New York-based Kim Clark is an internationally acclaimed jazz bassist who has been described as "one of the few well-known female instrumentalists in Jazz." For more than 20 years she has performed with some of the world's leading jazz musicians around the globe. Her heritage, education and training have contributed to her success.
When Kim Clark was two years old, paternal Guyanese-born grandfather, Henry Clark, Snr, encouraged her to pluck the strings of his upright string bass. She still remembers his encouraging words, "Pluck it baby, pluck it."
Clark Snr was born in British Guiana in the early 1900s and grew up with an aunt in Harlem, New York. Harlem during the first decades of the 20th century was an exciting place. It was the time of the Harlem Renaissance. The political and cultural impact of this period of creativity of people of African descent is still felt around the world today.
In the late 1920s, Clark Snr was the trombonist with the big-band, Marion Hardy's Alabamians. This band, which was formed in Chicago, relocated to New York and has been identified by Albert McCarthy as "a first rate unit." In New York, the band performed at many of the prestigious venues in Harlem, among them the Savoy Ballroom, which was known as "the world's most beautiful ballroom." This was the band that Cab Calloway performed with in his New York debut at the Savoy Ballroom in October 1929.
Clark Snr's dexterity as a trombonist was captured in the Marion Hardy's Alabamians 1929 recording of Georgia Pine and Song of the Bayou. In 1941, Clark, Snr performed in the movie Hellzapoppin. He died in 1966.
Kim Clark's paternal grandmother, Annette Walrond Clark, born on February 21, 1902, also encouraged her musical endeavours, in addition to which she too had Guyanese roots. After divorcing Clark Snr she married George Matthews, a Guyanese and raised her son Henry Clark Jr in Brooklyn, New York. Her first child, Lynn, died from whooping cough and racism. Annette carried the child from hospital to hospital in uptown and lower Manhattan and was refused service. Kim describes her grandmother as "the beautiful matriarch." Annette Walrond Clark was the sister of the bassist Carroll Walrond and the influential Harlem Renaissance author, Eric Derwent Walrond.
Eric Walrond was born in Georgetown, British Guiana, on December 18, 1898. His father was Guyanese and his mother, Ruth Walrond, was Barbadian. Walrond left British Guiana for Barbados in 1906. After spending some time on the island, Eric, along with his mother and his siblings, travelled to Panama to join their father who was working on the construction of the Panama Canal.
On June 30, 1918, Eric Walrond arrived in the United States and settled in Harlem. In Panama, he had worked for a period as a journalist with The Panama Star and Herald. In New York he continued his journalism career serving as an editor of Marcus Garvey's weekly, Negro World. At other times he served as the business manager of Opportunity, the journal of the National Urban League.
These publications are now recognized as important vehicles that shared the works of Claude McKay, Countee Cullen, Arthur Schomburg, Carter G. Woodson, Alain Loncke, Zora Neal Hurston, Gwendolyn Bennet, Langston Hughes, and many others with the wider national and international community. These were the men and women who declared the 'New Negro' and committed themselves to elevating people of African descent at home and abroad. Walrond was a key player in the Harlem Renaissance. In addition to his journalistic work, he was also an accomplished creative writer.
Like Paul Lawrence Dunbar (1872-1906), Walrond's writings celebrated the musicality and vernacular of the African diaspora in the Americas. His collection of short stories published as Tropic Death won major critical acclaim. Among the literary awards he received between 1927 and 1928 were the Harmon Award in Literature, a Zora Gale scholarship at the University of Wisconsin, and a Guggenheim Award.
The distinguished Caribbean literary scholar Kenneth Ramchand has described Tropic Death as "one of the startling treasures in the lost literature of the West Indies." Robert Hill has described it as "probably the greatest short story work in the entire body of West Indian literature." Eric Walrond died in London in 1966.
Kim remembers her grandmother Annette as a soft spoken but no-nonsense woman who loved to cook "cookoo and fungee" and introduced her to the spicy world of West Indian food. She died in 1987. Her husband George Matthews died in 1986.
Kim's father, Henry Clark Jr, demonstrated musical talent as a child growing up in Brooklyn. He took piano lessons but did not pursue a musical career. "He had good musical ears, a nice voice and could whistle bebop horn solos and improvise as well," said Kim. At 6 foot 3 inches tall, he was a pre-professional basketball player while serving as a medical assistant in the United States Army Air Force.
Kim's mother Ramona, was born in Whiteville, North Carolina. She was the genealogist of the family, keeping track of its history. This documented history extends from 1773 to her generation. Kim has pointed out that her mother is a retired microbiologist for the city of New York and "is one of the four scientists responsible for the categorization and discovery of Eppstein-Barr and Legionnaires diseases." Like her husband, she supported the arts and encouraged Kim to take ballet at an early age. Kim's parents were good swing dancers.
Henry Clark Jr was a jazz aficionado. Some of his personal friends included bassist Tommy Potter, baritone saxophonist Cecil Payne, pianist Wynton Kelly, and drummer Max Roach. It was in this rich musical environment that Kim, an only child grew up.
There was always jazz being played in the home. Her dad, who worked for New York Transit Authority, loved to listen to the big band jazz music being played on WNEW as he prepared for work. Her mother loved the blues and other genres of early southern music, such as gut-bucket. She recalled that her babysitter Mary loved Motown, The Last Poets, Miriam Makeba, Jimi Hendricks, and Stevie Wonder.
