Carles Benavent and Chick

KJung · #1 09-25-2005, 03:20 PM

I just purchased a ticket to see Chick and Carles at the Detroit Symphony Hall on October 11th. I saw Carles with Paco De Lucia in St. Louis a number of years ago, and it was stunning. Also, Carles is playing a newly designed semi-acoustic bass designed and built by Jerzy Drozd. Since I am a recent purchaser of one of Jerzy's wonderful basses, it will be doubly cool!

Edit: New CD is available on Chick's site.

**j-raj** · #2 09-25-2005, 05:31 PM

very nice!

I saw Paco two February's ago with a very young cat that also had a Drozd tuned E-C, I was hoping that Carles was going to be on that gig... I really can't wait to see/hear the Touchstone band.

Let us know about it.

DaveBeny · #3 09-26-2005, 06:37 AM

Heard Chick and the Touchstone band in London last year - some wonderful music, very reminiscent of the first two Return to Forever albums ('Return to Forever' and 'Light as a Feather').

There is a new 2CD set of this band - at the moment, I think's it only available through www.chickcorea.com but it should get a general release soon.

Here's a vid of Carles playing his Jerzy Drozd bass:
http://bassbuilders.free.fr/04mmvide...s_benavent.wmv
(Video filmed and hosted by JP - thanks JP!)

**j-raj** · #4 09-26-2005, 07:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David Benyahia

Here's a vid of Carles playing his Jerzy Drozd bass:
http://bassbuilders.free.fr/04mmvide...s_benavent.wmv
(Video filmed and hosted by JP - thanks JP!)

Very cool tune. His tone is all his own!

thx jp!

DaveBeny · #5 09-26-2005, 08:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by j-raj

Very cool tune. His tone is all his own!

thx jp!

That tune is called 'Bluestorius' and incorporates a couple of very Jaco-sounding melodies.

Carles' playing in that clip is very similar to a wonderful British bassist called Colin Hodgkinson - I try to give him props whenever I can. He was doing chord-melody stuff with a plectrum + fingers back in '69! Not sure how well known he is in the States. Fans of Carles should check him out.

**j-raj** · #6 09-26-2005, 09:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David Benyahia

That tune is called 'Bluestorius' and incorporates a couple of very Jaco-sounding melodies.

Carles' playing in that clip is very similar to a wonderful British bassist called Colin Hodgkinson - I try to give him props whenever I can. He was doing chord-melody stuff with a plectrum + fingers back in '69! Not sure how well known he is in the States. Fans of Carles should check him out.

yeah it came across like a mix between Manring's take on Sugar and Jaco tune... again, very nice... I'm going to try and shed the changes. Is there a commercially available studio version?

I'll check out Colin's stuff.

Anybody own or heard Phenix?

Lorenzini · #7 09-26-2005, 10:46 AM

There's also going to be another album with Carles and some UNBELIEVABLE drummers and percussionists, on another Chick album. I won't tell you anything more than that, but Carles plays his ass off -- you will love it.

rulyøngo · #8 09-26-2005, 02:15 PM

I love his playing, he played in san juan a couple of times with paco de Lucia... what an amazing player!!! Very original fretless playing...

Lorenzini · #9 09-27-2005, 10:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rulyøngo

I love his playing, he played in san juan a couple of times with paco de Lucia... what an amazing player!!! Very original fretless playing...

He also plays fretless?

tc99 · #10 09-28-2005, 12:43 PM

Here is a looong link to three of his songs. One is Blustorius. Great stuff.

https://www.flamenco-world.com/tiend...2380&id_lang=2

DaveBeny · #11 10-02-2005, 07:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lorenzini

There's also going to be another album with Carles and some UNBELIEVABLE drummers and percussionists, on another Chick album. I won't tell you anything more than that, but Carles plays his ass off -- you will love it.

Go on, you know you want to tell us more!

