John Clark (musician)

John Clark (musician)
John Clark is an American jazz horn player and composer. In Allmusic, Clark is described as "possibly the most fluent jazz French horn soloist since the great Julius Watkins in the 1950s."
Biography
John Clark was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Rochester, New York. In 1966 he received a B.A.from the University of Rochester, where he also studied horn with Verne Reynolds at the Eastman School of Music. From 1967 until 1971 he played in the United States Coast Guard Band. Clark received a M.M. degree (with honors) from the New England Conservatory of Music in 1973. He studied composition and improvisation with Jaki Byard, Ran Blake, and George Russell; and horn with James Stagliano, Thomas Newell, and Paul Ingraham. In 1991 he received a patent for the "hornette," an instrument with the same range as a French Horn but with a forward-facing bell for greater projection. He taught at the State University of New York at Purchase from 2001 until 2008, subsequently moving to faculty at Manhattan School of Music.
Performance work
Clark has performed or recorded with a wide variety of musicians, including in jazz: Gary Bartz, Carla Bley, Ornette Coleman, Gil Evans, John Faddis, Johnny Griffin, Dave Grusin, Jerome Harris, Jim Hall, Jimmy Heath, Anthony Jackson, Leroy Jenkins, Howard Johnson, Oliver Lake, Joe Lovano, Pat Metheny, Grachan Moncur, Gerry Mulligan, Jaco Pastorius, Rachel Z, Paquito D'Rivera, Mike Richmond, John Scofield, Frank Sinatra, Lew Soloff, Spyro Gyra, David Taylor, Toots Thielemans, the Turtle Island String Quartet, McCoy Tyner, Glen Velez, Paul Winter Consort, Akiko Yano, and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.
Outside of jazz, he has worked with the Aspen Wind Quintet, Ashford and Simpson, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Fugees, Isaac Hayes, Billy Joel, B. B. King, LL Cool J, Joni Mitchell, Linda Ronstadt, Diana Ross, Carly Simon, Sting, Speculum Musicae, and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.
He has performed as a studio musician for many films, including Mission to Mars, Fargo, and Pocahontas.
Awards
Down Beat Critics' Poll winner, 1979–1982
National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Award for Most Valuable Player in Recording Field, 1986
Discography
As leader
1980 Song of Light (Hidden Meaning)
1981 Faces (ECM)
1992 Il Suono (CMP)
1997 I Will (Postcards)
2003 Confluence (Hidden Meaning)
2015 The Odd Couple Quintet +1
2016 Sonus Inenarrabilis (Mulatta)
As sideman
With Franco Ambrosetti
Wings (Enja, 1984)
With Gil Evans
There Comes a Time (RCA, 1976)
Gil Evans Live at the Royal Festival Hall London 1978 (RCA, 1979)
Live at the Public Theater (New York 1980) Vol.1 (Trio, 1980)
Live at the Public Theater (New York 1980) Vol.2 (Trio, 1981)
Bud and Bird (King/Electric Bird, 1987)
Farewell (King/Electric Bird, 1992)
With Benny Green
The Place To Be (Blue Note, 1994)
With Dave Grusin
Homage to Duke (GRP, 1993)
With Billy Harper
Soul of an Angel (Metropolitan, 2000)
With Jimmy Heath
New Picture (Landmark, 1985)
With Leroy Jenkins
Mixed Quintet (Black Saint, 1979)
With Jimmy Knepper
I Dream Too Much (Soul Note, 1984)
With Joe Lovano
Rush Hour (Blue Note, 1994)
With Grachan Moncur III
Exploration (Capri, 2004)
With Bob Stewart
Goin' Home (JMT, 1989)
With Sting
If on a Winter's Night... (Deutsche Grammophon, 2009)
With Stanley Turrentine
Nightwings (Fantasy, 1977)
Bibliography
1993 – Exercises for Jazz French Horn (Hidden Meaning Music)
References
External links
Bio page at Jazz.com Encyclopedia of Jazz Musicians
Bio page at AMT
Hornette patent information
Review of "I Will" by Carlo Wolf in JAZZIZ, September 1997 V.1, N.9
SUNY Purchase biography
Conn-Selmer – musical instrument maker
Hidden Meaning Music – John Clark's label
American jazz horn players
American jazz composers
American male jazz composers
University of Rochester alumni
Living people
Horn players
New England Conservatory alumni
1944 births
ECM Records artists
Postcards Records artists