Max Bennett (musician)
Encyclopedia
Max Bennett is an American jazz
bassist and session musician
.
Bennett grew up in Kansas City
and Oskaloosa, Iowa
, and went to college in Iowa. His first professional gig was with Herbie Fields
in 1949, and following this he played with Georgie Auld
, Terry Gibbs
, and Charlie Ventura
. He served in the Army
during the Korean War
from 1951–53, and then played with Stan Kenton
before moving to Los Angeles
. There he played regularly at the Lighthouse Cafe
with his own ensemble, and played behind such vocalists as Peggy Lee
, Ella Fitzgerald
, Joni Mitchell
and Joan Baez
through the 1970s. He also recorded with Charlie Mariano
, Conte Candoli
, Bob Cooper
, Bill Holman
, Stan Levey
, Lou Levy
, Coleman Hawkins
and Jack Montrose
.
Bennett recorded under his own name from the late 1950s, and did extensive work as a composer and studio musician in addition to jazz playing. He played bass on many records by The Monkees
and The Partridge Family
, and was one of the musicians Frank Zappa
used for the Hot Rats
project. He also played on later Zappa albums such as Chunga's Revenge
. His studio work also included bass on the Lalo Schifrin
soundtrack to the 1969 film Bullitt
as well as "Greatest Science Fiction Hits" Volumes 1-3 with Neil Norman & His Cosmic Orchestra.
Bennett continued with his own band, L.A. Express, which included Joe Sample
, Larry Carlton
and John Guerin
, under the leadership of Tom Scott
. After this band, Bennett formed his own group Freeway, and currently heads his most recent band, Private Reserve."
With Gábor Szabó
and Bob Thiele
*Tv, Film, & Motion Picture Sound Tracks
Written By:
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
bassist and session musician
Session musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...
.
Bennett grew up in Kansas City
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
and Oskaloosa, Iowa
Oskaloosa, Iowa
Oskaloosa is the county seat of Mahaska County, Iowa, United States. The population was 11,463 in the 2010 census, an increase from 10,938 in the 2000 census. -History:...
, and went to college in Iowa. His first professional gig was with Herbie Fields
Herbie Fields
Herbie Fields was a jazz musician. He attended New York's famed Juilliard School of Music and served in the U.S. Army from 1941–1943.-Career:...
in 1949, and following this he played with Georgie Auld
Georgie Auld
Georgie Auld was a jazz tenor saxophonist, clarinetist and bandleader.Auld was born John Altwerger in Toronto...
, Terry Gibbs
Terry Gibbs
Terry Gibbs is an American jazz vibraphonist and band leader.He has performed and/or recorded with Tommy Dorsey, Chubby Jackson, Buddy Rich, Woody Herman, Benny Goodman, Louie Bellson, Charlie Shavers, Mel Tormé, Buddy DeFranco, and others...
, and Charlie Ventura
Charlie Ventura
Charlie Ventura was a tenor saxophonist and bandleader.Ventura was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He had his first successes working with Gene Krupa. In 1945 he won the Down Beat readers' poll in the tenor saxophone division...
. He served in the Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
during the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
from 1951–53, and then played with Stan Kenton
Stan Kenton
Stanley Newcomb "Stan" Kenton was a pianist, composer, and arranger who led a highly innovative, influential, and often controversial American jazz orchestra. In later years he was widely active as an educator....
before moving to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. There he played regularly at the Lighthouse Cafe
Lighthouse Café
The Lighthouse Café is a nightclub located at 30 Pier Avenue in Hermosa Beach, California. It has been active as a jazz showcase since 1949 and, under the name "The Lighthouse", was one of the central West Coast jazz clubs from the 1950s through the late 1970s....
with his own ensemble, and played behind such vocalists as Peggy Lee
Peggy Lee
Peggy Lee was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress in a career spanning six decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local radio to singing with Benny Goodman's big band, she forged a sophisticated persona, evolving into a multi-faceted artist and...
, Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...
, Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
and Joan Baez
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
through the 1970s. He also recorded with Charlie Mariano
Charlie Mariano
Carmine Ugo Mariano was an American jazz alto saxophonist. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts and died in Cologne, Germany.-Biography:Mariano was the son of Italian immigrants....
, Conte Candoli
Conte Candoli
Secondo "Conte" Candoli was an American jazz trumpeter based on the West Coast. He played in the big bands of Woody Herman, Stan Kenton, Benny Goodman, and Dizzy Gillespie, and in Doc Severinsen's NBC Orchestra on The Tonight Show. He played with Gerry Mulligan, and on Frank Sinatra's TV specials...
, Bob Cooper
Bob Cooper (musician)
Bob Cooper was a West Coast jazz musician known primarily for playing tenor saxophone, but also for being one of the first to play solos on oboe. He worked in Stan Kenton's band starting in 1945 and married the band's singer June Christy...
, Bill Holman
Bill Holman (musician)
Willis Leonard Holman , known also as Bill Holman, is an American composer/arranger, conductor, saxophonist, and songwriter working primarily in the jazz idiom....
, Stan Levey
Stan Levey
Stan Levey was an American jazz drummer. Born in Philadelphia, Levey is considered one of the earliest bebop drummers, one of the very few white drummers involved in the formative years of bebop and accepted as one of bop's most important drummers, along with Kenny Clarke and Max Roach...
, Lou Levy
Lou Levy (pianist)
Louis A. Levy , generally known as Lou Levy, was a bebop-based pianist who worked with many top jazz artists, later coming to embrace the cool jazz medium and playing in that style as well .Levy was born to Jewish parents in Chicago and started playing piano when he was 12...
, Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Randolph Hawkins was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Hawkins was one of the first prominent jazz musicians on his instrument. As Joachim E. Berendt explained, "there were some tenor players before him, but the instrument was not an acknowledged jazz horn"...
and Jack Montrose
Jack Montrose
Jack Montrose was a jazz tenor saxophonist and arranger. After attending university in Los Angeles he worked with Jerry Gray and then Art Pepper. Montrose also did arrangements for Clifford Brown...
.
Bennett recorded under his own name from the late 1950s, and did extensive work as a composer and studio musician in addition to jazz playing. He played bass on many records by The Monkees
The Monkees
The Monkees are an American pop rock group. Assembled in Los Angeles in 1966 by Robert "Bob" Rafelson and Bert Schneider for the American television series The Monkees, which aired from 1966 to 1968, the musical acting quartet was composed of Americans Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork,...
and The Partridge Family
The Partridge Family
The Partridge Family is an American television sitcom about a widowed mother and her five children who embark on a music career. The series originally ran from September 25, 1970 until August 31, 1974, the last new episode airing on March 23, 1974, on the ABC network, as part of a Friday-night lineup...
, and was one of the musicians Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
used for the Hot Rats
Hot Rats
Hot Rats is the second solo album by Frank Zappa. It was released in October 1969. Five of the six songs are instrumental . It was Zappa's first recording project after the dissolution of the original Mothers of Invention...
project. He also played on later Zappa albums such as Chunga's Revenge
Chunga's Revenge
Chunga's Revenge is an album by Frank Zappa, released on October 23, 1970. Zappa's first effort of the 1970s marks the first appearance of former Turtles members Flo & Eddie on a Zappa record, and signals the dawn of a controversial epoch in Zappa's history...
. His studio work also included bass on the Lalo Schifrin
Lalo Schifrin
Lalo Schifrin is an Argentine composer, pianist and conductor. He is best known for his film and TV scores, such as the "Theme from Mission: Impossible". He has received four Grammy Awards and six Oscar nominations...
soundtrack to the 1969 film Bullitt
Bullitt
Bullitt is a 1968 American police procedural film starring Steve McQueen, Jacqueline Bisset and Robert Vaughn. It was directed by Peter Yates and distributed by Warner Bros. The story was adapted for the screen by Alan Trustman and Harry Kleiner, based on the 1963 novel Mute Witness by Robert L....
as well as "Greatest Science Fiction Hits" Volumes 1-3 with Neil Norman & His Cosmic Orchestra.