Is this in addition to the 2CD 'Rhumba Flamenco' set?

DaveBeny · #12 10-02-2005, 08:02 AM

Also, there's a very good DVD featuring Carles available through Flamenco World - worth ordering:

https://www.flamenco-world.com/tiend...d=3549&id_cat=

Re: the fretless question. Carles did play fretless bass for many years, including for many years a 5-string fretless based on a Gibson EB2, built by another Barcelona luthier, Francesc Jordan: http://www.fjordan.net/bajo_benavent.htm . Carles took this bass to Jerzy Drozd to have mandolin frets installed - they started to collaborate on a new design and the result is the 'Barcelona' model. I first emailed Jerzy about it last summer and am putting my deposit down for one after Christmas.

**j-raj** · #13 10-02-2005, 10:35 AM

very cool, David.

Are you going to go with the same string spacing as Carles does on his Barc model?

DaveBeny · #14 10-02-2005, 11:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by j-raj

Are you going to go with the same string spacing as Carles does on his Barc model?

Yes. It's 15mm at the bridge (IIRC - will dig out an email from Jerzy later). When I first spoke to Jerzy to last year, the production model was going to be 32" scale - it is now 34" (which I would have requested anyway).

I am not ordering the bass to copy Carles, although I do like his playing. My main bass influences are Steve Swallow and Colin Hodgkinson and the Barcelona bass should work well for the direction I want my playing to go in.

**j-raj** · #15 10-02-2005, 11:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David Benyahia

Yes. It's 15mm at the bridge (IIRC - will dig out an email from Jerzy later). When I first spoke to Jerzy to last year, the production model was going to be 32" scale - it is now 34" (which I would have requested anyway).

I am not ordering the bass to copy Carles, although I do like his playing. My main bass influences are Steve Swallow and Colin Hodgkinson and the Barcelona bass should work well for the direction I want my playing to go in.

Very Cool, I see... wonderful influences to inspire this music direction.

are you planning on playing with a regular pick or DdP-style with the thumb pick?

DaveBeny · #16 10-02-2005, 12:24 PM

J-raj,

I've been working on various plectrum techniques for the last two years or so. When Carles and Colin play chords they pluck plectrum+2+3+4. One nice thing about using a thumbpick is that you can grip it with your index finger to get a traditional plectrum grip (for single note lines), but you can let go to play chords with plectrum+1+2+3, which feels better to me.

I've really tried to cop the whole DdP playing style in recent months, and I've made some progress, but it just isn't me. I've come to realise that there's no point consciously forcing your style to change just because you like a particular musician.

PS. For a few clips of Colin Hodgkinson's solo bass style, go here: http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASI...712078-7409333

DaveBeny · #17 10-02-2005, 01:23 PM

Back on topic, here's a couple of tracks with Carles to listen to:

'Viva Cai' (excerpt)
https://www.flamenco-world.com/tienda/files/song_43.ram
'En Buenas Manos'
https://www.flamenco-world.com/tiend.../song_1091.ram
'Pasodoble Balear'
https://www.flamenco-world.com/tiend.../song_1092.ram

Wolf · #18 10-02-2005, 01:51 PM

Fantastic! He and Paco must have made a good match!
Should prove interesting in Chick's band...

Does he also play with a pick in a band setting? or is it just
solo-bass-pyrotechnics?

**j-raj** · #19 10-02-2005, 01:58 PM

wow David, those clips are making me feel the need to woodshed this evening!!!

The Owl · #20 10-03-2005, 07:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by j-raj

very nice!

I saw Paco two February's ago with a very young cat that also had a Drozd tuned E-C, I was hoping that Carles was going to be on that gig... I really can't wait to see/hear the Touchstone band.

Let us know about it.

I'm so glad to see Chick revisiting the "Touchstone" thing again. I really enjoyed the original album a ton and I'm really jazzed that he's working with Carlos again, great playing chemistry there for sure.