Bennie Maupin (born 29 August 1940) is a
DetroitDetroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Wayne County. Detroit is a major port city on the Detroit River, in the Midwest region of the United States. Located north of Windsor, Ontario, Detroit is the only major U.S. city that looks south to Canada. It was founded...
jazzJazz is a musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
multireedistMultireedist is a term sometimes used to describe a musician who is a capable performer on more than one reed instrument. Many reed instruments are similar enough that if a musician plays one, they are expected to be able to play the other. Examples of this are the oboe and English horn or the...
. He performs on various
saxophoneThe saxophone is a conical-bored transposing musical instrument considered a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and are played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by Adolphe Sax in 1841...
s,
fluteThe flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind group. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
and
bass clarinetThe bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B , but it plays notes an octave below the soprano B clarinet. Bass clarinets in other keys, notably C and A, also exist, but are very rare...
.
He is probably best known for his participation in
Herbie HancockHerbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American jazz pianist and composer. He is regarded as one of the most influential jazz musicians of the 20th century. His music embraces elements of funk and soul while adopting freer stylistic elements from jazz...
's
MwandishiMwandishi is the ninth album by jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, released in 1970. It is one of Hancock's first departures from the traditional idioms of jazz as well as the onset of a new, creative and original style which produced an appeal to a wider audience, before his 1973 album, Head Hunters...
sextet and
HeadhuntersThe Headhunters are an American jazz-funk fusion band, best known for their albums they recorded as a backing band of jazz keyboard player Herbie Hancock during the 1970s. Hancock's debut album with the group, Head Hunters, is one of the best-selling jazz/fusion records of all time.-History:Herbie...
band, and for performing on
Miles DavisMiles Davis III was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer.Widely considered one of the most influential jazz musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music including cool jazz, hard bop, free jazz...
's seminal
fusionFusion or, more specifically, jazz fusion or jazz rock, is a musical genre that developed in the late 1960s from a mixture of elements of jazz such as its focus on improvisation with the rhythms and grooves of funk and R&B and the beats and heavily amplified electric instruments and electronic...
record,
Bitches BrewBitches Brew is a studio double album by jazz musician Miles Davis, released in April 1970 on Columbia Records. The album continued Davis' experimentation of electric instruments previously featured on his critically acclaimed In a Silent Way album...
. Maupin has collaborated with
Horace SilverHorace Silver , born Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silva in Norwalk, Connecticut, is an American jazz pianist and composer. His father, who was known as John Tavares Silva, was from the island of Maio in Cape Verde. His mother was born in New Canaan, Connecticut and was of Irish-African descent...
,
Roy HaynesRoy Owen Haynes is an American jazz drummer and bandleader. Haynes is one of the most recorded drummers in jazz and in his over 60-year career has played in a wide range of styles ranging from swing and bebop to jazz fusion and avant-garde jazz...
and many others. He has also performed on several
Meat Beat ManifestoMeat Beat Manifesto, often shortened to Meat Beat or MBM, is an electronic music group originally consisting of Jack Dangers and Jonny Stephens formed in 1987 in Swindon, UK...
albums. He is noted for having a harmonically-advanced, "out" improvisation style, while having a different sense of melodic direction than other "out" jazz musicians such as
Eric DolphyEric Allan Dolphy was an American jazz alto saxophonist, flautist, and bass clarinetist. Dolphy was one of several groundbreaking jazz alto players to rise to prominence in the 1960s. He was also the first important bass clarinet soloist in jazz, and among the earliest significant flute soloists...
.
Bennie Maupin (born 29 August 1940) is a
DetroitDetroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Wayne County. Detroit is a major port city on the Detroit River, in the Midwest region of the United States. Located north of Windsor, Ontario, Detroit is the only major U.S. city that looks south to Canada. It was founded...
jazzJazz is a musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
multireedistMultireedist is a term sometimes used to describe a musician who is a capable performer on more than one reed instrument. Many reed instruments are similar enough that if a musician plays one, they are expected to be able to play the other. Examples of this are the oboe and English horn or the...
