Scott Clark
Drummer and composer Scott Clark keeps time in the balance. His performances behind the kit are generous and empathetic, establishing his voice immediately upon striking the surface. A member of the vibrant jazz and improvised music scene in Richmond VA, this voice—with an affinity for serialism and the avant-garde innovations of the free jazz movement—has been heard most often with his group the ScottClark4tet. It was for the ScottClark4tet that he penned a series of jazz suites, which emerged from the study of his own Native ancestry. Two of the suites have been recorded for Clean Feed Records, beginning with Bury My Heart (2016), written in response to Dee Brown’s book of the same title, and continuing with ToNow (2018), written as a contribution to the Standing Rock protests and the unlawful construction of an oil pipeline across Native land. By centering jazz in this historic and ongoing injustice, Clark pulls together a deeply American artform and a deeply American tragedy, yet his projects never feel weighed down by their sense of purpose. Protest music that is lucid and nourishing, a rhythmic shape of restless assurance. The Bury My Heart suite was performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC in 2016. Scott has recorded and/or collaborated with musicians Jason Ajemian, Jeb Bishop, Dave Rempis, Darius Jones, Anna Weber among many others, and co-curates/operates the Brooklyn/Richmond-based record label Out Of Your Head Records. Outside of the jazz and improvised world, Clark has toured extensively with singer/songwriters Matthew E. White (Domino, Spacebomb) and Natalie Prass (Columbia). Those collaborations led to performances in venues like the Sydney Opera House, London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, Hollywood Bowl, Glastonbury, Eurockeennes, Latitude Festival, Bestival, Radio City Music Hall, The Apollo Theatre, South by Southwest, on various late night television shows, and some of the world's largest festivals.
Appears on:
OOYH 007: Scott Clark - This Darkness
OOYH 021: Scott Clark - Dawn & Dusk
OOYH U008: Candra Rini / Hopkins / Clark / McGraw - Swarasa