If you are an electric bass player, this album will keep you busy for a while, listening to Mr. Clarke's excellent work. His range of tone qualities and techniques are amply exhibited here. This is a showcase for Stanley Clarke's virtuosity, and really an encyclopedia of the state of electric bass technique at the end of the 20th century.

That being said, many of Clarke's tunes lie flat. They lack direction and fail to hold the listener's interest(at least this listener's interest). Charles Mingus he is not. Stanley Clarke's genius is in the expressiveness and technique of his playing.

5 of 6 found the following review helpful:

The REAL Stanley Came Back To Visit!  Nov 09, 2004
By P. McKenna "theowlwatches"
When I first heard this disc it was a breath of fresh air for me and a relief at the same time. I thought, "At last, Stanley's doing GOOD albums again!"

Given the schlocky albums he put out from 1979 and throughout the 80's, I was VERY skeptical at first. But my doubts that Stanley still had it were pretty much erased upon first listen. Here, Stanley has shown how diverse a musical pallette he has:

The two cuts with tap dancer Gregory Hines are nothing short of FUN and BRILLIANT simultaneously, as Stanley pulls off some stunning chord melody bass to Hine's mercilessly complex tap rhythms! "Goodbye Porkpie Hat" the old Charles Mingus chestnut gets a very high-tech 1980's treatment here, featuring Wayne Shorter on soprano sax. Other tracks like "Workin' Man" and "Stories To Tell" just get flat out fierce like the Stanley of old, no fuzak here.

The only thing that I din't much care for was the album's now rather dated 1980's production (heavy reverb, tons of synths etc), hence the 4 stars as opposed to five. Sucha shame he didn't do more albums like this after for it sure was good to hear the REAL Stanley Clarke a-slappin' again!

2 of 2 found the following review helpful:

Best of Stanley's Later Years  Sep 07, 2001
By J. Liberty "jimlib"
This is still one of my favorite Stanley albums. The first and last tracks are duets with Gregory Hines tap dancing. A first I'm sure, but I can take it or leave it. To me, "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" is really the highlight of this record and probably my favorite version of that tune. It reminds me of Stanley jamming with Weather Report - both at their peak. "I Want to Play for Ya" is a little bit of that old school funky talking bass thang. It worked well on some of his older solo albums like Journey to Love and School Days and it really works here. What we get on this record is a mature artist at the peak of his songwriting skills. Stanley is STANLEY. He does not have to play at 200 mph every minute. What he does is craft some great songs, beautiful melodies, great sounds, and smoking solos. This is the type of CD that if it falls into your CD changer has a way of staying there for a while.

1 of 1 found the following review helpful:

awesome jazz  Apr 10, 2010
By John T. Barlow
This was one of the first jazz albums that I purchased when I was stationed in Sicily in 1989 while I was in the Air Force and it remains to this day one of my favorite albums. I now own probably 300 jazz CDs and it is just a great album filled with great superlative bass playing. Purchase it and enjoy.


2 of 3 found the following review helpful:

A Period Of Transition  Sep 23, 2003
By Andre' S Grindle "Funk Meister"
Basically a jazzier retooling of Clarke's "Hideaway"-era
sound highlited by Gregory Hines tap dancing "percussion" on the
tital track opener and the closing "Basically Taps".Stanley's
cover of Mingus's "Goodbye,Pork Pie Hat" embellishes the original
melody so much that it's very hard to tell what it is-the production more like Ben Sidran of the same vintage then anything.Then again that sound permeates most of this album as well notably on the funkiest track "I Wanna Play For Ya'" and
the Police-like "Stories To Tell".The very jazzy "Tradition"
shows Clarke in a rare post-bop setting and overall this is about the closest Stanley Clarke ever came to a fairly straight-ahead jazz album,even if it's still very soulful and electric.
A notable point of reference.

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