Whether or not you know Mike Clark's name, you've heard his drumming.

Clark's sound is everywhere from his voluminous jazz discography to the classic beats he laid down with Herbie and the Headhunters, which have been sampled by Dr. Dre, Grandmaster Flash, and countless other rap artists. Widely regarded as one of the foremost living jazz and funk drummers, Clark has spent an eight-decade career at the crossroads of American music, working with pioneers and living legends across jazz, hip-hop, and rock 'n roll.

From the age of 4, Clark was sitting in and gigging with bands across the South, backing blues legend Albert King while still in high school. Over time, he parlayed his prodigious talent and soaring reputation into increasingly impressive gigs; along with Herbie Hancock, his collaborators have ranged from pop stars like Phil Collins to jazz royalty like Chet Baker. Told in Clark's inimitable voice, this is a story of musical redemption: as a white man in a field dominated by black musicians yet controlled by white industry magnates, he witnessed discriminatory decisions from both sides, but Buddhism and a bottomless well of creativity enabled him to transcend generational bitterness and devote himself singlemindedly to the center of his universe-his music.

Mike Clark is considered one of America's foremost jazz and funk drummers. His incisive playing on Herbie Hancock's “Actual Proof,” on the 1974 record of the same name, created an international cult following and influenced generations of drummers throughout the world. His drumming can also be heard on the perennial Vince Guaraldi's A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving soundtrack, among countless others. Clark belongs to a podcast group, Stick People, (4,500 followers) in which he interviews popular jazz drummers, including Dave Garibaldi of Tower of Power, Lenny White of Return to Forever, Greg Errico of Sly and the Family Stone, and Michael Shrieve of Santana.

Bill Milkowski is an American jazz critic, journalist and author who has been writing about music since 1980. A recipient of the Jazz Journalists Association's Helen Oakley Dance-Robert Palmer Award for Excellence in Magazine Writing in 2004 and the JJA's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011, he received the Montreal International Jazz Festival's prestigious Bruce Lundvall Award in 2015. He is the author of seven books, over one thousands sets of liner notes, and over five thousand stories for publications including Down Beat, Jazz Times, Jazziz, and Paste. His most recent book is Ode to a Tenor Titan: The Life and Times of Michael Brecker (Backbeat 2022).