Clarinetist DAVE BENNETT Blends Influences
from Swing to Bebop on Don't Be That Way -
Available October 15 on Mack Avenue Records
"Bennett, whose primary influence is Goodman, brings to the table
an elegant sound, lickety-split technique and charismatic spark."
- Detroit Free Press
Dave Bennett doesn't fit the mold.
For
starters, you don't find many jazz clarinet players who name Alice
Cooper, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Chris Isaak among their influences. You
won't find many musicians under 30 who are equally conversant with the
music of Benny Goodman (the "King of Swing") and Roy Orbison ("The Soul
of Rock and Roll"). In fact, you may not find even one other clarinet
virtuoso who occasionally breaks from his Swing Era repertoire to sing
rock-a-billy hits while accompanying himself at the piano - where he
plays a mean barrelhouse boogie-woogie.
In
the early days of jazz, the clarinet joined with trumpet and trombone
to create the music's signature sound, and it ruled the roost in the
Swing Era, when jazz was America's popular music and dance-party
soundtrack. If anyone can return the clarinet to its heyday, it's Dave Bennett, who fuses serious jazz improvisation with a host of modern pop influences.
On his Mack Avenue Records debut Don't Be That Way,
he shows that his skills and interests make him perfectly suited for
the job. He stays within the mainstream repertoire, and even covers
several of the most famous hit records of the 1930s (by Goodman and such
contemporaneous clarinetists as Woody Herman and Artie Shaw). But
Bennett updates these songs with up-to-date twists and surprising new
arrangements. The result is an album that blazes his own path while
still acknowledging his predecessors, and spotlights the jazz clarinet
for a new generation.
"St.
James Infirmary," the ancient New Orleans blues tune, offers one
example of Bennett's tasteful revisionism. "I took some ideas from
listening to pianist Bob James, and to some smooth jazz and funk, to
come up with those voicings," says the 29-year-old prodigy, referring to
the contemporary harmonies that underlie both the clarinet's theme
statement and his own laconic, sweet-tobacco vocal. On the title track,
Bennett and company apply a lightly bossa-inspired beat, stretching the
melody here and there to create a contemporary rendition that's more
relaxed than the original 1938 recording but equally memorable.
The
most striking evidence of Bennett's approach comes on the classic
"Sing, Sing, Sing." Goodman's 1937 recording was an extended-length
barnburner, in which Gene Krupa essentially "invented" the drum solo
with his simmering and then explosive trap-set improvisation. Bennett's
version stays close to the original in tempo and mood. But when it comes
time for the solo with which Krupa galvanized the jazz world of the
1930s, it's Bennett who steps to the fore, with an improvisation just as
exotic, mysterious, and ultimately exuberant as the that long-ago drum
break - and with an even greater degree of nuance, variety, and
virtuosity.
By
turning the song into a modernist showcase for his clarinet, Bennett
turns the song on its ear, yet retains its design as an exhilarating
showstopper. This is no longer your grandfather's "Sing Sing Sing;" now
it's Bennett's.
"Since
my early teens," says the Michigan-based clarinetist, "I've been
influenced by many other genres besides jazz. My clarinet solo on that
tune keeps the same outline, but it's different every time we play it;
it's based on chord progressions I hear in movie soundtracks, and I even
stole some licks from some Alice Cooper tunes and from some solos by
Stevie Ray Vaughan and other blues guitarists, just to get that kind of
intensity. I think I'm finally finding my own voice, and I wanted to
make that solo as dramatic as possible, so people wouldn't say I was
just copying Benny."
Bennett hastens to share credit for the reconceptualization of this music with the album's arranger, Shelly Berger, whom he met through Tad Weed,
the pianist in Bennett's group. "I had told Tad that I was really
frustrated with where I was musically, and he said, 'I know this
arranger in Toronto who seems to think the same way you do, in terms of
blending pop with classic jazz.' So I listened to some of his music and
then sent an e-mail, out of the blue, to introduce myself; I just told
him 'I really like your stuff, and would you like to do this project
with me?'
