Charnett Moffett – Treasure

biography

For musicians, compositions are precious reflections of the soul – aural snapshots of emotions, reflections and conceptions covering broad swaths of human expression and experience. Each offering allows the musician opportunity anew to communicate on varying wavelengths - conscious and subconscious, simple and complex, spiritual and intellectual. As a player and composer, and over the course of a fascinating career that began at a very young age, the virtuosic Charnett Moffett has been plumbing profound musical depths from within and without. His approach to music making and its resultant recordings have often been perceived as challenging and unorthodox. Yet the rewards for accepting those challenges can be awe-inspiring and revelatory - thus the elevation of those compositions and performances from mere songs to Treasure, the title of Charnett’s eleventh 12-piece project as a leader.

Treasure is a thematic yang to the yin of his critically acclaimed previous disc, 2009’s The Art of Improvisation, in that it includes a similar eclecticism in the instrumentation and group makeup as well as the Middle Eastern influence in a jazz context. This time, however, the emphasis is swinging in another direction. “Hopefully people will better understand me as a composer after they listen to this record,” Charnett states. “I don’t write my songs with a specific instrument in mind. I write from the sound of the idea in my head – whether it’s harmonic, melodic or rhythmic – then find the right elements to express that idea. On my previous CD, I focused on the idea from an improvisational point of view – on this CD I focused more on melody and keeping the blues prevalent throughout...in the sense of always expressing one’s feelings regardless.”

Charnett’s arsenal of colors and expression are three basses: the upright acoustic bass, the fretless electric bass and the electric piccolo bass. Plus through the use of plucking and/or bowing techniques, along with bag of tricks effects like wah-wah pedals and distortion, he is able to evoke an even broader spectrum of tonal environs. Charnett then showcases his playing on these instruments in solo, duo, trio and larger ensembles, often stretching beyond the traditional piano, bass and drums format to include ethnic instruments from other parts of the world. It is an authentic and impassioned display of the way Charnett hears, conceives and performs music – as far from pretentiousness as is possible.

“As personal and unusual as my music may be considered to some, I do not create my music with an elite audience in mind,” Charnett insists. “It’s for everybody. I make sounds best expressed in a manner that a layman can appreciate. I realize in jazz, some are not as adventurous in their expression… Though there are some elements of intense freedom in my music, it’s just the way I hear music.”

Treasure opens with the powerful “Swing Street” – a swing, as the title suggests, with Middle Eastern elements and Charnett overdubbing upright & fretless basses. That is followed by “The Celebration,” a brisk and reverent waltz featuring Stanley Jordan on guitar, RJ Avallone on trumpet and Irwin Hall on tenor saxophone. Then there is the snare-brushed feel good vibe of “The Things of Swing” which retains Jordan, drops the horns and adds bass clarinet by Oran Etkin and didgeridoo (the long funnel-like horn of Australian Aborigine origin) by Jana Herzen – which leads you to the very clear point that there is a theme afoot here. “Ellington said it best – ‘It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing,’” Charnett remarks. “There is swing in every kind of music, it’s just not always a major focal point. Swing is a feeling that allows one to be able to groove. I wanted to show that with the bass walking in 4/4, playing with harmonics and also being free – many diverse forms of the color. Using that concept enables possibilities for segues into other pieces.”

Recurring themes continue with the song “Say La,” on which Charnett returns to the tandem of fretless and upright bass along with tenor man Hall and the voices of two other “treasures” in his life, his daughters Angela Moffett (speaking and playing tambura) and introducing Amareia Moffett (singing). Four tracks later within the sequence of the disc comes “Say La La,” unfolding like a soundtrack for ascension on which Charnett simulates a string quartet along with harpist Tomoko Sugawara, sitar player Anjana Roy and Angela again on tambura. “I wanted to create through-lines that trigger the brain to listen to the album as one entire piece,” Charnett states.

Sandwiched between the “Say Las” is the manic freeness of “Beam Me Up” a more free style answer to the album opener “Swing Street” that reunites Charnett with drummer Denardo Coleman (son of avant garde jazz pioneer Ornette Coleman in whose band Charnett studied and played the concept of Harmolodicism - in which every member of the ensemble leads and follows simultaneously). This cascades into the open trio cushion of “Praise” – perhaps the most traditional song of the collection featuring Charnett with pianist Casimir Liberski and drummer Rodney Holmes. These are followed by the upright bass solo “Country Blues” and the quick, quirkily instrumented country-flavored “Down Up Blues.”

“I’ve been criticized in the past for having the bass be the dominant voice on my albums,” he admits in reference to shortsighted critics railing against what should not be such an affronting proposition – especially in 2010. “’Praise’ is played with fretless carrying melody. In my music, it’s not about my instruments being the lead voice all the time – it’s about what makes logical sense for the piece. If you listen to an opera, those singers are reveling in ranges not typically heard for long passages of time. This piece was simply a way for me to express a melody I felt…sharing ‘a praise.’”

