Just saw Chick Corea and Touchstone at Blues Alley in Washington, DC last night. WOW. Carles Benavent has always been one of my top three favorite bassists. Blues Alley is a great jazz club. You can sit right up next to the band and literally reach out and touch them. The club is so cool because the band hangs out in the club between shows and chats with people. I snuck upstairs to the dressing room before the show and saw him and the sax/flutist Jorge Pardo warming up and asked Carles if he would autograph a couple of his discs. What a nice guy. He put his bass down to sign and I commented on how beautiful it was and he picked it up and handed it to me! What a cool instrument. It was made by a Polish luthier who lives in Madrid and was designed by Carles. It's a semi-hollow 5 string with a high C, it was the lightest bass I've ever picked up, had to be about 5-6 lbs. String spacing at the bridge was about 15mm! Ebony board, ebony bridge, string through body, piezo and magnetic pickps and Roland midi pickup. It has mandolin frets which he says he likes because he gets more of the fretboard wood when he pushes the string down. He was playing through a rented Aguilar DB750 and Aguilar 4-10 cab. He had the DB750 set flat with no treble or bass boost. He says he usually uses EBS rigs in Europe. The performance was fabulous. In addition to Carles, Chick, and Jorge Pardo was the great Brazilian percussionist Rubem Dantas who is responsible for introducing percussion instruments especially the cahon(sp?) into modern Flamenco, and an American drummer Tim ? who Chick said has played with him off and on for years. I guess I should also add for those of you who don't know that Carles has been Paco DeLucia's bassist for 25 years and is singlehandedly responsible for the electric bass being introduced to modern Flamenco he has a unique style because for years he played a fretless 5 string (high C) with a pick although he now plays the fretted five. He can pull off mind-boggling runs,chords,and Flamenco sweeps but is ALWAYS melodic and moves with a passion that is so characteristic of Flamenco musicians. If you've never heard him check him out!