"When
he said yes, I drove up to Toronto and we spent a few days
brainstorming - and I was on Cloud 9. I thought, 'This cat gets it.' I
would tell him the ideas I had for each song, and write out the chords,
and ask him to come up with a creative way of pulling that together. My
musical knowledge is limited; I can't write out arrangements, and I
couldn't have put together the charts for this album. I think this
project would not be what it is without Shelly. And I can learn so much
from studying his arrangements that I hope it will increase my own
knowledge as well."
Bennett
is not being modest when he calls his training "limited": almost
entirely self-taught, he received his only formal instruction in the
school band. And in terms of playing jazz, he had no formal lessons
whatsoever while he was developing into one of the most lionized and
accomplished young artists on today's scene. Born in 1984 in Pontiac,
Michigan, the pre-teen Bennett didn't see himself as a musician. As he
recalls, "In fifth grade, when the option to join the school band came
along, I didn't think I would be any good at an instrument. But the idea
of playing intrigued me. And then my grandfather said, in a sort of
'Holy Spirit' moment, 'I think you'd enjoy playing the clarinet.' He
just came out with it, and then he and Grandma went down to the local
pawn shop and bought me a plastic Conn clarinet to try out."
Even
though he was growing up in a time far removed from the Swing Era and
the technology (AM radio, 78 RPM records) that produced it, Bennett
already had an appreciation for the era's music from the soundtracks of
the old Abbott & Costello movies he watched at home. "And then about
a month later, Grandpa bought me a cassette tape of Benny Goodman - and
that's what did it. I completely flipped out: it hit me square between
the eyes, and I knew at that moment that this is what I wanted to do
with my life." He set out to model his clarinet playing after that of
Goodman, as well as that of Pete Fountain, the New Orleans clarinetist
who kept the trad-jazz sound vital throughout the 1960s and '70s.
"Prior
to music, my main interest was drawing and artwork, and I wasn't
listening to a lot of the music the other kids were into. When everyone
heard I liked this music from my grandparents, they looked at me like I
had three heads. But once I played it for them, they really liked it."
By
the time he turned 14, Bennett's prowess had come to the attention of
various Michigan-based trad-jazz bands, and he began to taste the life
of a touring musician. At 17 he was chosen as one of two guest soloists
(from a national field of 600) to perform with the Count Basie
Orchestra; a couple years later he spent a brief time as part of the
renowned Hot Club of Detroit. In 2005, at the ripe old age of 21, he
created his own combo to perform his Tribute To Benny Goodman,
which has performed throughout the U.S. and Canada. He has also appeared
as guest soloist with more than 30 classical "pops" orchestras
(including eight such concerts with the Detroit Symphony), and will make
his debut with the famed New York Pops Orchestra in the fall of 2013,
in a tribute celebrating Goodman's original Carnegie Hall concert.
Address
this juncture of his life and career, Bennett says now, "I was trying
to 'break free' [from the restraints of past styles] and couldn't quite
get there. But Shelly [Berger] was able to make it very coherent, and in
the studio he kept everything moving along." So in one sense, Don't Be That Way
is more than the title for a collection of freshly imagined Swing Era
classics. It could just as well be Bennett's admonition to himself on
his Mack Avenue debut - to step out as a fully independent artist,
steeped in but not beholden to the way things were done in the past.
|
Alpena County George N. Fletcher Public Library
hosts the Dave Bennett Quartet
|
Upcoming Dave Bennett Performances:
August 14 / Nardin Park Methodist Church / Farmington Hills, MI
August 30 - September 1 / Jockey Club, Labor Day Jazz Festival / Mackinac Island, MI
November 1 / Carnegie Hall (w/ New York Pops) / New York, NY
November 2 / Suffolk Theatre / Riverhead, NY
November 27 - 30 / San Diego Jazz Festival / San Diego, CA
Dave Bennett· Don't Be That Way
Mack Avenue Records · Release Date: October 15, 2013
For more information on Dave Bennett, please visit DaveBennett.com
For national media inquiries, please contact:
DL Media · 610-667-050
Maureen McFadden · maureen@dlmediamusic.com
For Detroit media inquiries, please contact:
Matt Lee · 248-931-2443 · mleibow412@aol.com
MACK AVENUE · the road to great music · mackavenue.com
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