David Benoit
Web Site
March 2002

"I see more and more of that, of bringing classical, and jazz, and smooth jazz, and straight ahead, and even country and western, bringing it all together to create some kind of new thing, new music."

Fuzzy Logic
GRP
2002

By J. Robert Bragonier

Life for composer-pianist David Benoit is good. His twenty-second recording as a leader in twenty-four years (and fourteenth for GRP), Fuzzy Logic, was released February 5, 2002; he is a three-time Grammy nominee; the contemporary jazz sound he helped pioneer continues its commercial success; and his personal wave of popularity and acclaim seems unending. Compared to his most popular releases, Fuzzy Logic, Benoit explains, "is funky, more of a raw sound. It's less produced; it doesn't have any strings. It's not as soft, [it's] more of a bold album; the colors are a little brighter. It's a little funkier, R&B-edged; actually, it's more Rhythm-and-Blues than I've done in a long time…the idea [was] to have some fun, get funky; we're getting some good results with it."

But Benoit is not resting on his laurels. His professional sights are set both high and wide: after recording with Alphonse Mouzon and accompanying singer Gloria Lynne, he honed his orchestral talents during an eight-year touring association with Lainie Kazan. He has appeared on sessions with Melissa Manchester, Allie Willis, and David Lasley, and played on numerous movie and television scores for composer Gil Melle. More recently, in addition to television and film scoring, he has been engaged in classical composition and has conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the symphonies of London, Nuremberg, San Francisco, Atlanta, San Antonio, and San Jose. And currently, he is nearing completion on his first Broadway musical, in collaboration with lyricist Mark Winkler, about the life and times of Marilyn Monroe. In a recent interview, Benoit was enthusiastic about sharing his current ventures. But first, let's put his career in chronological perspective.

Benoit spent his early childhood in Bakersfield, California. His father taught behavioral sciences, and his mother played the piano for her own enjoyment. She was his first teacher, if unofficially; "I wasn't a good student with her. It was like, she was my mom, so I wasn't too serious about it." His interest in jazz was first piqued at the age of six or seven: "My dad was playing jazz guitar at the time on the weekends, and he had musicians over to the house for practice and rehearsals, and so I got pretty interested."

In 1960, at the age of 8-9, the family (David has two brothers) moved to Hermosa Beach to be closer to the ocean. Since the small beach house in which they lived had no piano, however, David's musical progress stalled. "Then, when I was thirteen, we moved into another house and my parents bought a piano. I started taking lessons, and that was when things started happening again…I started playing at high school events; I formed a band; I had my first gig at a coffee house in LA when I was 16, and at age 17 I was working professionally."

During his teen years, the piano demanded his full attention. "I never picked up a string instrument or woodwind. It's kind of funny, maybe not for everybody, but for me: Once I got into piano, there was never a reason to learn another instrument. I guess because I was just so enraptured by piano…" And nowadays? "Well, I've been known to sit down to a set of drums. I finally bought a set, from Yamaha, and I love to sit down and just bang away at them. I play a little bit of electric bass and a little bit of guitar, just the rhythm instruments, basically, but I'm not proficient at any of them, by any means!"

How easy has it been for Benoit, in his scoring and orchestrating activities, to arrange for instruments like strings and woodwinds, when he has no personal experience playing them? "Certainly, the computer has made it easier, because [it] gives you the ranges, and you can also hear how it sounds on the keyboard. Also, I've been doing it for many years, and I've always tried to ask players questions as to how this works, or this fingering…"

Does he ever wonder to himself what it would have been like if he had started his musical studies earlier? "I wish I'd studied music more, had a better background in it, gone to music school. Because I never did, you know; I was a dropout. I think it would have helped. I've been crossing over into the classical world a lot more, and that's a tough world if you don't know what you're doing. They're not very forgiving! So if I have one regret…"

"But then, you never know. Had I studied real early, maybe I wouldn't have developed the style that I did. I have developed my own kind of sound, and that is tough to do, having your own voice. I'm grateful for that. But I always think of Andre Previn as one of the few that has the best of both worlds, all that training but still can play that great jazz. There are a few that I look to that have been able to do everything, and only a few, Leonard Bernstein of course being one of them, one of the great composers and classical pianists who understood jazz."

Breaks have come Benoit's way on more than one occasion. The first occurred when he was asked to play on the soundtrack of Robert Altman's acclaimed 1975 film Nashville. "I was just in a studio one day, playing the piano. A guy heard me, and it was Richard Bascomb, the composer. He said, 'I like the way you play. I want you to play in this movie that I'm doing.' So, that's how it happened. I was 20 years old. Then a similar thing happened when I made my first album. I was on a recording session for a sax player. The producer liked the way I played, and he offered me a record deal. So, I've had some good breaks."

Not everything he wants has come easily for him, however: "Like one thing, for example: I've never been able to play in Europe, and that just is so frustrating. I don't understand why; I haven't figured it out yet. But there are a few things in my career that I would like to do, and one of them is to go to Europe and play."

On the brighter side, a banner event in Benoit's life occurred last year when he and his wife Kei adopted a baby daughter, June. When asked what changes she has brought into his life, and how her arrival is affecting his music, Benoit replied, "It's been just great! In terms of my music, hmm, I think there hasn't been a direct effect. I don't know if it's a coincidence or not, but just about the time we got her, I got an offer to be the music director of the Asia America Symphony, a local symphony here, and they asked me to start a youth symphony. I'm just now getting around to that, so I have been busier than ever, doing some things that I've really been wanting to do, working with youth, and it's just been terrific. This connection with kids has been really remarkable in my life. June's been a great influence; like, one of the things that I never would think to do, would be just to take a weekday and just say, 'Screw it!' and go to the beach. And that what's been great, like just stopping and 'smelling the roses' a little more. And with kids, it's really important. In terms of how it affects my music, it'll probably have a lasting effect on what I do. But right now, it's just kind of taking it one step at a time, and stopping to enjoy life a little more, and also starting to do things I really want to be doing more and more, like working with youth."

Benoit waxes especially enthusiastic when discussing the youth symphony. "We're going to have our first concert April 28th, [2002, 2:30 P.M., at the Norris Theater in Palos Verdes], and it looks like we're going to have a 50-piece orchestra, made up of kids from 12 years old all the way up to 18!"

In addition, Benoit's involvement as a guest educator with the Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation has taken him into classrooms throughout the country. "[The foundation is] a non-profit organization set up to raise money for band instruments to help keep school orchestras alive and fund them. I've been a spokesman for that organization and done fund raising events; I've actually gone into some inner city classrooms, spoken with the kids, jammed with them. I've been very active campaigning to keep music in the schools and keep kids interested in music. It's been a real problem. I think about my mom: with women her age, everyone learned to play the piano; it was as much a part of a kid's education as soccer practice is now. There was a piano in every schoolroom. It was just part of growing up, learning to play an instrument. We've gotten so far away from that. But I think there is a resurgence of new interest in music, in jazz and classical; (I'm not talking about rap…) Not that every kid has to make a living at [music], but just for the enjoyment of it.

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