Customer Reviews

Actual Proof

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Mike Clark was the drummer with Herbie Hancock's Headhunters in the seventies and will always be remembered for his phenomenal work on a song called "Actual Proof" on the album THRUST. When I discovered this newest CD by Mike, also titled ACTUAL PROOF, I had to get it. A song called "Aristede" reminded me of some of the old Weather Report stuff, and is a brooding, intense future jazz classic. It features Bennie Maupin, one of the original Headhunters, who also played on Miles Davis BITCHES BREW recording and I hear traces of that influence here also. "Viper" had really interesting interplay, of the kind I haven't heard since Tony Williams and Wayne Shorter in Miles' sixties band. And on a song called "Bacon Phat," Mike and Charlie Hunter play one of the funkiest shuffles ever! There doesn't seem to be a bad cut on here and redeems the term fusion. Sophisticated, soulful, jazz, blues and what? It defines unique.

First of all this is the most interesting and fun cd I have heard in years, way beyond what Clark did on Herbie Hancock's Thrust. Not only is Clark the daddy of Gangsta funk grooves and jazz funk grooves but he is a consumate jazz drummer. This cd not only has futuristic funk grooves like I have never heard before, but Clark is playing real authentic jazz stuff up inside the funk. Not that high tech gymnasium heavy-handed fusion drumming, nor that boring straight time so-called groove stuff either. Clark is listening very closely and so are the other band members so it is total interplay. This reminds me of the kind of stuff Tony Williams played on Miles Smiles but funky. Charlie Hunter sounds real funky and Jed Levy is a great sax player, very modern and interesting. I love what Bennie Maupin did, very dark and moody. Ted Trimble on acoustic bass sounds nice and loose. Tim Ouimette's haunting trumpet is kind of like Miles but he has his own voice as well. Great compositions. No syrupy fusion with all the latest pre-fab licks here; this is a real jazz record on the funk side. Down and greasy but like a jazz rhythm section of the 60's. Thank you Mike Clark.

I just got my new Mike Clark cd Actual Proof. I think it is the finest cd I have heard in a very long time. I am also a drummer and I was going to write about the cd but I read one of the reviews about the show in Toronto, I was there also. I have to refute that jive immediately. That was the best show I have ever heard, the band was totally on fire. Mike is the Elvin Jones of the Jam Band scene. The beats were so funky and original I don't know where he is getting them from. Organic but with tons of chops. He streches out totally on every level, the time, polyrhythms,and over the bar for days. There was much more interplay in this group than the Headhunters. Mike played much more straight in those days, now he is going for it. Mike and Skerik seemed to read each others minds like Elvin Jones and John Coltrane but in a funk mode. Skerik was killing. Charlie and Mike had the deepest groove I have ever heard. The solos with Robert Walter were very, very, very high and soulful. Logic added a whole other approach that was perfect for what the rhythm section was doing. The crowd went nuts and wouldn't let them off the stage. It blew their minds. This is the first time I have heard any playing on this level on the JamBand scene. It had so much fire and all the interplay of jazz but completely funky. Once again Mike's beats are backwards and forwards at the same time, totally creative but soooooo... down and funky!! I also heard Butterfly and Watermelon man that night, Whoa! much more streched out and creative than on Thrust. Not as straight. Ten stars I can't wait for the next gig. I say please don't go back to the Old Headhunter's style, keep going and streching and growing. Don't go back PLEASE!!!This is much more exciting and interesting to listen to. Yeah Mike Funky as you wanna be. Thanks!...

this is a terrific 'get down get dirty' cd! the music gets hold of you and won't let you go! it's multi-layered because it's intellectual thoughtful sneaky and touches every level of your conscienciousness. actual prof is a sit back head back toe tappin' and a stand up foot stompin' good time... this cd will fill you up! after listening all i could say was 'whew!' and put it on play again.

Mike Clark, best known for his work in the 70's with Herbie Hancock's Headhunters, just released his debut solo album, Actual Proof. The album covers a lot of musical ground, ranging from downbeat jazz to deep funk. Clark gets things into a serious groove right off the bat with "Stingers," thanks to guitarist Charlie Hunter. "The Grinder" slows things down a bit, but sax man Jed Levy keeps the groove going and Tim Ouimette lays down a great trumpet solo on the cut too. The first really outstanding moment comes on the brooding "Aristide." The song begins innocently enough with Ted Trimble's acoustic bass solo. As the keyboards float in slowly over the top, Bennie Maupin comes in with a progressive sounding tenor solo and Clark follows close behind with a sublime workout on the drum kit.

Actual Proof wanders into the avant-garde realm a bit also, as heard on "The Viper" and the middle section of "Attack of the 40Ft. Woman." "59th Street Station" is an homage to the subterranean caverns of the New York subway system. This dark, slow groove features Maupin again (this time on bass clarinet) and an amazing solo from Trimble. Clark saved the best for last. "Bacon Phat" features the fretwork of Hunter and a groove that just dares you to ignore it. With his new (and long awaited) CD, Clark proves once again that he is truly a force to be reckoned with in the jazz/funk arena.

