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Ellington's Sacred Concert

Sunday, March 7, 2004 at 7 pm
Tuesday, March 9, 2004 at 7:30 pm

Featuring the Luckman Jazz Orchestra
Meet Bennie Maupin

It’s not many musicians who can claim John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter and Yusef Lateef as mentors. But Bennie Maupin, flutist, saxophonist and bass clarinetist, born in Detroit, Michigan — in the heart, as it happens, of Motown — can and does. Also citing these iconic musicians as huge influences, Maupin, 63, waxes sentimental at the mere mention of these jazz greats.

“I just saw Yusef in New York a few weeks ago,” says Maupin. “He is the first person who gave me the idea of becoming a multi-instrumentalist. He played flute, sax, oboe, bassoon. He was pioneering what is now known as world music, exploring the scales from the Middle East and Asia.”

Maupin’s own play list is equally illustrious. After studying at the Detroit Institute of Music, he hooked up with the Four Tops, going with them to the Catskills in upstate New York. But it was during a break in Manhattan, where Maupin heard Thelonius Monk vamping at a club, that changed his life.

“There in the audience,” recalls Maupin, “I saw a lot of faces I recognized from album covers, and I had an epiphany. I had to be in New York.”

Maupin stayed in the Big Apple for 10 years, recording with, among others, Horace Silver, McCoy Tyner and Miles Davis. Indeed, Maupin’s distinctive bass clarinet can be heard on Davis’ 1969 seminal work, Bitches Brew.

“Miles was a great person to be around,” recounts Maupin. “I’d grown up listening to his music, then to be asked to perform on that recording was a great opportunity. He gave me the forum I needed to establish my own voice.”

In 1972, Maupin moved West, making more magic with Herbie Hancock, on their Grammy-nominated collaboration, Headhunters. Selling more than one million copies, the record not only earned Maupin a house, but a stellar reputation.

Explains Maupin, whose signature tune Chameleon, was integral to the work: “The album came about as a result of us jamming. We found a way to give it form and record it. Once it was released, it really caught on. We were the first jazz group to ever sell gold status. For an instrumental group, that was a landmark.”

Maupin eventually settled in Altadena, where he still lives, as do other musical denizens, including Billy Childs, Patrice Rushen and Jeff Clayton. And while Maupin may not be as active in the studio these days, he does have a new quartet — Bennie Maupin Ensemble, that recently played New York. Maupin has also been studying film scoring and teaching master classes in Europe (last year he taught at Rotterdam Conservatory of Music), as well as at the Brubeck Institute in Stockton.

As a member of the Luckman Jazz Orchestra, Maupin is, well, jazzed, about playing Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concert works. “It’s music that was so deeply personal, because it represented his spiritual connection, which is not what you commonly hear when you hear his music. Sitting in the orchestra and playing these parts and listening to what’s going on, it’s an unbelievable feeling.”

Some of L.A.’s best jazz artists make up the Luckman Jazz Orchestra, performing with the Chorale in these concerts. Victoria Looseleaf profiles four members — Leon “Ndgugu” Chancler, Bennie Maupin, Jack Nimitz and Ann Patterson.