. He performs on various
saxophoneThe saxophone is a conical-bored transposing musical instrument considered a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and are played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by Adolphe Sax in 1841...
s,
fluteThe flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind group. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
and
bass clarinetThe bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B , but it plays notes an octave below the soprano B clarinet. Bass clarinets in other keys, notably C and A, also exist, but are very rare...
.
Biography
He is probably best known for his participation in
Herbie HancockHerbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American jazz pianist and composer. He is regarded as one of the most influential jazz musicians of the 20th century. His music embraces elements of funk and soul while adopting freer stylistic elements from jazz...
's
MwandishiMwandishi is the ninth album by jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, released in 1970. It is one of Hancock's first departures from the traditional idioms of jazz as well as the onset of a new, creative and original style which produced an appeal to a wider audience, before his 1973 album, Head Hunters...
sextet and
HeadhuntersThe Headhunters are an American jazz-funk fusion band, best known for their albums they recorded as a backing band of jazz keyboard player Herbie Hancock during the 1970s. Hancock's debut album with the group, Head Hunters, is one of the best-selling jazz/fusion records of all time.-History:Herbie...
band, and for performing on
Miles DavisMiles Davis III was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer.Widely considered one of the most influential jazz musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music including cool jazz, hard bop, free jazz...
's seminal
fusionFusion or, more specifically, jazz fusion or jazz rock, is a musical genre that developed in the late 1960s from a mixture of elements of jazz such as its focus on improvisation with the rhythms and grooves of funk and R&B and the beats and heavily amplified electric instruments and electronic...
record,
Bitches BrewBitches Brew is a studio double album by jazz musician Miles Davis, released in April 1970 on Columbia Records. The album continued Davis' experimentation of electric instruments previously featured on his critically acclaimed In a Silent Way album...
. Maupin has collaborated with
Horace SilverHorace Silver , born Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silva in Norwalk, Connecticut, is an American jazz pianist and composer. His father, who was known as John Tavares Silva, was from the island of Maio in Cape Verde. His mother was born in New Canaan, Connecticut and was of Irish-African descent...
,
Roy HaynesRoy Owen Haynes is an American jazz drummer and bandleader. Haynes is one of the most recorded drummers in jazz and in his over 60-year career has played in a wide range of styles ranging from swing and bebop to jazz fusion and avant-garde jazz...
and many others. He has also performed on several
Meat Beat ManifestoMeat Beat Manifesto, often shortened to Meat Beat or MBM, is an electronic music group originally consisting of Jack Dangers and Jonny Stephens formed in 1987 in Swindon, UK...
albums. He is noted for having a harmonically-advanced, "out" improvisation style, while having a different sense of melodic direction than other "out" jazz musicians such as
Eric DolphyEric Allan Dolphy was an American jazz alto saxophonist, flautist, and bass clarinetist. Dolphy was one of several groundbreaking jazz alto players to rise to prominence in the 1960s. He was also the first important bass clarinet soloist in jazz, and among the earliest significant flute soloists...
. As a composer, he has an ability to create brief melodies and song forms that create vast landscapes for improvisation.
Maupin was also a member of
AlmanacAlmanac was a free jazz project whose members were Bennie Maupin , Cecil McBee , Mike Nock and Eddie Marshall .-Selected discography:"Almanac", LP, Improvising Artists Inc., 1977...
, a group with
Cecil McBeeCecil McBee is an American post bop jazz bassist, described by the Guinness Who's Who of Jazz as "a full-toned bassist who creates rich, singing phrases in a wide range of contemporary jazz contexts." Allmusic called him "One of post-bop's most advanced and versatile bassists".-Biography:McBee...
(
bassThe electric bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a plectrum....
),
Mike NockMike Nock . He began studying piano at 11 and by 18 had gigs in Australia. He headed a trio that toured England in 1961 and then attended Berklee College of Music. He was a member of Yusef Lateef's band from 1963 to 1965.During 1968-70 Nock was involved with fusion, leading the Fourth Way...
