Bennie Maupin

[Bill Nelson]

'Caramba'? Say, "Si, senor." The album is a straight-ahead BN groover -- better for drinking with than cogitating to.

This probably got docked two stars compared to other Morgan LPs with blazing solos and better compositions. (Also, the CD has a weak bonus track). I actually get more Caramba 'juice' playing my vinyl.

[GA Russell]

Don't miss it!

http://www.improvart.com/cds/iai51.htm

Being a Mike Nock fan, I enjoy that one too. But I like Penumbra from last year better.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

wait wait wait wait r u serious, benny goes crazy on the "IS" cd?

well what is the single lp issue called w/ benny-- was it even issue as a standalone?

beacuse the less chick corea i need to buy, the better-- but i will even comprimise my most scared jazz morals to buy a chick corea cd if maupin is really as killin as u say he is on this

whats so different about him on it anyways?

[Guy Berger]

wait wait wait wait r u serious, benny goes crazy on the "IS" cd?

well what is the single lp issue called w/ benny-- was it even issue as a standalone?

beacuse the less chick corea i need to buy, the better-- but i will even comprimise my most scared jazz morals to buy a chick corea cd if maupin is really as killin as u say he is on this

whats so different about him on it anyways?

He just plays really intensely in a semi-avant-garde style. Rooster's comparison to Wayne Shorter is on the mark.

Guy

[sidewinder]

Maupin in great form on his UK tour recently - quartet with Munyungo Jackson on percussion.

The Cheltenham performance (which I caught) was broadcast by BBC and is available on 'dime'.

[clifford_thornton]

Yes, Is is quite good. The side-long title track (on the A side) is spare, moody free stuff somewhere between an ESP session and a weirdo early ECM title (but without the teatime in Greenland feel). Don't forget, chewy, that your boy John Gilmore and Corea play together on Pete La Roca's Turkish Women at the Bath.

Maybe not your cup of tea, but Maupin also plays well on two '60s Marion Brown sides, Marion Brown Quartet (ESP) and Juba-Lee (Fontana), not to mention the Brown ECM date.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

let me tell you about bennie maupin: dont be fooled my his headhunters stuff and his ECM meanderings: when benny was playing with like, lee morgan and horace silver before that, (and i guess you guys are saying chick corea, where that places between the former two, i dunno)

B.M> is like joe henderson "squared": thats like the best i can do right now to describe it, Benny Maupin should of been on dozens of more blue notes

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

i have 86 sun ra albums i dont need to hear j.g. playing with chick corea. yes i have heard the album. no i was not impressed. yes i like other gilmore solo work

[Hot Ptah]

I have owned "Jewel in the Lotus" on CD for at least a few years now and it sounds fine. I can't remember where I bought it. I will have to look at my copy now to see if it is an import, etc.

[Guy Berger]

I have owned "Jewel in the Lotus" on CD for at least a few years now and it sounds fine. I can't remember where I bought it. I will have to look at my copy now to see if it is an import, etc.

I have this on MP3 and it's indeed a classic. There's a thread discussing it somewhere on this board.

Any more comments on Caramba? Yay or nay?

Guy

[mikeweil]

Given this discussion, I thought would post this piece I wrote last August after spending some time with Bennie in California. Also, in response to an earlier suggestion that the original tapes to "The Jewel and the Lotus" have been damaged, this is not the case. Bennie said nothing about that when I asked why the record had not made it to CD and indicated he was "in discussions" about getting the album reissued. I also asked ECM publicity about this in New York and after checking with the home office the response was simply that it's one of the records they haven't gotten around to yet -- but it's one that they get asked about all the time.

MS

Very nice article, Mark!

Good to read Jewel In The Lotus might be on CD soon - and even better to read that he still seems to like it. I think it's a beautiful album.

[mikeweil]

Any more comments on Caramba? Yay or nay?

I've had this for a very long time - don't play it often, but wouldn't give it away either. Not as great as Sidewinder, kind of a late attempt at replicating that success, but all around it's mellower. Maupin is in fine form here. The playing of all is explosive, but the sound RVG made for that album kind of puts it under a glass bell, is too polite for the music.