As a child she would visit her mother's relatives in North Caro-lina, where she was exposed to the music of the juke-joints. According to Kim, these were wooden shacks, and the juke box was the most advanced technology in the whole place. "They had perfect speakers and all of the latest music that had not yet gotten to New York," recalled Kim. In the early 1960s, the South was a test market for black music. If the recording 'tanked' in the South, it would not be brought to New York because it would really be a flop.
The soundtracks that dominated Kim's youth were at first James Brown, Motown, and Stax Records. In later years Jimi Hendricks dominated. Her first grade teacher spotted her vocal talent, but her interest was string instruments. As a teen, Kim sold Xmas cards to raise funds to get her first guitar, an "un-tuneable" plastic one, from the gift catalogue. Her next guitar was a gift from Mary, her baby-sitter. Her first bass guitar cost her $15.
She taught herself to play the guitar by ear during her spare time as a freshman at Michigan State University.
At the end of her freshman year she transferred to Bennett College, Greensborough, North Carolina, where she met musicians who told her about the Jazzmobile Program in New York. At the end of her second year she transferred to City College, New York, so she could take music classes and access the training opportunities provided by the Jazzmobile Program. Through a series of scholarships from the National Endowment for the Arts she was able to study with Ron Carter, Lyle Atkinson, and Barry Harris at the Jazzmobile Program. She later attended and still studies with jazz master Dr Barry Harris.
While at City College, Kim bought an acoustic bass from a fellow student. This bass, a turn-of-the-century German flat-back bass which she still has, was one of the first used in a radio recording in the United States.
Kim has a BA in Communication from City College and a BA in Music from Long Island University.
She has had the opportunity to work with some of the leading names in the jazz world. Among them are sax men Yusef Lateef, Joe Henderson, George Braith, Charles Davis, Jimmy Heath and Branford Marsalis; trumpeter Lester Bowie; Arvell Shaw - Louis Armstrong's bass player; drummers Art Blakey and Louis Hayes; pianists Dr Billy Taylor, Gilly Coggins, Bertha Hope, Geri Allen, Danny Mixon, Enos Payne (Guyanese educator), George Gruntz and Rachel Z; vibraphonists Lionel Hampton and Bryan Carrott; gospels Edwin Hawkins, Pop Stars: Cindy Lauper, Robert Palmer; bluesman Screamin Jay Hawkins; vocalists Teri Thornton, Sheila Jordan, Leon Thomas, and Andy Bey; poets Trazana Beverly, Ntozake Shange and Sekou Sundiata.
She has also performed with tap dancers Tina Pratt, Roxanne Butterfly and recorded with and has arranger's credits on a song written by Rapper/Actress/Singer Queen Latifah.
Kim is a sought-after musician, and she has travelled extensively. Her first international trip was to Guyana in 1975 with the National Black Theatre of Harlem's show Soul Journey into Truth.
In addition to being a jazz musician, Kim is an accomplished funk bassist, and for the past 20 years has been the bass player for the innovative jazz/funk/fusion band Defunkt. She has recorded 11 albums with the band.
Kim knows that she is one of a small but growing group of female jazz instrumentalists. When she first started, she was a little intimidated. However, through the jam session experiences, she developed confidence. She is thankful for the experiences she had playing with "the cats" as well as the older women in jazz who respected and encouraged her.
Kim has written that she considers herself as "a link in the bridge of recorded female musicians in Jazz which stems back to the early 1920s [with] the International Sweethearts of Rhythm (orphan band) of Mississippi that toured and participated in band battles with the Duke Ellington Band during the 1940s."
Kim is actively engaged in paying homage to the women of jazz and nurturing the current and emerging generation. She is particularly proud of the work with the Kit McClure Big Band (Kim has been a member since 1986) to honour the International Sweethearts of Rhythm; this band has recreated and released the album The Sweethearts Project. She is also actively engaged with a group of female musicians that she describes as the "notables on the other end of the link." These include "alto saxophonists Tia Fuller and Lakecia Benjamin, and fiery drummer Kim Thompson who is currently performing with master Jazz pianist Kenny Barron and the phenomenal guitarist Mike Stern as well as Jazz String Quartet Sojourner, cellist Akua Dixon and Sherry Maricle and the Diva Big Band."
Since March 2002, Kim has co-produced the annual The Lady Got Chops, Women's Month Jazz Festival. The motivation for the festival was to help to end the anonymity dilemma of female jazz musicians. Her partners in this project are Ms Lillithe Meyers and her daughter Tiecha Merritt, the co-owners of The Jazz Spot Cafe in Brooklyn. Like Kim, Lillithe and Tiecha are also of Caribbean heritage.
Kim's career demonstrates a commitment to excellence - a quality she acquired from her grandparents and parents. She remains interested in Guyanese culture and society and advises Guyanese musicians to be focused, control their egos and to remember there is always something new to learn.
Kim Clark's story helps us to better understand the construction of the Guyanese diaspora in New York, and the circulation of musical and other creative ideas among the peoples of the African diaspora in the Americas.
Kim's story also raises other questions. For example, did Ken 'Snakehips' Johnson meet Henry Clark Sr when he met with Cab Calloway and his band in 1934? Did Henry Clark Snr know the Guyanese classical composer James Ingram Fox? Who were the other Guyanese and Caribbean musicians associated with the Harlem Renaissance?
Finally, Kim's story demonstrates that with tenacity, focus, and the quest for excellence, it is possible to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles.
Sources
Telephone interview (Vibert Cambridge, Athens, OH) and Kim Clarke (New York, NY), December 8, 2005.
Langston Hughes The best short stories by Negro writers: an anthology from 1899 to the present. Boston : Little Brown, 1967.
Albert J. McCarthy (1983) Big band jazz. London : Peerage.