EPK Translate
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On the European jazz scene, Michel Benita is neither the most vehement nor the most invasive double bass player around. Discretion is part of his being, as is efficiency. Some speak of the correctness of his consideration for others. His trajectory, attachments, partners reveal a musician of commitment and fidelity, curiosity and enthusiasm.
Living in Paris in the early 1980s, he did everything he could to catch up, and as is often the case for those who come to music later on, he multiplied his experiences and dragged his instrument around to all those who called on his services. The names of the jazzmen with whom he played in those early years would compile a Who’s Who of jazzmen who played in France, where expatriate American legends (Lee Konitz, Archie Shepp…) played side by side with sure European values (Daniel Humair, Bobo Stenson, Enrico Pieranunzi…), and where his future friends of always (Peter Erskine, Aldo Romano, Nguyên Lê…) played in one-night stands with musicians just passing through. A tough school but a good one, traveling from club to club and on the road, a school that freed Michel’s fingers from the constraints of technique and earned him the reputation of one of the most promising bass players around. So he was naturally asked to play in the first Orchestre National de Jazz which, under the direction of François Jeanneau, brought together the cream of a new generation of French musicians in 1986.
Other friendships dating back to this time have never stopped producing beautiful music: the Italian pianist Rita Marcotulli, whom Michel met in 1987 and whom he asked to participate in his first quartet alongside Dewey Redman, a little known giant and long time companion of Ornette Coleman (two albums for Label Bleu); Aldo Romano, the drummer, with whom he has worked in privileged tandem since 1995, including in the group Palatino with Paolo Fresu and Glenn Ferris, which is certainly not the least interesting of his encounters (three records so far); Marc Ducret, first as part of a trio revealing the guitarist’s talent, and then as part of Seven Songs From The Sixties, a mythical “tentet†where Ducret’s excessiveness finds full expression; the drummer Peter Erskine, with whom he formed the ELB trio along with Nguyen Lê, who had just before invited Michel to help him tell his Tales From Vietnam (ACT).
To whatever combo he plays in, Michel Benita brings a rich, sure and melodious sonority, which is as much indebted to Scott LaFaro for its finesse as to Charlie Haden for its virtues of simplicity, without forgetting the poise of a Dave Holland who pairs up with the most complex drummers around, and the expressive cantabile of Nordic bass players such as Arild Andersen and Palle Danielsson.
In 2001, he joins the Ladyland combo created by the trumpet player Erik Truffaz (Mantis, Blue Note). Most recently, forming a new trio with the sax player Gaël Horellou and drummer Philippe Garcia, two younger musicians coming from the Collectif Mu and co-leaders of the electro combo Cosmik Connection, he finds the time to compose the music for several documentary films. Michel Benita now has his ears attuned to experimentation and cross disciplines, which he has explored since 1996 as the beloved composer of Hilton McConnico, stylist, decorator, photographer, designer, and also official scenographer of Hermès, for whom he has already composed the music for five exhibitions or fashion shows in France and Japan. As Michel commences his fifth decade, his career has taken another decisive turn with his new project, Translate, which makes him shiver with excitement in the act of creation and in making contact with a new public.
