![]() opening for Lukas Nelson (son of Willie Nelson) He performed at the Clean Air No Excuses Rally at the Utah State Capitol where sang his original song “Governor, We Cannot Breathe” for 5000 people. He was recently featured in City Weekly Magazine and Utah Stories Magazine. Previously he was a Boys & Girls Club Director and has a strong activist background. #Tom bennett one man band full#Tom began playing guitar Apand since that time has played over 300 shows and is making his living as a full time traveling folk singer. He is known for his adventurous tours, everything from staying with east LA gang members, to riding freight trains, taking a greyhound around America and assisting in the wrangling of an 11 foot alligator off the GA coast. Tom plays a Fender resonator guitar, harmonica, a suitcase drum and sings He is the founder of Sweet Salt Records in Salt Lake City. Express, I always say that I owe it all to Max.Tom Bennett is a folk/blues player from Georgia. Personally I always admired him, and any time anyone asks me about the L.A. And he should also be remembered as a guy who, for at least 50 years, was a mainstay of the recording business in Los Angeles. Max was a big contributor not only to our band but to that whole genre of music. Bennett had a reason to feel good about himself. But that was not arrogance based on bullshit. I also played at his 80th birthday celebration. He seemed the same, really taking charge. He formed his own Maxx Band and had me play on his record. Max and I were compatriots through all of that and a lot more in the years that followed.Įventually Max moved to San Diego. and Canada, culminating in a show at Wembley Stadium in front of 100,000 people. Then the album wouldn’t leave the charts, the live demand increased, and before we knew it were in the summer of ’74 playing arenas around the U.S. We were supposed to go on a six-week tour with Joni after the album came out, opening up for her and then joining her for the last 25 minutes of the show. She sent me some demos, I wrote up rhythm charts, and that turned into Court and Spark. Would your band be interested in working on my next album?” I didn’t have to think very hard. She said, “Listen, Tom, I’ve never made a record with a full live band before. She came and saw us in a club and told me something that I found very striking. Joni Mitchell and I had hit it off recording For the Roses. Okay, wait till you hear what I write-I’ll show you!” I still get requests for the tunes he brought to the band, especially “Rock Island Rocket” and “Nunya.” Sometimes it was competitive: “Oh, that’s a really good tune, Max. There was a real nice creative match that Max and I had. Then somebody suggested we get a guitar player, who ended up being Larry Carlton, and we had what became the core of the first L.A. So we kept bringing more of these kinds of tunes into the repertoire. It was fun, it was different, and equally important, the audience ate it up. It was R&B-based, but we improvised on it in the bebop tradition. in E,” which didn’t get recorded till several years later. Max was the key to the start of our funk/jazz sound. One day Chuck backed out, and John immediately said, “Why don’t we get Max?” I said, “I don’t know, do you want to go with electric bass instead of upright?” he said, “Well, try it, I think you’ll like it.” So Max came in, and in fact I did like it. I had a straight-ahead jazz quartet with Joe Sample, Chuck Domanico, and John Guerin playing every Tuesday at the Baked Potato in L.A. Then, of course, the next step was what became the L.A. They both could back it up with great, great playing-and they were making money! We kidded them about it, but they didn’t care. They both had matching Jensen sports cars and they both prided themselves on being smartly dressed in all the hip fashions of the day. I called them “the Maxnjohn” because they were joined at the hip in many aspects. I found out later that he’d been an upright player with Stan Kenton and Peggy Lee and all these people, but he had become a king of the electric bass in L.A.Īfter that I would see him at sessions with John Guerin all the time. Bennett and Carol Kaye were the bassists on my first solo recording for Impulse! That’s when I first met Bennett. There was an abrupt transition to electric bass in popular music during the ’60s, and Bennett was one of the first people to make that transition successfully-in other words, Bennett could play the hell out of the instrument. That was not the case when Max Bennett started. It’s a given nowadays: When you hire a bass player, they ask, “Do you want upright or electric?” It’s understood that they have to play both. ![]()
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