Mike Zilber/mike Clark Quartet at Bird & Beckett Books & Records

Inextricably tied to the Headhunters, drummer Mike Clark is a funk legend whose beats for Herbie Hancock’s hugely influential mid-70s band have been endlessly sampled. But long before he brought East Bay grease into the keyboardist’s pioneering combo, Clark was a Philly Joe Jones-idolizing jazz cat who came up on the 1960s Bay Area jazz scene playing bebop.
On the recent Sunnyside album he co-leads with East Bay saxophonist Michael Zilber, Mike Drop, Clark swings with old-school power and precision on a rich repertoire of tunes by the likes of McCoy Tyner, Duke Pearson, Wayne Shorter and Thelonious Monk, and several sharp originals contributed by Zilber....

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Inextricably tied to the Headhunters, drummer Mike Clark is a funk legend whose beats for Herbie Hancock’s hugely influential mid-70s band have been endlessly sampled. But long before he brought East Bay grease into the keyboardist’s pioneering combo, Clark was a Philly Joe Jones-idolizing jazz cat who came up on the 1960s Bay Area jazz scene playing bebop.
On the recent Sunnyside album he co-leads with East Bay saxophonist Michael Zilber, Mike Drop, Clark swings with old-school power and precision on a rich repertoire of tunes by the likes of McCoy Tyner, Duke Pearson, Wayne Shorter and Thelonious Monk, and several sharp originals contributed by Zilber.
Described as “one of the best players and composers around anywhere!” by saxophone great and 2011 NEA Jazz Master David Liebman, the Vancouver-born Zilber is a sublimely gifted instrumentalist who has led or co-led eleven albums and worked with an impressive list of fellow masters including Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Stitt, Steve Smith, and Miroslav Vitous, among others.

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