was rather the exception for black musicians. Among other things, he recorded with Art Pepper and 1953–1956 with Buddy DeFranco , with whom he also traveled through Europe in 1954 and recorded numerous records. In 1956 he played with the Lighthouse All Stars of Howard Rumsey , with Serge Chaloff , Frank Rosolino and Sonny Criss . After moving to New York in 1957, he took part in numerous sessions and approached the hard-bop idiom. He accompanied Dinah Washington (April 1957 in New York City), but then worked as a freelancer and in his own trios. He played with Lee Morgan , Charles Mingus , Lou Donaldson , Curtis Fuller and Sonny Rollins (on The Sound of Sonny , 1957).

Originally strongly influenced by Bud Powell , he developed his own, rhythmically emphasized style, which Richard Cook describes as lively, precisely articulated, with peculiar little figures of the left hand that run towards the long, extremely complicated ones of the right hand . Cook criticizes his Blue Note records as Leader (starting in 1957 with Dial S for Sonny ) that he fulfills his leadership role too little, that he sounds too much like companion and that he is most likely to raise his record Sonny Clark Trio because of the extroverted and imaginative game in a trio with Philly Joe Jones and Paul Chambers . Sonny Clark was in demand as a companion and can be heard on many Blue Note albums, e.g. B. by Donald Byrd , Hank Mobley , Jackie McLean , Kenny Burrell , Bennie Green ("Soul Stirrin" 1958), Clifford Jordan , Lee Morgan, Johnny Griffin and Dexter Gordon's album Go . He released seven of his own albums on Blue Note (such as Cool Struttin ' and Leapin and Lopin ), which today give him cult status with many fans. He was highly valued not only by fellow musicians but also by other pianists ( Bill Evans dedicated a piece to him, "NYC's No Lark", the title is an anagram of Sonny Clark). Clark had severe drug and alcohol problems throughout his life. Drug problems were probably also the reason why there were longer interruptions in the recordings for Blue Note from 1959 onwards. After being hospitalized for a leg infection in late 1962 and early 1963, he died of a heart attack a few days after discharge.

In 1985 John Zorn published a memorial project (Sonny Clark Memorial Quartet, with Wayne Horvitz piano, Ray Drummond bass, Bobby Previte drums) to Clark with his compositions ( Voodoo ).

literature

  • I.Skovgaard, E Traberg: Sonny Clark Bars: a Discography , Madrid, Copenhagen 1984 (with biography)
  • M. Gardner Sonny Clark , Jazz Monthly, Vol. 12, 1967, No. 12, Vol. 13, 1967, No. 1, 2 (with discography)

Discographic notes

Albums under your own name

collection

Albums as a sideman

  • Serge Chaloff: Blue Serge (Capitol, 1956)
  • Sonny Criss: The Complete Imperial Sessions (Blue Note, 1956)
  • Lou Donaldson : Lou Takes Off (Blue Note, 12/1957)
  • Dexter Gordon: Go! (BN, 1962)
  • Wardell Gray: Wardell Gray Memorial, Volume 1 (OJC, 1949-51)
  • Grant Green : The Complete Quartets with Sonny Clark (Blue Note, 1961/62)
  • Grant Green: Born to Be Blue (Blue Note, 1962; 1985)
  • Hank Mobley : Hank Mobley (Blue Note, 6/1957)
  • Hank Mobley: Curtain Call (Blue Note, 8/1957)
  • Hank Mobley: Poppin ' (Blue Note, 10/1957)
  • Lee Morgan: Candy (BN, 1957/58)
  • Ike Quebec: Blue and Sentimental (BN, 1961)
  • Sonny Rollins: the Sound of Sonny (Riverside, 1957)
  • Don Wilkerson : The Complete Don Wilkerson on Blue Note (BN; 1962-63)
  • The Complete Verve Recordings of the Buddy DeFranco Quartett / Quintett with Sonny Clark 1954/1955 (5 LPs on Mosaic )

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Cook: Blue Note . Argon Verlag, p. 139
  2. ↑ According to the memories of the also heroin addict Hampton Hawes in his autobiography Raise up off me , he and Clark were known as the gold dust twins in New York in the late 1950s . Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins tried in vain to intervene.
  3. ^ Bob Blumenthal, Liner Notes for the New Edition of Leapin and Loapin , Blue Note. Between March 1959 when he recorded My Conception and the next recording for Blue Note (as a sideman on Jackie McLean 's A fickle Sonance in October 1961 and as a leader in Leapin 'and Loapin' in November 1961 at Rudy van Gelder Studios) 30 months passed. During this time he only made 5 recordings for other labels.
  4. ^ Feather Encyclopedia of Jazz in the 60s . A rumor later emerged that he died of an overdose in a junior’s club and was then taken to a private apartment by the owner of the club.
personal data
SURNAME Clark, Sonny
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Clark, Conrad Yeatis (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz pianist
DATE OF BIRTH July 21, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Herminie , Pennsylvania , USA
DATE OF DEATH January 13, 1963
Place of death New York City , New York , USA