Steve Clarke

Steve Clarke was born and raised in the "Hollow" of Bridgeport, CT and later moved to the east end of Bridgeport. He is the sixth of twelve children born to Haywood and Ruthe Clarke.

Steve is from a musically inclined family. His father played the trumpet along side the late Eddie and Bobby Buster from New Haven, CT during the 1950's. His oldest brother Haywood was also a jazz musician. Additionally his other brothers played trumpet, bugle, and cornet particularly in the drum and bugle corps.

Steve at an early age took his first musical lesson on the accordion. It was short lived by a new desire at age fourteen to experiment with the drums. A few years later he found a love for the bass guitar and asked a friend Tim Mallory to show him a few bass lines. Needless to say the bass guitar became his love.

Steve went on playing the bass and practicing alone and with friends for hours. He began playing well enough that he started playing with local bands at area clubs.

He then answeared an ad from a newspaper that was looking for a bass player to go on tour. He found himself playing in the backup bands for The Drifters, The Coasters, Mary Wells, and Sam & Daves.

Steve began to really take music seriously He went on to take classes at Housatonic Comminity College with the hope of learning as much as possible about music. While in school he began playing bass for the Sonny Costanzo Big Bang. During this time they became the house band at Quinnapiac College where famous jazz artists were featured such as Clark Terry, Jimmy Heath and others.

While working a full job, gigging, and going to school, Steve studied bass with Brian Torff and took piano lessons with Jay Fredricks at Westport Jazz Academy.

Shortly after graduating from Housatonic Community College, Steve went on tour in Germany with the Laczo Deczi's band "Cellula" in 1988 and Europe in 1998.

Steve continued to play with local bands and became interested in writing, producing and recording his own material.

He went on to The Institude of Audio Research to learn the business of music and recording. He graduated from there and began his own music recording business, Q-UP Studios and Music Productions. He now records other artist as well as himself. He formulated a record label know as Hop-N-Bop Records and has released himself as their first artist.

Steves newest CD is titled, "Kickin' It" and is available now. Steve has shown the power of his abilities and the force behind it. You'll find that this CD displays a beautiful range of composites from the bebop sax work done over an ostinato synth bass in the track "Hop-N-Bop" to the unbelievable drum programming and muted trumpet sound reminiscent of Miles Davis on the track "Funky Nu Beat." The title track has courageous rapper Mike Mizzy flowing over a live track that leads to a bass solo that's kicking it over an outrageously funky rhythm section. "Sweat" and "Bassemody" demonstrates the bass as the melodic instrument, while "Open Forum" and "City Strolling" grooves and swings respectively opening up the opportunity to raise the roof on any jam session. "In The Groove?" Well...it's in the groove