Bennett continued with his own band, L.A. Express, which included Joe Sample
Joe Sample
Joseph Leslie "Joe" Sample is an American pianist, keyboard player and composer.He is one of the founding members of the Jazz Crusaders, the band which became simply The Crusaders in 1971, and remained a part of the group until its final album in 1991 .- Biography :Sample began playing the piano...
, Larry Carlton
Larry Carlton
Larry Carlton is an American jazz, smooth jazz, jazz fusion, pop, and rock guitarist and singer. He has divided his recording time between solo recordings and session appearances with various well-known bands...
and John Guerin
John Guerin
John Payne Guerin worked as a drummer, percussionist, and recording artist worldwide.Guerin was born in Hawaii and raised in San Diego. As a young drummer he began performing with Buddy DeFranco in 1960...
, under the leadership of Tom Scott
Tom Scott (musician)
Tom Scott is an American saxophonist, composer, arranger, conductor and bandleader of the west coast jazz/jazz fusion ensemble The L.A. Express.-Biography:Scott was born in Los Angeles, California...
. After this band, Bennett formed his own group Freeway, and currently heads his most recent band, Private Reserve."
As leader
- Max Bennett Quintet (Bethlehem RecordsBethlehem RecordsBethlehem Records was a record label based in New York and Hollywood founded by Gus Wildi in 1953. It was bought by King Records in the early 1960s....
, 1955) - Max Bennett Sextet (Bethlehem, 1956)
- Max Bennett Septet, Quartet & Trio (Bethlehem, 1956)
- Max Bennett with Charlie Mariano (Bethlehem)
- Interchange (Palo Alto RecordsPalo Alto RecordsPalo Alto Records was a jazz record label that released most of its discography in the 1980s. The label was founded in 1981 by Jim Benham, who was a Palo Alto, California resident. The artistic director was Herb Wong. In 1985 the company ceased its activities...
, 1987) U.S. Top Contemporary Jazz #13 - The Drifter (1987) U.S. Top Contemporary Jazz #21
- Great Expectations (Chase Music, 1993)
- Max Is the Factor (Fresh SoundFresh SoundFresh Sound, or Fresh Sound New Talent, is a Spanish jazz label based in Barcelona, specializing in American jazz music.Fresh Sound was founded in 1983 as a reissue label for 1950s jazz...
, 2006)
As sideman
- Marvin Gaye
- Barbra Streisand (Stoney EndStoney EndStoney End is the twelfth studio album by Barbra Streisand. Released in 1971, it was a change in direction for Streisand with a more upbeat contemporary pop sound...
) - Anthony Newly
- Paul Anka
- Elvis Presley
- Shawn Phillips
- Four Tops
- Nelson Riddle
- Frank Sinatra
- Frank Sinatra,Jr
- Frank Zappa (5 Albums )
- Ray CharlesRay CharlesRay Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
- Cleo LaineCleo LaineDame Cleo Laine, Lady Dankworth, DBE is a jazz singer and an actress, noted for her scat singing and vocal range...
(Porgy & Bess) - The Night Blooming Jazzmen
- Seals & Croft
- Joe WilliamsJoe Williams (jazz singer)Joe Williams was a well-known jazz vocalist, a baritone singing a mixture of blues, ballads, popular songs, and jazz standards.-Early life:...
- Ella Fitzgerald (Live from Rome, etc.)
- Michele Columbie
- Quincy JonesQuincy JonesQuincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...
- Billy EckstineBilly EckstineWilliam Clarence Eckstine was an American singer of ballads and a bandleader of the swing era. Eckstine's smooth baritone and distinctive vibrato broke down barriers throughout the 1940s, first as leader of the original bop big-band, then as the first romantic black male in popular...
- Kenny RogersKenny RogersKenneth Donald "Kenny" Rogers is an American singer-songwriter, photographer, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur...
- The Beach BoysThe Beach BoysThe Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California. The group was initially composed of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, The Beach Boys signed to Capitol Records in 1962...
- Carole KingCarole KingCarole King is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. King and her former husband Gerry Goffin wrote more than two dozen chart hits for numerous artists during the 1960s, many of which have become standards. As a singer, King had an album, Tapestry, top the U.S...
