Clarence Seay
Clarence Seay (born January 7, 1957, Washington, DC) is an American jazz bassist and composer. He was the bassist with the Wallace Roney Quintet for over 15 years. Seay, also known as "Big C", is a disciple of the Paul Chambers school of jazz bass playing which features a style of walking harmonically inventive bass lines in a robust manner by positioning strings relatively high from the fingerboard – a practice mostly abandoned by modern bass players because of its physical difficulty.
Clarence Seay
Bethbar5 at English Wikipedia · Public domain
- Born
- 1957 · Washington and D.C.
- Nationality
- United States
- Occupation
- musician
- Fields
- jazz · post-bop
In this article
As sideman
In addition to Roney, Seay has recorded and/or toured domestically and internationally with several renowned jazz artists and groups including Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Wynton Marsalis, Billy Harper, Chico Freeman, Lou Donaldson and the Smithsonian Jazz Works Orchestra. Seay attended Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, DC, with Wallace Roney and Gregory Charles Royal in the 1970s and attended Howard University with them and pianist Geri Allen in the 1980s. Seay was an adjunct professor at the Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond for over 10 years in the 1980s and 90s. He was commissioned by the United States Post Office to compose and perform on their Album Commemorating America's Celebration of Jazz.
With Wallace Roney • Mistérios (Warner Bros., 1994) • Village (Warner Bros., 1997) With Billy Harper • Destiny Is Yours (SteepleChase, 1990) • If Our Hearts Could Only See (DIW, 1998) • Soul of an Angel (Metropolitan, 2000) • Blueprints of Jazz Vol. 2 (Talking House, 2008) With Cindy Blackman • Arcane (Muse, 1987) • Telepathy (Muse, 1992 [1994]) With Wynton Marsalis • Wynton Marsalis (Columbia, 1982) • Gregory Charles Royal (with Geri Allen) • Dream Come True • David Esleck Trio (with Clarence Penn) • Three
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Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Clarence Seay, revision 1338905499 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
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- 1.[ Yanow, Scott. allmusic]
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 29 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Music memorabilia
41,854 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Clarence PennPerson
- Clarence ProfitPerson
- Clarence RaybouldPerson
- Clarence Rufus J. RiversPerson
- Clarence SharpePerson
- Clarence ShawPerson
- Clarence WheelerPerson
- Clarence WhitePerson
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