Artist: Mike Clark

Michael Jeffrey Clark is an American drummer. He gained worldwide recognition as one of America's foremost jazz and funk  drummers while playing with Herbie Hancock in the early 1970s.

Clark has performed with Hancock, Christian McBride, Chet Baker, John Scofield, Nicholas Payton, Tony Bennett, Wayne Shorter, Joe Henderson, Eddie Henderson, Bobby Hutcherson, Vince Guaraldi, Woody Shaw, Donald Harrison, Albert King, Larry Coryell, Michael Wolff, Wallace Roney, Billy Childs, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Chris Potter, Bobby McFerrin, Nat Adderley, Oscar Brown Jr., and Gil Evans and his orchestra. 

His album Blueprints of Jazz, Vol. 1 (Talking House Records, 2008) was widely praised by critics and in 2010 was named by DownBeat magazine as one of the best albums of the decade. The album is part of the Blueprints of Jazz series conceived, produced and recorded by Talking House Productions with an aim to expose the histories and current work of important but often lesser-known jazz players who had contributed to the sounds of jazz legends from the 50's to the 70's.

His latest recordings include "Retro Report" with Delbert Bump on Rope-a-Dope label, "Life Cycle" with Mark Sherman, Chase Baird, and Felix Pastorius, also on Rope-a-Dope; Eddie Henderson's "Be Cool" on the Smoke label;Charnett Moffett's "Music from Our Soul" on Motima; and "Indigo Blue: Live at the Iridium" with Christian McBride, Donald Harrison, Rob Dixon, Randy Brecker, and Antonio Farao on Highnote. 

Further information about Mike Clark is found at drummermikeclark.info.

Photography credit: Mike Clark, GFDL <http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html>, via Wikimedia Commons

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