This album shows a great jazz funk sense by all players. It's a great lineup of players including Bennie Maupin and Mike Clark, both funky a** cats from the headhunters, as well as charlie hunter. This cd transitions from funk fusion, to straight ahead, and also goes a little out with some straight prog fusion feels. For those people (who rated this cd with one star) to say that this isnt the mike clark that we love is insane. If you are diggin the grooves he plays on flood, he's got them right here on this cd. First of all, of cousre this cd isn't Flood, but what is? For one thing, there is no herbie on this album, and no bassist like Paul Jackson, but those are all hancock's songs, and plus ITS A LIVE CD!!! there is no more energy than a live cd especially flood from 1975(the peak of fusion funk). These guys are all great musicians, and Bennie Maupin stays true to his funkyness. Charle HUnter lacks a little, but MIke Clark keepin it groovin with his isolated limb playing and his incredible time feel. Overall, great album-Mike is up to par, and the whole cd grooves. Pe@ce

Surprise! I wanted to get some Mike Clark because like everyone else I'm a fan of his work with Herbie Hancock, and he also had a turn with Brand X (Morrocan Roll, I think). I was really digging the grooves on this album but I noticed a lack of bottom. When I re-checked the credits, I realized that 8-string guitar means that Charlie Hunter was comping AND doing the basslines at the same time. I was really enjoying the comping, sounds like hammond B3 here and there (he's using a bit of chorus or something) but there are no basslines, other than hitting the root note with the odd passing tone. Also because it's 8-string guitar, the strings are narrow gauge so the bass notes that are there don't really stand out. To the one reviewer that complained of only one solo by Hunter, let me tell you (as a guitar player) that soloing and doing the bass line at the same time is not easy. The only guitar player who can play like that was Lenny Breau. For a funky player like Mike Clark to do an album with no bass player is a little confusing. The drums are mixed right up front through the whole album, and there is plenty to listen to. The mixing and recording are of course vastly different than the dry fat sound on Thrust, here being more ambient with reverb added, and the bass drum is like a big undamped THUD. The tunes are good to excellent with some great grooves, and the solos are good but perhaps understated. This is a drummer's album, meaning the drums are the main instrument, with the rest of the band in supporting roles. Perhaps one of the albums with Paul Jackson on bass would be a good point to start listening to Clark's solo stuff, and then come back to this one. However, if you are a bass player you may have a treat playing along with this album cause there's no existing bass to get in the way, so you get to jam with Mike Clark! Also, if I recall there is an upright bass player on one tune, but I don't recall which.

I must admit that I bought this album because of Charlie Hunter's participation. I'm a big Hunter fan and I'd read and heard good things about clark. I must say though that the album is disapointing. Charlie Hunter only takes one solo, but that's not what bugs me. It's the artist that do solo that bug me. Clark and Hunter do fine on the album, but none of the horn players who take most of the solos are particularly exciting. If you want some good funky jazz, I recomend checking out the Charlie Hunter Trio or the original quartet or some of Scofield's latest efforts like A Go Go, Bump, & Uberjam (all of these artists' albums are quite good though, these are the funky ones). However, if you're used to the likes of Karl Denson, Stanton Moore, or any of those types, you might like this album, and I don't say this to dis' Denson or Moore.

Excuse me, but the true "Original Funky Drummer" title goes to Jabo Starks, JB's drummer.

Mike's good, (even great with Herbie) but Jabo is THE MAN!

I recently purchased this cd and was very much disappointed. Being a huge fan of Herbie Hancock's Thrust and the live album Flood, I was expecting to hear a band which interacted, solo's that had direction, dynamic arrangements, and energy from the band as a whole. Instead I found a very predictable funk studio project which sounded as if a bunch of musicians had been thrown together moments before and read the charts down. The heads aren't very tight, the arrangements are head-solo-head with no interesting twists in form or tempo, and the energy of the band remains static with no climaxes in any of the tunes. However I was trying to be optimistic about this project and when Mike Clark's touring band (Mike Clark, Charlie Hunter, DJ Logic, Skerik, and keyboard player from the Greyboy Allstars) came to Toronto I eagerly bought tickets to the show. Dare I say it......the live show was worse than the cd. With their own projects these guys are incredible, but as a band they had the energy of a moss covered rock. It was as if they didn't know how to end any of the tunes, and to compensate were forced to go into mind numbing vamps that didn't go anywhere. The energy of the songs started out fine but would just wind down and die. The arrangements were just as dull as on the record but this time also included the sacred music of the original Head Hunters...to see Mike Clark butcher Butterfly and Watermelon Man is just wrong, wrong, wrong. If your any fan of the Head Hunters this album will be a huge disappointment. I don't know what they did with the Mike Clark we know and love, but one thing's for sure....this isn't him.