Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

The Clarkson Trio

Grant Clarkson has already put out three albums this year.
Grant Clarkson has already put out three albums this year.

“For San Diego musicians, Rob Crow and Jason Mraz are pretty prolific and well-known,” says Grant Clarkson, “but neither of them has already put out three albums this year.” The multi-instrumentalist explains that his disparate endeavors required a trio of full-length releases: Free Quartet, Meditations, and Ups and Downs.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Free Quartet is an all-acoustic and all-improvisational double album recorded in January at Flight 19 Studios, featuring Richard Sellers (drums), Sky Ladd (piano), Derek Cannon (horns), and Clarkson on acoustic upright bass. “I would recommend this one to those who appreciate acoustic jazz...or just want a real ensemble album without any studio trickery. Despite the avant-garde quality, it is smooth and romantic in places.”

Meditations sports progressive rock, traditional jazz, and Latin flavors from sessions mixed down at Richard Sellers’s studio the Soul Kitchen, using methods the duo has developed over years of working together. “I compose and perform all the parts, starting with electric bass, then my Rhodes piano, guitar, and then organ and horn section by way of MIDI bass. Then I hand off the master tracks to Richard to perform and record his drum and percussion parts.”

As for Ups and Downs, “For years I’ve been building what I call my commercial reel,” says Clarkson. “These are excerpts ranging from 30 seconds to 2 minutes long, which are cut from longer compositions, with music and sound libraries in mind...the earliest pieces in this ever-growing reel date back to about 1998, and so far there are 151 pieces in there.”

So why release a full-length with 47 of these? “There’s a lot of stuff that works well in there, and putting the tracks in the right order made it take fun shape as an album. Also, my online distributor has recently made a deal with a placement curator, so all these tracks stand a fresh chance for licensing and royalties by releasing them this way.”

Not that the collection wouldn’t interest casual listeners. “I would recommend it for anyone with short attention spans.” Grant Clarkson appears on Thursday, June 21, at the San Diego County Fair, and on Sunday, June 24, at Spaghetteria in Little Italy.

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Mang Tomas, banana ketchup barred in San Diego

What will happen to Filipino Christmas here?
Grant Clarkson has already put out three albums this year.
Grant Clarkson has already put out three albums this year.

“For San Diego musicians, Rob Crow and Jason Mraz are pretty prolific and well-known,” says Grant Clarkson, “but neither of them has already put out three albums this year.” The multi-instrumentalist explains that his disparate endeavors required a trio of full-length releases: Free Quartet, Meditations, and Ups and Downs.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Free Quartet is an all-acoustic and all-improvisational double album recorded in January at Flight 19 Studios, featuring Richard Sellers (drums), Sky Ladd (piano), Derek Cannon (horns), and Clarkson on acoustic upright bass. “I would recommend this one to those who appreciate acoustic jazz...or just want a real ensemble album without any studio trickery. Despite the avant-garde quality, it is smooth and romantic in places.”

Meditations sports progressive rock, traditional jazz, and Latin flavors from sessions mixed down at Richard Sellers’s studio the Soul Kitchen, using methods the duo has developed over years of working together. “I compose and perform all the parts, starting with electric bass, then my Rhodes piano, guitar, and then organ and horn section by way of MIDI bass. Then I hand off the master tracks to Richard to perform and record his drum and percussion parts.”

As for Ups and Downs, “For years I’ve been building what I call my commercial reel,” says Clarkson. “These are excerpts ranging from 30 seconds to 2 minutes long, which are cut from longer compositions, with music and sound libraries in mind...the earliest pieces in this ever-growing reel date back to about 1998, and so far there are 151 pieces in there.”

So why release a full-length with 47 of these? “There’s a lot of stuff that works well in there, and putting the tracks in the right order made it take fun shape as an album. Also, my online distributor has recently made a deal with a placement curator, so all these tracks stand a fresh chance for licensing and royalties by releasing them this way.”

Not that the collection wouldn’t interest casual listeners. “I would recommend it for anyone with short attention spans.” Grant Clarkson appears on Thursday, June 21, at the San Diego County Fair, and on Sunday, June 24, at Spaghetteria in Little Italy.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Remote work = cleaner air for San Diego

Locals working from home went from 8.1 percent to 17.8 percent
Next Article

Live Five: Greyboy Allstars, Acoustic Revolt, Scary Pierre, Thee Sacred Souls, Glass Spells

Anniversaries, record releases, and fundraisers in Solana Beach, Ocean Beach, Little Italy, and Midway District
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader