Bennie Maupin

Bennie Maupin is best-known for his association with Herbie Hancock and his atmospheric bass clarinet taking part in on Kilometers Davis’ vintage Bitches Brew recording. Maupin began playing tenor in senior high school and went to the Detroit Institute for Musical Arts, playing locally in Detroit. He relocated to NY in 1963, freelancing numerous groups, including types led by Marion Dark brown and Pharoah Sanders. Maupin performed frequently with Roy Haynes (1966-1968) and Horace Metallic (1968-1969), documenting with McCoy Tyner (1968), Lee Morgan (1970), and Woody Shaw. After documenting with Kilometers, he became a member of the Herbie Hancock Sextet. When Hancock split up his group to create the more industrial Headhunters in 1973, Maupin was the just holdover. He led times for ECM (1974) and a industrial one for Mercury (1976-1977), but didn’t catch on like a bandleader and offers maintained a minimal profile in the past 15 years, growing in 2006 using the critically acclaimed Penumbra around the Cryptogramophone label. Early Reflections adopted two years later on.