| Jazz |
At 79, Mike Clark Finds Unity and Groove in Itai Doshin.
At an age when most musicians might be content to rest on legacy, drummer Mike Clark keeps the groove alive. His new album, Itai Doshin, embraces classic bebop form with unshakable confidence and clarity. The title, a Japanese phrase meaning “many bodies, one mind”, refers to a state of shared unity. In Buddhist thought, it describes spiritual harmony; in jazz, Clark says, it’s what happens when a band locks into the same pocket.
On this recording, Clark and his ensemble inhabit that state completely. The playing is tight but unforced, the solos spirited but never showy. The chemistry feels earned, the kind that comes only from decades of shared history onstage and in studios.
Itai Doshin doesn’t try to reinvent jazz. Instead, it refines it. The record’s strength lies in its assurance, in how naturally it delivers the language of straight-ahead swing without self-consciousness. Listening feels like sitting in a small club, surrounded by musicians who know exactly what they’re doing and why.
That sense of comfort is by design. “Itai Doshin honestly reflects where I am as a jazz artist today,” Clark says. “The musicians I chose for that session, along with Towner Galaher’s arrangements, brought my vision to life. I’ve played jazz with Eddie Henderson almost my entire life. I first recorded with Patrice early in my career at Hyde Street Studios, the same place we returned to for this album.”
Clark’s résumé reads like a who’s who of postwar jazz. Nearly fifty years after his work with Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters redefined funk fusion, he remains a sought-after collaborator. Over the years, he’s played with Tony Bennett, Chet Baker, Eddie Henderson, Dave Liebman, Babatunde Olatunji, Julius Hemphill, Andrew Hill, Dr. Lonnie Smith, and Christian McBride, among many others. His first solo record, Give the Drummer Some (1989), announced him as a leader of uncommon drive and imagination. He’s since released nearly twenty albums under his own name, earning consistent critical praise.
If Itai Doshin feels timeless, it’s because of the experience behind it. Clark plays with delicacy and poetry, guiding the band through arrangements that leave space for interplay and surprise. His drumming, crisp, conversational, and quietly daring, becomes the album’s narrative voice. The other players respond with equal grace, turning even familiar forms into small moments of discovery.
This isn’t a record of reinvention, but of reaffirmation, a reminder of how much can still be said within the classic jazz vocabulary. For listeners, Itai Doshin offers a kind of homecoming. Whether your taste runs toward intricate bebop or the purer strains of swing, there’s comfort and vitality here.
At 79, Mike Clark remains exactly what he’s always been: a drummer who listens as deeply as he plays, a musician for whom unity, many bodies, one mind, is both the method and the message.
Thierry De Clemensat
Member at Jazz Journalists Association
USA correspondent for Paris-Move and ABS magazine
Editor in chief – Bayou Blue Radio, Bayou Blue News
PARIS-MOVE, October 10th 2025
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Musicians :
Mike Clark: Drums
Eddie Henderson: Trumpet
Craig Handy: Tenor saxophone
Patrice Rushen: Piano and Rhodes
Henry “The Skipper” Franklin: Bass
Track Listing:
- EPISTROPHY
- CHEROKEE
- MGANGA
- INSIDE ZONE
- I SHOT THE SHERRIF
- SAVANT CLARK
- MIDORI
- YAKINI’S DANCE
- EPISTROPHY II