Jacam Manricks Band ft/ Mike Clark

JAZZ@theEDGE! Jacam Manricks Band featuring Mike Clark

Sri Lankan/Portuguese Australian born saxophonist/composer Jacam Manricks was raised in a musical family.  His parents were resident classical musicians in the state symphony in his hometown of Brisbane and his grandfather was a famous Portuguese jazz clarinetist and saxophonist in Sri Lanka. As a child Jacam frequently attended his parents’ symphony concerts and was introduced to jazz at home through his fathers’ jazz record collection. Due to these surroundings, Jacam was able to build a diverse musical foundation from a young age that combined jazz and classical music, two genres that continue to influence his music today.

As a saxophonist and woodwind player, Jacam has performed and/or recorded with some of the most prestigious international artists of our time. He has performed at venues such as the Jazz Standard, the Jazz Gallery, Cornelia Street Café, Smalls, and Jazz at Lincoln Center. As a composer, soloist and ensemble leader, Jacam has recorded six albums to date (Sky’s the Limit, Labyrinth, Trigonometry, Could Nine, Chamber Jazz, and GilManricks).  His music has been highly commended in major jazz magazines, websites and newspapers in the United States, Canada, France, Italy, Ireland, Germany, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere and has toured extensively throughout Europe, Australia, Canada and the US as a soloist and/or bandleader.

Jacam has composed works for a number of different ensembles worldwide. These include a Suite for Symphony Orchestra and Big Band, which was premiered as a part of the Manhattan School of Music’s 90th Anniversary Celebration Concert in New York in October 2007. The concert featured Jacam as composer/orchestrator and alto saxophone soloist. He has written and/or conducted other works for the William Patterson University Big Band (New Jersey, USA), the Manhattan School of Music Jazz Orchestra (New York, USA), The Mothership Jazz Orchestra (Sydney, Australia), numerous ensembles at the Helsinki Polytechnics Pop and Jazz Conservatory (Finland), the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo (Norway Fall-2010), and the Queensland Conservatorium of Music (Brisbane, Australia).

“He’s a great jazz drummer—and he hasn’t lost any of the stuff that he brought from Oakland. So now he’s totally free to do both, and he does. The solo he played on the album Thrust, on the song “Actual Proof,” is one of the best drum solos on any of my albums. So many people have remarked about that solo, saying, ‘Incredible.’”

-Herbie Hancock

Mike Clark gained worldwide recognition as one of America’s foremost jazz and funk drummers while playing with Herbie Hancock in the early seventies. His incisive playing on Hancock’s “Actual Proof” garnered him an international cult following and influenced generations of drummers. While Mike digs the funk, he consider jazz his first love, and playing that music is what he says feeds his soul.

Besides Herbie Hancock, Mike has performed and recorded with such well-known jazz greats as Christian McBride, Chet Baker, John Scofield, Nicholas Payton, Tony Bennett, Wayne Shorter, Joe Henderson, Donald Harrison, Eddie Henderson, Bobby Hutcherson, Vince Guaraldi, Woody Shaw, Albert King, Larry Coryell, Mike Wolff, Wallace Roney, Billy Childs, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Chris Potter, Bobby McFerrin, Nat Adderly, Oscar Brown Jr., and Gil Evans and his Orchestra.

As a bandleader, his release “Give The Drummer Some” earned a rare four and a half stars in Downbeat. “The Funk Stops Here,” a joint effort with Hancock alumni Paul Jackson got five stars, as did 2011’s “Carnival of Soul.” In 2001, his solo CD “Actual Proof” met with critical acclaim, as did the 2003 acoustic jazz release, “Summertime,” featuring Chris Potter and Billy Childs, which spent weeks in the top ten jazz charts. 2009’s “Blueprints of Jazz” featuring Patrice Rushen, Randy Brecker, Donald Harrison, Rob Dixon, and Christian McBride was considered one of the top jazz releases of the new millenium by Downbeat magazine.