The Bennie Maupin Ensemble

Music as nakedly honest and engaging as it gets.

Bennie Maupin is a jazz multi-reedist who performs on various saxophones, flute, and bass clarinet. Bennie’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 Herbie Hancock’s Mwandishi Band, and the Headhunters.

The instrumentation of Maupin’s current group, The Bennie Maupin Ensemble, harkens back to the tradition of great saxophone-bass-drum trios, such as the group led by Sonny Rollins with Wilbur Ware and Elvin Jones.  Maupin’s approach to his music is intentional and profound, yet alive in the interpretation of the moment.

Bennie is noted for having a harmonically-advanced, “out” improvisation style, while having a different sense of melodic direction than other “out” jazz musicians such as Eric Dolphy. Admirers of Maupin enjoy the fascinating sounds of his sax, which are: eerie, looming, hypnotizing, sensual, sweet, haunting and exciting.

Maupin’s aesthetic is all-embracing, addressing such varied stylistic niches as free jazz, funk, Afrobeat and postbop with the same heightened degree of inspiration. 

“Concerts and Conversations with Southern California Jazz Legends” funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.