Stanley Clarke - Children Of Forever / 1973

Quite possibly the hippest album that Stanley Clarke ever cut -- a stretched-out soulful batch of jazz-tinged tracks -- very much in the same spirit as the more righteous soul jazz underground of the time! In a way, the record would be much more at home on a label like Strata East than it would at Polydor -- thanks to vocals from Andy Bey and Dee Dee Bridgewater -- and a group lineup that includes Pat Martino on guitars, Art Webb on flute, Lenny White on drums, and Chick Corea on keyboards! Corea produced, and there's a bit of the free-floating style of Return To Forever here -- but the overall vibe is a lot more soulful too, and reminds us a fair bit of some of the earliest work by Norman Connors or Carlos Garnett -- both of whom used Bridgewater as a vocalist in similar settings. Titles include "Children Of Forever", "Butterfly Dreams", "Sea Journey", and "Unexpected Days".