- Paul WilliamsPaul Williams (saxophonist)Paul "Hucklebuck" Williams was an American blues and rhythm and blues saxophonist and songwriter. In his Honkers and Shouters, Arnold Shaw credits Williams as one of the first to employ the honking tenor sax solo that became the hallmark of rhythm and blues and rock and roll in the 1950s and...
- The Fifth Dimension
- First Edition
- Steely DanSteely DanSteely Dan is an American rock band; its core members are Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. The band's popularity peaked in the late 1970s, with the release of seven albums blending elements of jazz, rock, funk, R&B, and pop...
(AjaAja (album)-Charts:AlbumPop Singles-Awards:Grammy Awards-External links:**, courtesy of The Museum of Classic Chicago Television...
) - Phil SpectorPhil SpectorPhillip Harvey "Phil" Spector is an American record producer and songwriter, later known for his conviction in the murder of actress Lana Clarkson....
- Joan BaezJoan BaezJoan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
- The TemptationsThe TemptationsThe Temptations is an American vocal group having achieved fame as one of the most successful acts to record for Motown Records. The group's repertoire has included, at various times during its five-decade career, R&B, doo-wop, funk, disco, soul, and adult contemporary music.Formed in Detroit,...
- Joni MitchellJoni MitchellJoni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
(Court and SparkCourt and SparkCourt and Spark is the sixth studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell. Released in January 1974, the album saw Mitchell infusing her folk-rock style, which she developed throughout her previous five albums, with jazz inflections...
, Miles of AislesMiles of AislesMiles of Aisles is a 1974 double live album by Joni Mitchell backed by the L.A. Express, recorded on the Court and Spark tour. It reached #2 on the charts and became one of her biggest-selling records....
, Hissing of Summer Lawns, HejiraHejira (album)Hejira is a 1976 folk/rock/jazz album by Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell. The album title is a transliteration of the Arabic word hijra, which means "journey", referring specifically to the prophet Muhammad's and his followers' escape from Mecca to Medina in 622...
) - The CrusadersThe CrusadersThe Crusaders are an American music group popular in the early 1970s known for their amalgamated jazz, pop and soul sound. Since 1961, more than forty albums have been credited to the group , 19 of which were recorded under the name "The Jazz Crusaders" .-History:In 1960, following the demise of a...
(Scratch, etc.) - Tom Scott & The L.A. Express
- L.A. Express
- Victor Feldman
- O.C. Smith
- Judy Collins
- Michael Franks
- John Williams
- Henry Mancini
- Lalo Shifrin
- Charley Fox
- Artie Butler
- Ralph Carmichael
- Jack Nietche
- Percy Faith
- H.B. Barnum - Motown
- Peggy Lee
- Stan Kenton
- Sauter-Finegan
- Terry Gibbs
- Celine Dion
- Jose Inglesies
- Bill Holman
- Grass Roots
- David Foster
- Michael Mcdonald
- Jose Feliciano
- Friends Of Distinction
- Jimmy Rowles
- George Harrison (Dark Horse)
With Gábor Szabó
Gábor Szabó
Gábor Szabó was a Hungarian jazz guitarist, famous for mixing jazz, pop-rock and his native Hungarian music.-Biography:...
and Bob Thiele
Bob Thiele
Bob Thiele was an American record producer who worked on countless classic jazz albums and record labels.-Biography:...
- Light My FireLight My Fire (Gábor Szabó album)Light My Fire is an album by Hungarian jazz guitarist Gábor Szabó and American record producer Bob Thiele featuring performances recorded in 1967 for the Impulse! label.-Reception:...
(Impulse!, 1967)
*Tv, Film, & Motion Picture Sound Tracks
Written By:
- Michele Legrande
- Nelson Riddle
- Michele Columbie
- Quincy Jones
- Tom Scott
- John Williams
- Henry Mancini
- Lalo Shifrin
- Johnny Mandel
- Charlie Fox
- Artie Butler
- Billy Byers
- Elmer Bernstien
- Michael Melvoin