Max Bennett

Early life

Bennett was born in Des Moines, Iowa, early family move to Kansas City, Missouri and grew up in Bennett, Iowa graduating from Oskaloosa High School Oskaloosa, Iowa. He also attended the University of Iowa in Iowa City, IA with a major in Music.

Career

Max Bennett was naturally attracted to music at an early age, and quickly became proficient on bass guitar. He performed with many local groups as a high school student (during WWII) and was prominent as a performer with the [[Joe Glattly Ensemble

]] after the war. Bennett's first professional gig was with Herbie Fields in 1949, and following this he played with Georgie Auld, Terry Gibbs, and Charlie Ventura. He served in the Army during the Korean War from 1951 to 1953, and then played and recorded in the New York and Los Angeles jazz scenes with Stan Kenton, Charlie Mariano, the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra, Frank Rosolino, Bill Holman, and others. During the mid-1950s, Bennett released three records under his own leadership for Bethlehem Records, a period when producer Creed Taylor was shifting the label's focus to jazz.

Bennett settled permanently in Los Angeles, where he did most of his work from the late 1950s onwards. During the 1960s and 1970s, he played regularly at the Lighthouse Cafe with his own ensemble and worked as a studio musician and occasional touring musician with such vocalists as Barbra Streisand, Ella Fitzgerald, Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez.

As a Los Angeles-based studio musician, Bennett recorded with artists in traditional pop field such as Peggy Lee and Billy Eckstine and with artists recording rock and roll and newer styles of popular music, like The Monkees, Frank Zappa and The 5th Dimension. Bennett often recorded with the group of musicians later known as The Wrecking Crew during the 1960s and 1970s. He began recording using the bass guitar during the 1960s (rather than the double bass on which he'd done most of his professional work during the 1950s). A widely-heard example of Bennett's electric bass playing is the 1976 theme from the Rocky movie soundtrack, "Gonna Fly Now".

In 1969, Bennett served as the principal bassist for Frank Zappa's Hot Rats project. According to Bennett, "I was not familiar with Zappa’s music. Our paths never crossed. I was never a big fan of avant garde music in that sense. It was while I was working in the studio, what was it, 1967 [sic], I think? And I got a call from John Guerin. He said, ‘Get your stuff over to TTG’—that was in Hollywood—‘I got a double session for you with Frank Zappa.’ So we get there and we worked two double sessions for two nights. And that was the album, that was Hot Rats.” He also played on subsequent Zappa albums such as Hot Rats follow-up Chunga's Revenge, and the intermediate sessions eventually given archival release as Funky Nothingness. In 1976 Bennett performed the bassline of "Gonna Fly Now", the theme song from the movie Rocky, composed by Bill Conti.

His studio work also included bass on the 1969 Lalo Schifrin soundtrack to the 1968 film Bullitt as well as Greatest Science Fiction Hits Volumes 1-3 with Neil Norman & His Cosmic Orchestra.

In 1973, Guerin and Bennett joined Tom Scott's L.A. Express alongside Joe Sample and Larry Carlton. After recording their eponymous debut album, the jazz fusion quintet served as the core band for Mitchell's Court and Spark (1974). A subsequent iteration of the group (including guitarist Robben Ford and pianist Larry Nash) backed Mitchell on the live Miles of Aisles (1974) and recorded two smooth jazz albums for Caribou Records following Scott's departure in 1976. After the band's dissolution, Bennett formed his own group, Freeway. Later on, he formed another live performance group, Private Reserve. Max continued to be active as a prominent musician in San Clemente and the Orange County, CA area until his death in 2018.

Discography

As leader

Max Bennett Quintet (Bethlehem, 1955)

Max Bennett Sextet (Bethlehem, 1956)

Max Bennett Septet, Quartet & Trio (Bethlehem, 1956)

Max Bennett with Charlie Mariano (Bethlehem)

Interchange (Palo Alto, 1987) U.S. Top Contemporary Jazz #13

The Drifter (1987) U.S. Top Contemporary Jazz #21

Images (TBA, 1989)

Great Expectations (Chase Music, 1993)

Max Is the Factor (Fresh Sound, 2006)

As sideman

TV, film and motion picture soundtracks written by:

Michel Legrand

Nelson Riddle

Michel Colombier

Quincy Jones

Tom Scott

John Williams

Henry Mancini

Lalo Schifrin

Johnny Mandel

Charles Fox

Artie Butler

Billy Byers

Elmer Bernstein

Michael Melvoin