Jazz Articles about Mike Clark

About Mike Clark

Album Review

Vince Guaraldi: It's a Mystery, Charlie Brown

Read "It's a Mystery, Charlie Brown" reviewed by Joshua Weiner

by Joshua Weiner
September 11, 2026

The winsome series of pianist Vince Guaraldi's soundtracks for the original Peanuts television specials is a gift from Lee Mendelson Film Productions that keeps on giving. Arriving just in time for “spooky season" is the premiere release of music from 1974's It's a Mystery, Charlie Brown, with three colored vinyl pressings unique to individual retailers (Urban Outfitters, Barnes & Noble, and Think Indie) available on September 11, 2026, followed by the wide release of black vinyl, CD, and digital versions ...

Album Review

Mike Clark: Kuon Ganjo

Read "Kuon Ganjo" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
August 8, 2026

Not much is really new on veteran drummer Mike Clark's 2026 album, Kuon Ganjo (Time Without Beginning), which encompasses a series of nine hard-bop themes performed by Clark's able quintet. Having said that, the most reasonable question is, do they do it well? And the answer to that is an unequivocal yes. Clark, who has been around the block more than a few times during his decades-long career as a jazz/funk timekeeper and is perhaps best known for ...

Album Review

Daggerboard: The Skipper and Mike Clark

Read "The Skipper and Mike Clark" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
March 31, 2026

The rhythm section--more specifically, bassist Henry “The Skipper" Franklin and drummer Mike Clark--is front and center on the fourth recording by San Francisco Bay-area Daggerboard, the brainchild of trumpeter Erik Jekabson and percussionist Gregory Howe, who have enlisted a large array of supporting actors to help refine and sharpen their unique musical vision. That includes a four-member string section on three of the album's ten numbers, two of which ("Tanzanian Skies," the closing “Ruaha Daybreak") were written by ...

Multiple Reviews

Mike Clark and Phil Haynes: Keep Beating The Drum(s)

by Doug Collette
February 9, 2026

A great drummer is the driving force of any band's performances, whether on stage or in the studio. So, is it any surprise that jazz ensembles led by drummers invariably evince strong collective personalities, even if the members of those groups are as self-motivated and inner-directed as their leader(s)? Each of these bands, led by Mike Clark and Phil Haynes, exhibit a distinct persona, each reflecting the salient virtues of their leaders: a predilection for adventure, a tangible humility, and ...

Album Review

Mike Clark: Itai Doshin

Read "Itai Doshin" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
November 14, 2025

Itai Doshin is a Buddhist term that, translated from Japanese, refers to a state of harmony wherein individuals share a common goal and purpose, or “many in body, one in mind." That is the level California-based drum legend Mike Clark's quintet strives for on Clark's second album on Gregory Howe's Wide Hive label. Is the mission accomplished? That is for the listener to decide. What can be said is that everyone gives it his (or her) best ...

Album Review

Mike Clark: Standard Deviations

Read "Standard Deviations" reviewed by Scott Gudell

by Scott Gudell
October 7, 2025

The goal of Mike and Mike--as in Mike Clark on drums and Mike Zilber on saxophone--the co-leaders on Standard Deviations--was to take eight jazz and pop standards (with one Zilber original) and reinterpret them by adding their 21th century interpretation to them (with the help of Jon Davis on piano and Alex Claffy on bass). Over the course of nearly an hour, the success ratio of the quartet is high. Clark first appeared on record in the 1970s, ...

Album Review

Mike Clark: Standard Deviations

Read "Standard Deviations" reviewed by Paul Rauch

by Paul Rauch
August 6, 2025

Bringing new life to jazz standards is a longtime tradition in jazz, whether it be on the bandstand or in the studio. With their latest Sunnyside recording, Standard Deviations, the iconic drummer Mike Clark and Los Angeles-based tenor saxophonist Michael Zilber venture there once again, following Mike Drop, their 2021 Sunnyside release. The result is a swinging session of jazz pearls in quartet mode, with pianist Joe Davis and bassist Alex Claffey joining in the fun. Clark, for ...