S.M.V. Conjures a Storm with THunder Tour Appearance

Media Contact:

Kristen Gleason
Director of Marketing
The Paramount Theater
215 East Main Street
Charlottesville, VA 22902
434.979.1922 ext. 103
kristen@theparamount.net

For Immediate Release

July 31, 2008

In the hot days of August, a low rumbling sound off in the distant sky usually means something powerful is rolling in. This summer, when an ominous reverberation makes its way across the landscape and rocks everything in its path, be ready for a storm of a different kind.

Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller and Victor Wooten -- each a powerful force of nature in his own right -- have done more in recent decades to redefine the electric bass, pushing its potential and limits, than any other musicians alive today. When these three titans, collectively known as S.M.V., converge on the low frequencies, the results are no less than earth shaking.

Touring in support of their debut collaboration Thunder (set for release on August 12), thee impact of these three virtuosos is guaranteed to resonate throughout every corner of the jazz world. S.M.V. will bring this high-energy phenomenon to a live performance at The Paramount Theater on Sunday, August 17 at 8 pm.

Tickets are $44.50, $49.50, $54.50 and $59.50 and may be purchased online or through The Paramount’s Box Office at 434.979.1333.

Special Media Sponsor for this event is Generations 102.3 and 94.1 -- Music for Your Generation.

Stanley Clarke is nothing short of a living legend, having liberated the bass in much the same way that Louis Armstrong and Charlie Parker liberated their instruments decades earlier. He quickly made his mark on the New York jazz scene before joining pianist Chick Corea to form the seminal, Grammy-winning fusion outfit Return to Forever in 1972. Taking issue with perception of the bass as merely a support instrument, Clarke released a string of solo albums, beginning with Children Forever in 1973 and including watershed recording, School Days three years later -- its title track serving as the first bona fide bass anthem.

Raised among jazz royalty (his second cousin is Miles Davis pianist Wynton Kelly), Marcus Miller made his professional debut at 16. Joining the bands of Saturday Night Live and Roberta Flack, he met David Sanborn and Luther Vandross, who both tapped Miller’s writing, producing, and multi-instrumental gifts. Going solo in 1992 with The Sun Don’t Lie, Miller accepted the torch passed by Stanley Clarke and Jaco Pastorius and reignited the spark for solo bass albums. Miller’s seven subsequent solo efforts include the 2001 GRAMMY-winning M2, which sets Miller apart as the only solo bassist to have won the Best Contemporary Jazz Album Grammy.

First performing with his four older brothers as The Wootens, Victor Wooten moved to Nashville in 1988, where he met New Grass Revival banjo ace Béla Fleck. Within a year, Fleck, Wooten, Wooten’s brother Roy (a.k.a. Futureman) and Howard Levy formed the Flecktones, and were on their way to their first of three Grammys to date. His work includes the remarkable solo debut A Show of Hands (1996) and collaborations with artists like Branford Marsalis, Dave Matthews, Bruce Hornsby, Prince, Mark O’Connor, Gov’t Mule, Susan Tedeschi, Bill Evans, the Jaco Pastorius Word Of Mouth Big Band, and India.Arie.

The initial idea behind Thunder goes back a few years, but the final push came after the three bassists played together for the first time in October 2006 at the Bass Player Live! concert in New York City. In addition to the historic convergence of three monumental bass talents on one stage in the same night, the event also included the presentation of the Bass Player Lifetime Achievement Award to Clarke.

The elder statesman of the three-man crew, Clarke says, “We wanted to make a bass record with a sound that would be somewhat unexpected to the listener.” Clarke, Miller, and Wooten share songwriting credits on the recording, and incorporating all three musicians in the compositions was the challenge.  “The biggest hurdle was to make a record with three basses -- very low-end instruments, by definition -- that would still be as musical as possible, and I think we achieved that.”

“Vic had this idea to do a bass thing a while back, but we really didn’t know when we’d do it,” Miller explains. “After we jammed at the award ceremony, it was clear that it would be pretty easy to do musically. Each one of us found a space to operate that didn’t compete with the other. We fell into it pretty naturally.  I saw Stanley at the airport the next day and said, ‘You know we should do this soon, right?’ he agreed. We knew Vic was down, because it was his idea in the first place.”

Wooten was definitely down: “That performance made us realize how easy it was to play together,” he says. “We knew that we had to do it again. We were able to naturally find our own space with and around each other. That’s not always easy, especially when three people are all playing the same instrument.”

More than just a musical collaboration, Thunder was an opportunity for all three musicians to get to know and understand each other on a newer and much deeper level.

“It’s not until you really work intimately with another musician that you really find out what’s going on with that person,” says Clarke. “One of the things about this project that was a pleasant surprise was finding out how deep these guys are, and how far they’ve come in their careers. "We couldn’t have made this record ten years ago. It just wouldn’t have been the right time. Each of us has reached a certain point, and I think we’re all celebrating what we’ve accomplished with the bass. This record is a picture of three guys moving forward, both as individuals and as a group."

With that forward motion comes a deep and powerful vibration -- not just in your ears, but under your feet, all around you, and in the very air itself.