Bennie Maupin Quartet

Bennie Maupin’s highly personal bass clarinet sound helped define such classic jazz recordings as Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew, Jack Johnson, Big Fun and On the Corner, as well as recordings by Herbie Hancock’s, Mwandishi band, and the Headhunters . The multi-woodwind player has also recorded with Chick Corea, Horace Silver, McCoy Tyner, Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard, Jack DeJohnette, Andrew Hill, Eddie Henderson and Woody Shaw, to name only a few.

“In 2006, multi-instrumentalist Bennie Maupin breezed back to jazz prominence with Penumbra, a charming spare-but-sprightly album that landed on many Top 10 lists. Maupin, former Headhunter and Miles Davis electric-era sideman, had re-emerged as a leader with a distinctive, less-is-more compositional style and a wise-elder assuredness and authority.

Maupin extends this mood an his new album, playing bass clarinet, tenor and alto saxophone, and alto flute backed by the trio of Polish musicians he has toured with in recent years. Two tracks also feature understated wordless improvisation by Hania Chowaniec-Rybka, a Polish folk singer who specializes in Tatra Highlander music, a source of inspiration for this record.”
David French/Downbeat 07/08