[sidewinder]

'Caramba' gets a definite 'yay' from me. The first side is very funky with a very heavy Billy Higgins backbeat. Nothing profound but hugely enjoyable on its own terms. This and 'The Sixth Sense' were the first two Lee Morgan albums I got my hands on.

[Shawn]

In my estimation, Caramba is a GREAT album...there is an incredible vibe on that record. Maupin is particularly inspired and one of the main reasons I rate this album so highly.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

In the late '50s, he often practiced with Henderson, a Teal student enrolled at Wayne State who would later became a major influence in jazz. Henderson's skittering rhythmic phrasing and centered tone (a Teal trademark) left a clear mark on Maupin.

whats this Teal there talkin about now????

[mikeweil]

Larry Teal - renowned sax teacher for Maupin and many others.

[ValerieB]

In my estimation, Caramba is a GREAT album...there is an incredible vibe on that record. Maupin is particularly inspired and one of the main reasons I rate this album so highly.

it's definitely one of my favorites for the "vibe" and the memories!

[Guest donald petersen]

enjoying jack dejohnette's "have you heard?" right now. too bad piece of crap concord WHITE grape juice would never see fit to reissue it. it opens with a very nice version of a maupin tune also on the lee morgan lighthouse sets (nommo? neophilia? forget which one but beautiful on here). and then some very nice extended improvisations with dejohnette, maupin, gary peacock and hideo ichikawa. maupin plays tenor, flute and bass clarinet. good stuff. i guess the title track gets a little out but it's all in good fun with some bad vocalizing and stuff like that.

[clifford_thornton]

"Neophilia" opens side two of my Sony Japan LP.

It's a great LP, indeed.

[Shawn]

Maybe not your cup of tea, but Maupin also plays well on two '60s Marion Brown sides, Marion Brown Quartet (ESP) and Juba-Lee (Fontana), not to mention the Brown ECM date.

Just listened to Juba-Lee this evening, Maupin sounds great with this band and has some ferocious solo spots.

[freeform83]

I consider Jewel in the Lotus to be Maupin's high water mark -- at least in comparison to everything I have heard. There is no other album quite like it. And it must be the last time we get to hear Hancock playing in that sparse, acoustic free style like on the Tony Williams Blue Notes or Ron Carter's Uptown Conversation. The album feels like an outlet for all of the HeadHunters avant-garde tendencies.

I really, really, really want to hear Juba-Lee. Maupin, Moncur, and Alan Shorter all in the same line-up sounds almost too good to be true.

Also, I noticed there was no mention here of Lee Morgan's Taru (Blue Note, 68), another one I am quite keen on obtaining, although I'm sure the general sound is more inside.

Edited July 3, 2007 by freeform83

[mikeweil]

There was a Maupin interview recently where he states that all rumours about the tapes of The Jewel In The Lotus being in bad shape are nonsense, and that it will be on CD later this or next year. This is such a beautiful, highly realized album ....

Got Penumbra two weeks ago, like it, but it doesn't evoke the same warmth in me as Jewel - I wish the rhythm section would be a little more flexible.

Edited July 4, 2007 by mikeweil

[Guy Berger]

Also, I noticed there was no mention here of Lee Morgan's Taru (Blue Note, 68), another one I am quite keen on obtaining, although I'm sure the general sound is more inside.

It's not a bad date, but surely there are many Morgan recordings to pick up before this one.

Guy

[Head Man]

I really, really, really want to hear Juba-Lee. Maupin, Moncur, and Alan Shorter all in the same line-up sounds almost too good to be true.

I have mentioned before that the Marion Brown - Juba-Lee recording is available as a CD-R from Downtown Music Gallery

DMG

It comes with artwork and is probably a copy of the CD that came out in Japan some years ago.

Whilst it is not my favourite Marion Brown recording it has its moments and it certainly does contain some fierce Bennie Maupin!

Edited July 4, 2007 by Head Man

[freeform83]

Any other opinions on Juba-Lee?