Collaborating with Bertha Hope by Kim Clarke

Kim with Bertha Hope, Gene Ghee, Luciana Padmore, Eddie Allen

At Jazzmobile, I was introduced to Bertha Hope by Sharon Freeman, a fellow instructor. Our paths crossed again, through Cobi Narita, founder of the first Women’s Jazz Festival that George Wein managed, later. We worked with Kit McClure’s Big Band and, in 2013, after the passing of bassist Carline Ray, I joined Ms. Hope’s group Jazzberry Jam. Today, Bertha is the Vice President of Lady Got Chops Women’s History Month Music And Arts Festival, Inc., a 501(c)(3) formed in 2015, and the Lady Got Chops Jazz Festival, a collaboration between the late Lillithe Meyers, her daughter Tiecha Merritt, and me at their Jazz Spot Café in Brooklyn, New York. I learned HTML coding to create a calendar for the Jazz Spot and, after its closing in 2009, I continued to promote Women in Music as a celebration of Women’s History Month.

Bertha Hope celebrates her first husband Elmo Hope’s centennial with performances of his original music. He was a great pianist and composer, and an architect of Bebop piano. I play bass with Ms. Hope (piano), Gene Ghee (sax), Eddie Allen (trumpet), and Lucianna Padmore (drums). Also, I maintain the band’s website #Elmo@100, hosting biographies, links, and announcements for the band. http://ladygotchops.com/elmo100.html

Originally self-taught, Kim Clarke received three National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Study Fellowships to study with legendary bassists Ron Carter, Buster Williams, and Lisle Atkinson. Kim is a graduate of CCNY and Long Island University with B.A.’s in Communications and Music. She studied with Jazz Master Extraordinaire Professor Barry Harris, Jazzmobile Workshop, and was the house bassist at Barry Harris’ Jazz Cultural Theatre’s Art Blakey Breakfast Jam for four years. Her 56-year jazz career began with the National Black Theatre’s play, A Soul Journey into Truth in Guyana and Trinidad, and included a two-month West Coast USA tour with saxophonist Yusef Lateef. She had a year-long tour with the Joe Henderson Quartet.

For 24 years, she has been the first-call bassist in the internationally known Kit McClure Big Band. For 40 years, she toured and recorded with Joseph Bowie and Defunkt. She performed with the Teri Thornton Trio, for six years, and with the Bertha Hope Trio and Jazzberry Jam for 18 years. Currently, Kim performs in the Bertha Hope Quintet for the Elmo Hope Centennial (#ELMO@100). Recently, she completed a tour with Ronnie Burrage’s Holographic Principle Band.

Kim performed with Marylou Williams, the Mother of Modern Jazz Piano, saxophonist and educator Jimmy Heath, Jazz vocalist Leon Thomas, pianist and composer Sun Ra, vocalists Dakota Staton, Sarah Vaughn, Sheila Jordan, poets Sekou Sundiata, Ntozake Shange writer of the Obie Award-winning play, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When The Rainbow Is Enuf.

Kim’s arranging credits include Queen Latifah’s Winki’s Theme on the Black Reign album. She was featured in Guitar Player and Bass Player magazines for her work with Defunkt. She is listed on Ivan Bartowski’s Jazz Family Tree Map, pictured on The Girls In The Band photograph, the women’s version of A Great Day In Harlem photo, and listed in Who’s Who in Entertainment. Kim was featured in the 2021 issue of Musicwoman Magazine, in Women Who Pluck Strings.