Photo: Charnett Moffett @ the Jazz Standard | © Joyce Jones/ Suga Bowl Photography. Some Rights Reserved. Creative Commons CC-NC-BY-ND. Used with Permission.
The next show will air on Sunday, June 11, 2017 from 11:00 PM – 1:00 AM Monday Eastern Standard Time on WBAI, 99.5 FM in the NYC metro area or streaming online at wbai.org. “Suga’ In My Bowl” celebrates Charnett Moffett by recognizing his 30 years as a leader and his latest release titled Music From Our Soul on Motéma Records. We talked to him right before his recent Jazz Standard performance.
Whether as the leader or in a supportive role, Charnett Moffett’s intense and energetic solos inspire audience ovations around the world. Whether touring with his band or with his show-stopping solo bass project, Solo Bass Works, Moffett’s astounding virtuosity and heartfelt approach to performing have made him a favorite at jazz festivals worldwide.
Appearing on over 200 recordings, Charnett Moffett is a veritable bass legend and has one of the most distinguished careers in jazz. His father, Charles was the drummer for the late great Ornette Coleman, which led to Charnett being raised among jazz royalty and being exposed to adventurous musical sounds even from the womb which may explain his intense and relentless creativity.
Charnett, who was named after his father Charles and mentor to be, Ornette, later in life became a first call bassist for his legendary namesake and remains today as one of the leading practitioners of Coleman’s famed Harmelodic philosophy of music making. Moffett brings Ornette’s philosophies to new generations by bringing a free jazz spirit to his own inventive (yet structured) music which includes elements of classic jazz, free jazz, bop, classical, world, rock, pop, trance and various indigenous sounds from around the globe. These many influences are reflected both in his group projects and in his truly unique solo show “Solo Bass Works” in which he somehow manages to evoke all of these influences in a most musical manner from his solo bass in ways that mesmerizes audiences and defies expectations of what a bassist might achieve. His relentless quest for expanding the limits of the bass have led and Jazziz Magazine to comment that he has ‘jaw-dropping virtuosity”, and AllMusic.com to call him “one of the greatest bassists of the early 21st century.”
Moffett first appeared on a recording at age seven with the Moffett Family Band. At age 16 he attended Juilliard briefly and then left to join the Wynton Marsalis Quintet, kicking off a non-stop career working with innumerable icons of music including Art Blakey, Ornette Coleman, McCoy Tyner, Tony Williams, Dizzy Gillespie, Herbie Hancock, Dianne Reeves, Arturo Sandoval, Anita Baker, Stanley Jordan, Harry Connick Jr., David Sanborn, Branford Marsalis, Bette Midler, Melody Gardot and so many more.
Moffett is on the multi-Grammy-winning Motéma Music label where he has recorded five albums since 2010, his newest recording, Music From Our Soul, was released in May, 2017 and features an all-star cast – Pharaoh Sanders, Stanley Jordan, Cyrus Chestnut, Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts, Victor Lewis and Mike Clark – all long-time collaborators from his thirty years as a lead recording artist.
(Bio from Moffett’s website)
This program is hosted, engineered, produced, and edited by Joyce Jones. Listen for our On the Bandstand segment with NYC metro area appearances of Suga’ guests at the end of the first hour with Associate Producer Hank Williams.
Charnett Moffett will be at The Side Door Jazz club in Old Lyme CT on June 10.
Web Extras:
Watch Moffett play a solo version of “Eleanor Rigby” in this live 2013 performance.
Watch Moffett with Will Calhoun and Marc Cary play “Afro Blue” in this 2013 live set at the Blue Note.
Watch Moffett on the electric bass with the “NettWork” trio, including Stanley Jordan and Jeff “Tain” Watts live at Birdland.
Hank Williams is assistant producer for Suga’ in My Bowl and produces the weekly “On the Bandstand” segment as well as running the show’s website and blog, where he has reviewed several jazz festivals. His writing has also appeared in Left Turn magazine and American Music Review. He teaches at Lehman and Hunter colleges in the City University of New York system.
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