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". Discography. As sideman. With Franco Ambrosetti With Gil Evans With Benny Green With Dave Grusin With Billy Harper With Jimmy Heath With Leroy Jenkins With Jimmy Knepper With Joe Lovano With Grachan Moncur III With Bob Stewart With Sting With Stanley Turrentine