Clark, Ronald

Violinist who was a member of the Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra and enjoyed a successful career as a session man.

In 1978, he appeared on Terry Callier’s Fire on Ice, Stanley Clarke’s Modern Man, and Earth, Wind & Fire’s All ‘n All. He would also appear on EWF’s follow-up album, I Am, and Frank Sinatra’s boxed set, Trilogy, in 1979. The following year, he re-united with EWF on their album, Faces, and was a member of the strings section on Tavares’s Supercharged.

The early ’80s found him in the movie studio with Elmer Bernstein on his score for the Bill Murray military comedy, Stripes. In 1983, Ronald appeared on EWF’s Powerlight.

Changing tack in 1991, he appeared on Joao Gilberto’s Joao (Eu Sambo Mesmo) (I Really Samba). (No, really.) In 1992, he recorded Le Cinema with Yasuko Agawa, peered into The Future with Leonard Cohen, appeared on Celine Dion’s self-titled album, and toasted Shirley Horn on Here’s to Life. The next year was even busier for Ronald: He was a member of the American Jazz Philharmonic for their eponymous effort, celebrated the Yuletide with Harry Connick, Jr., on When My Heart Finds Christmas and Carnie and Wendy Wilson on Hey Santa!, re-united with EWF on Millennium, accompanied Diane Schuur on Love Songs, and was an additional member of Rod Stewart’s band for his Unplugged… and Seated MTV special and the accompanying album. A year later, he appeared on Dionne Warwick’s Aquarela do Brazil. In 1995, he got in the spirit again with David Foster on The Christmas Album, offered string support on Diana Ross’s Take Me Higher, and collaborated with Curtis Stigers on Time Was. He easily made the cut on EWF’s 1996 retrospective, Elements of Love: Ballads. In 1998, he appeared on Manilow Sings Sinatra and The Message Man: The Best of D.J. Rogers.

The turn of the millennium saw the release of The Best of Earth, Wind & Fire, Vol. 2, and some more movie work for Ronald, who fiddled on the soundtrack of The Princess Diaries. In 2002, Essential Earth Wind, & Fire hit the shelves. He did more soundtrack work in 2003, on John Debney’s score for Elf, and the hit TV series, Alias. In 2004, he had the honour of appearing on Ray Charles’ last album, Genius Loves Company, and The Dana Owens Album by Queen Latifah. The two of them hooked up again on Queen Latifah’s 2007 release, Trav’lin’ Light. In 2008, he made the cut on The Collection of Leonard Cohen.

Other albums on which he appears are Neil Diamond’s The Movie Album: As Time Goes By, Dr. John’s Afterglow, The Manhattan Transfer’s Christmas Album, and Kenny Rogers’ Timepiece.

Here’s “I’ll Write a Song for You” by Earth, Wind & Fire which Ronald performed on..

Sources:

Clark, Ronald

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