Mike Clark - Itai Doshin

GA Russell · 2025-08-25T02:40:58Z

Mike Clark Delivers

A Multifaceted But Always

Groove-Anchored Array on

"Itai Doshin,"

Releasing October 3 on

Wide Hive Records

Album Is a Collection of Standards, Covers, Clark Originals, &

A Collective Improvisation

Performed by a Select Quintet Featuring

Eddie Henderson, Craig Handy, Patrice Rushen, Henry Franklin

CD Release Shows at SFJAZZ, San Francisco, 10/4-5, &

Kuumbwa Jazz, Santa Cruz, 10/6

August 21, 2025

As ever, drummer Mike Clark refuses to conform to anyone’s expectations on Itai Doshin, set to release October 3—the leader’s 79th birthday—on Wide Hive Records. The celebrated Californian’s second Wide Hive album is a searing set of (mostly) straightahead jazz that keeps listeners guessing even as it never wavers from Clark’s solid, unerring sense of swing. Joining Clark for the festivities is a true all-star quintet that includes trumpeter and NEA Jazz Master Eddie Henderson, tenor saxophonist Craig Handy, pianist Patrice Rushen, and bassist Henry “The Skipper” Franklin.

The title of Itai Doshin translates from Japanese to “many in body, one in mind”: a state in which a group of people share a mental and spiritual unity. Technically it’s a concept in Nichiren Buddhism, but it’s very much like what jazz musicians call “in the pocket.” Regardless of what you call it, Clark and the band are unquestionably in that state on the album, converging on a shared groove that they pass back and forth amongst each other in their improvised solos.

That’s no accident. All of the players are not only virtuosos in their own rights, but seasoned veterans whom Clark has known and worked with for years. “Itai Doshin accurately and honestly captures where I am as a jazz artist at this point,” says Clark. “The artists I have chosen to play on this date, along with the arrangements of Towner Galaher, brought my musical vision to life. I have played jazz with Eddie Henderson most of my life. I first recorded with Patrice at the beginning of my recording career, at the Hyde Street Studio where we also recorded Itai Doshin. She always brings her ‘A’ game! Craig Handy, also a Herbie Hancock alumnus, is one of my brothers from Oakland who like myself is a New York transplant. He is one of our greatest voices on tenor! Henry ‘The Skipper’ Franklin, a legend who I have made many gigs with, was my first choice on bass. As a Buddhist bandleader, I can say that this band delivers Actual Proof!”

Produced by Wide Hive’s Gregory Howe, arranged by drummer Towner Galaher, and bookended by two hard-driving takes on Thelonious Monk’s “Epistrophy” (an unofficial theme song for Clark), the album is full of the kind of surprises that will keep even the most jaded listener on their toes. From a rare and tender ballad rendition of Ray Noble’s “Cherokee” (with a gorgeous Franklin solo) to a Fender Rhodes-driven, deep-fried soul treatment of Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff,” to Clark’s own jump-blues swinger “Yakini’s Dance” that’s highlighted by rollicking Henderson and Rushen lines, Itai Doshin consistently shows that Clark and his cohorts can take the music anywhere and everywhere, achieving highly successful results every time.

That even includes a free-jazz workout, “Savant Clark”: an unheralded bit of abstraction that strays from expectations for a dyed-in-the-wool groover like Clark. But of course, any jazz musician worth his salt has to be ready for anything, especially if that musician came up through a band as hip, shapeshifting, and unpredictable as Herbie Hancock’s electro-funk outfit Headhunters, as Clark did. Moreover, the piece has a rhythmic propulsion of its own, riding on snare-drum waves that the leader pushes forward with kicks and cymbals. Clark is game for anything on Itai Doshin—and the album makes listeners game for anything too.

Mike Clark was born October 3, 1946 in the postwar boomtown of Sacramento, California. His father, George, was a railroad switchman and union representative who was also a jazz drummer. The elder Clark bought a kit for his son and was stunned when he heard the four-year-old play a perfect Gene Krupa lick. Before he attended school, Clark was sitting in with bands around Sacramento—and then in Texas, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and New Orleans as he accompanied his father on job assignments.

By the time he graduated high school and moved to Oakland, where he lived with bassist and best friend Paul Jackson, Clark was working seven nights a week. He and Jackson were something of a house rhythm section at San Francisco’s Both/And Club, and Clark made his first recordings with Bay Area pianist Vince Guaraldi. However, the turning point in his career came in 1973, when Jackson won the bass chair in keyboard star Herbie Hancock’s funk-fusion ensemble Headhunters—and original drummer Harvey Mason left shortly thereafter. Clark took over behind the kit, traveling the world with the Headhunters and with Hancock as a solo artist, earning his credentials as a hard-edged funk drummer (with no shortage of swing, R&B, and freeform improvisation inserted into the mix).

But Clark was never content in so wide-ranging a box. He spent the nearly 50 years after the Headhunters’ heyday freelancing with a panoply of jazz and adjacent musicians, including Tony Bennett, Eddie Henderson, Dave Liebman, Babatunde Olatunji, Chet Baker, Julius Hemphill, Andrew Hill, Dr. Lonnie Smith, and Christian McBride, among countless others. He recorded his own debut as a leader, Give the Drummer Some, in 1989, going on to record nearly two dozen more times as a leader or co-leader and receiving near-universal acclaim for his work.

CD release shows with the Itai Doshin band (with Essiet Essiet subbing for Franklin) are planned at SFJAZZ, San Francisco, Sat. 10/4 and Sun. 10/5, and at Kuumbwa Jazz, Santa Cruz, Mon. 10/6.