(
pianoThe piano is a musical instrument which is played by means of a keyboard. Widely used in Western music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music, and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
) and
Eddie MarshallEdwin "Eddie" Marshall is an American jazz drummer.Marshall played in his father's swing group and in R&B bands while in high school. He moved to New York City in 1956, developing his percussion style under the influence of Max Roach and Art Blakey...
(
drumsA drum set is a collection of drums, cymbals and sometimes other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person . The term "drum kit" first became used in the 1700s in Britain...
).
As leader
- 1974: The Jewel in the Lotus
- 1977: Slow Traffic to the Right
- 1978: Moonscapes
- 1998: Driving While Black on Intuition with Patrick Gleeson
Patrick Gleeson is a musician, synthesizer pioneer, composer and producer, from California, USA.In 1968, Gleeson bought a Moog synthesizer and opened recording studio Different Fur....
- 2006: Penumbra
- 2008: Early Reflections
As sideman
With Herbie HancockHerbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American jazz pianist and composer. He is regarded as one of the most influential jazz musicians of the 20th century. His music embraces elements of funk and soul while adopting freer stylistic elements from jazz...
- Mwandishi
Mwandishi is the ninth album by jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, released in 1970. It is one of Hancock's first departures from the traditional idioms of jazz as well as the onset of a new, creative and original style which produced an appeal to a wider audience, before his 1973 album, Head Hunters...
(1971)
- Crossings
Crossings is the tenth album by jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, released in 1972. It is the second album in his Mwandishi period, which saw him experimenting in electronics.-Personnel:*Herbie Hancock - Electric Piano, Mellotron, Percussion...
(1972)
- Sextant
Sextant is the eleventh album by Herbie Hancock, and the last album with his Mwandishi Band.-About the Album:Released in 1973, Sextant was Herbie Hancock's first album on Columbia Records. It was, and remains extremely complex, and a harmonically and rhythmically challenging musical statement...
(1972)
- Head Hunters
Head Hunters is the twelfth album by Herbie Hancock, released in 1973 on Columbia Records. The album is a key release in Hancock's career and a defining moment in the genre of jazz fusion. It was ranked as number 498 in the book version of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time...
(1973)
- Thrust
Thrust is a jazz fusion album by Herbie Hancock, released in 1974 on Columbia Records. It served as a follow up to Hancock's album, Head Hunters , and achieved similar commercial success, as the album reached as high as number 13 on the Billboard Hot 200 listing...
(1974)
- Flood
Flood is the eighteenth album by Herbie Hancock. It was released only in Japan in 1975. It features the Headhunters Band, performing their hits from the Head Hunters, Thrust and Man-Child albums...
(1975)
- Man-Child
Man-Child is the seventeenth album by jazz pianist Herbie Hancock. The album is arguably one of his most funk influenced albums and it represents his further departure from the "spacey, higher atmosphere jazz," as he referred to it, of his earlier career. Hancock uses more funk based rhythms around...
(1975)
- VSOP
V.S.O.P. is a 1976 jazz-funk fusion live album by keyboard player Herbie Hancock featuring performances by the V.S.O.P. Quintet , the Mwandishi band with Eddie Henderson on two tracks, and The Headhunters featuring Bennie Maupin and Paul Jackson.This album is actually much more of an acoustic bop...
(1976)
- Dis Is Da Drum
Dis Is Da Drum is the thirty-ninth album and the first solo album since leaving Columbia Records by Herbie Hancock.Tracks like "Bo Ba Be Da" and "Dis Is Da Drum" reflect Hancock's move towards Acid Jazz, while "Butterfly" makes a fourth appearance on a Hancock album following the original album ,...
(1994)
With Miles DavisMiles Davis III was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer.Widely considered one of the most influential jazz musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music including cool jazz, hard bop, free jazz...
- Bitches Brew
Bitches Brew is a studio double album by jazz musician Miles Davis, released in April 1970 on Columbia Records. The album continued Davis' experimentation of electric instruments previously featured on his critically acclaimed In a Silent Way album...