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Born on June 10, 1967, Charnett, his name a contraction of his father's (jazz drummer Charles Moffett) and jazz icon Ornette Coleman (whom Charles played with from 1965-1967). As a child prodigy he began playing in the Moffett Family Band at the age of seven with his three older brothers and sister Charisse Moffet (a singer). He appears on their 1974 self-titled recording for LRS Records. "My first teacher was my dad,” Charnett explains. “My first instrument was drums, then trumpet, and by age 8, I found myself playing the bass with the Moffett Family Band on a tour to the Far East. My approach to music is a bit more virtuosic than the norm because my training was unique. When I got to the bass, my dad didn’t start me on scales. My old man said, “Here are the low notes and here are the high notes – see what you can do with them.’ That allowed me to immediately enjoy the quality of all the sounds, and that goodness triggered endorphins that affected my approach to music instead of starting out bogged down in restrictions and mathematics. That I started as a drummer makes me hear melodic music differently. When I play piccolo bass, I’m thinking more like a trumpeter, upright bass leads me to a traditional role for bass, and fretless moves me more toward the center.”

Charnett attended Fiorello H. La Guardia H. S. for the Music and Arts in New York City and later studied at Mannes College of Music and the Juilliard School of Music. In 1983, he played on saxophonist Branford Marsalis' debut as a leader, Scenes in the City, and the following year he joined trumpeter Wynton Marsalis’ quintet, appearing on 1985's acclaimed Black Codes (From the Underground). During the '80s, he also worked with Stanley Jordan, appearing on the innovative guitarist's best-selling 1985 Blue Note debut, Magic Touch, as well as two Blue Note albums with the late, great legendary drummer Tony Williams’ quintet: 1987's Civilization and 1988's Angel Street. In 1987, Moffett signed with Blue Note Records and debuted as a leader that year with his first of three albums for Blue Note, Beauty Within, which featured his father Charles Moffett on drums, older brothers Codaryl Moffett on drums and Mondre Moffett on trumpet, Kenny Garrett on alto saxophone, and Stanley Jordan on guitar.

In 1993, Charnett recorded Rhythm & Blood for Sweet Basil's Apollon Records. A savvy mix of jazz and pop, it placed high on the music charts in Japan. Moffett later scored artistic triumphs on the Evidence label with 1994's Planet Home (featured his audacious, electronically enhanced rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" in tribute to Jimi Hendrix's Woodstock showstopper) and 1997's Still Life featuring keyboardist Rachel Z and drummer Cindy Blackman. In 1996, Moffett appeared on two simultaneous releases by Ornette Coleman's Sound Museum -- Hidden Man and Three Women. Another 1997 recording, Acoustic Trio for Teichiku Records, showcased Charnett's innovative acoustic bass playing.  Three other '90s recordings for the Sweet Basil/Evidence label were done under the collective name of General Music Project (with saxophonist Kenny Garrett, pianists Geri Allen and Cyrus Chestnut, and his father Charles Moffett Sr., who passed away before the group could tour together). Another Charnett recording from 1995, Moffett & Sons, is a collaboration father. In 2001, Charnett released a potent tribute to the late Jaco Pastorius titled Mr. P, a trio recording with pianist Mulgrew Miller and drummer Lewis Nash. He has also performed on various movie soundtracks, including acclaimed ensemble cast pictures “Glengarry Glen Ross” (1992) and “The Visit” (2001), and was a featured soloist for “The Score” (starring Robert DeNiro and Marlon Brando).

In addition to his albums as a leader and with the Manhattan Jazz Quintet, Charnett has performed and recorded with an impressive resume of greats that include Art Blakey, Dizzy Gillespie, Joe Henderson, Herbie Hancock, Pharoah Sanders, McCoy Tyner, Sonny Sharrock, Frank Lowe, Ellis Marsalis, Wallace Roney, Dianne Reeves, Kenny Kirkland, David Sanchez, Babatunde Lea, Arturo Sandoval, Alex Bugnon, Kevin Eubanks, David Sanborn, Harry Connick, Jr. and Melody Gardot.

However, it’s only natural that Charnett consistently returns to family, as is evidenced throughout Treasure - in spirit with the solo bass title track and in concert via the “Sound Healing” pieces. “It’s amazing to make music with artists who are family – passing that tradition on.  My older kids have already done a lot of music and continue to grow. Max is a great drummer who seems to channel his grandfather more with every passing year. Angela playing tambura within the classical Indian raga style with the tables allows the bass space to play more sophisticated patterns beyond normal function yet unforced for full appreciation. And introducing Amareia on the vocal intro of ‘Say La’ was simply the perfect voice to express the idea of that composition. You’d be surprised how much happens from osmosis. It’s an honor to be able to include my children in this art form.”

The music must continue to move forward – each piece a treasure with intrinsic value,” Charnett concludes. “It’s all about expressing the truth of how you feel, focusing on things that allow us to love, and enjoying every moment…with balance. I look forward to continuing this process.”

(April 2010)