- A Tribute to Jack Johnson
A Tribute to Jack Johnson is a studio album by jazz musician Miles Davis, released February 24, 1971 on Columbia Records. It was recorded as the soundtrack for a documentary by Bill Cayton about the heavyweight world champion boxer Jack Johnson....
- Big Fun
Big Fun is a double album of tracks recorded between 1969 and 1972 by Miles Davis and his band. It was released on April 19 1974 as a double LP...
- On the Corner
On the Corner is a studio album by jazz musician Miles Davis, recorded in June and July 1972 and released later that year on Columbia Records. It was scorned by critics at the time of its release and was one of Davis's worst-selling recordings...
With others
- Lee Morgan
Lee Morgan was an American hard bop trumpeter.-Biography:Lee Morgan, a leading trumpeter and composer, recorded prolifically from 1956 until a day before his death in February 1972...
: Live at the LighthouseLive at the Lighthouse is a live album recorded by jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan and released on the Blue Note label. The album features live performances by Morgan, Bennie Maupin, Harold Mabern, Jymie Merritt and Mickey Roker recorded at the "Lighthouse Club" in Hermosa Beach, California, in July, 1970...
, Caramba!Caramba! is an album recorded by jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan and released on the Blue Note label. The album features performances by Morgan, Bennie Maupin, Cedar Walton, Reggie Workman and Billy Higgins with arrangements by Cal Massey. - Track listing :...
- Eddie Henderson
-Family influence and early music history:Henderson's mother was one of the dancers in the original Cotton Club. She had a twin sister, and they were called The Brown Twins. They would dance with Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and the Nicholas Brothers. In the film showing Fats Waller playing "Ain't...
: Inside Out, Equinox
- Jack DeJohnette
Jack DeJohnette is an American jazz drummer, pianist, and composer. DeJohnette was born in Chicago, Illinois. Besides the drums, he studied the piano, which he plays on several recordings. He first became known as a member of Charles Lloyd's band, a group that pianist Keith Jarrett also was a part...
: Have You Heard?
- McCoy Tyner
Alfred McCoy Tyner is a jazz pianist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, known for his work with the John Coltrane Quartet and a long solo career.-Early life:...
: TogetherTogether is a 1978 album by jazz pianist McCoy Tyner released on the Milestone label. It was recorded in August and September 1978 and features performances by Tyner with Freddie Hubbard, Hubert Laws, Bennie Maupin, Bobby Hutcherson, Stanley Clarke, Jack DeJohnette and Bill Summers...
, Tender MomentsTender Moments is the eighth album by jazz pianist McCoy Tyner and his second released on the Blue Note label. It was recorded in December 1967 and features performances by Tyner with Lee Morgan, Julian Priester, Bob Northern, Howard Johnson, James Spaulding, Bennie Maupin, Herbie Lewis, and Joe...
- Lenny White
Leonard White III, better known as Lenny White is an American jazz funk drummer, who is best known for playing in Chick Corea's Return to Forever and being one of the forerunners of jazz-rock/funk.-Biography:...
: Big City
- Marion Brown
Marion Brown is a jazz alto saxophonist and ethnomusicologist. He is most well-known as a member of the 1960s avant-garde jazz scene in New York City, playing alongside musicians such as John Coltrane, Archie Shepp, and John Tchicai...
: Juba Lee
- Mike Clark
Mike Clark is an American jazz and funk drummer who is most noted for playing in the Headhunters band headed up by Herbie Hancock in the mid-1970s. Clark's performance on Hancock's album Thrust, and particularly the song "Actual Proof," is often cited as one of the finest examples of the linear...
: Actual Proof
- Horace Silver
Horace Silver , born Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silva in Norwalk, Connecticut, is an American jazz pianist and composer. His father, who was known as John Tavares Silva, was from the island of Maio in Cape Verde. His mother was born in New Canaan, Connecticut and was of Irish-African descent...
: You Gotta Take a Little Love
- Lonnie Smith
He is to be distinguished from the other jazz organist and keyboardist, Lonnie Liston Smith. Dr. Lonnie Smith is a jazz musician, recognized as an exceptional player of both the Hammond B3 organ and piano....
: Turning Point
- Darek Oles: Like a Dream