If you read reviews of Bennie Wallace's work, you often see the claim that he plays like Ben Webster. Well, I don't think so. It's surely no criticism to play like BenWebster, but I just don't think it's a proper comment. First of all, I think he plays far more interesting material, including many of his own compositions (hardly fair to Ben as he played decades ago, and was, after all, one of Ellington's greatest soloists - Cottontail, and many others), and second, I just don't think he sounds like Ben. To my ear anyway, he's more edgy than the classic tenors, with maybe a touch of Sonny Rollins, or Charlie Rouse, or even Don Byas.

"The most important reed player since [Eric] Dolphy's and [Ornette] Coleman's startling work in the early sixties." New York Arts Journal

Maybe the comparison with Webster is meant to imply that he is a modernist who has absorbed the past. Or maybe it is code for "is not a clone of John Coltrane." Fair enough, if so. But enough about influences - they don't really matter, and everyone playing today has to have listened to these folks, especially Rollins. Bennie Wallace has a voice you can't miss - his sound and style are completely unmistakable, and he favors interesting tunes. His personality comes through his playing very strongly.

I heard him for the first time on CD, "Bennie Wallace" on Audioquest, which I bought just because of a good Downbeat review. I was knocked out, and soon was hearing him as often as I could in person and buying a lot of his CDs. I find his work fascinating, sometimes a little difficult, but always interesting. He works at the tunes, and transforms common songs into something you have never heard before.

He has an interesting history. After emerging on the jazz scene in the late '70s, with "The 14 Bar Blues," he spent much of the last decade as a composer of film scores including Betty Boop, White Men Can't Jump, Blaze, and Bull Durham. He returned to the East in the late 90s, and has played in and led groups containing Chick Corea, Tommy Flanagan, Dave Holland, Jimmy Knepper, John Schofield, and many others.

His recent (1999) "Bennie Wallace in Berlin" with the fabulous rhythm section of George Cables, Peter Washington, and Herlin Riley, is a special favorite of mine, but I've never heard a CD of his that I didn't like. Take a look at the list below.

Those of you who attended JazzNights 3 last May will know what a treat we have in store as the great jazz pianist Mulgrew Miller returns. You can find a preview of that evening, and our writeup of Mr. Miller at:

http://www.princeton.edu/~mjjr/miller.html.

Suffice it to say that he is one of the very best jazz pianist of our time, and we are very lucky to have him back.

You can hear Bennie Wallace and Mulgrew Miller together on "Moodsville," a awkwardly named (I think) but nonetheless excellent CD. Wallace and Miller are predictably great here, and are joined by Peter Washington (b) and Lewis Nash (d), just about the best rhythm section one could imagine, especially for a collection of generally slow standard ballads and jazz tunes (maybe Moodsville isn't such a bad name after all). I'd like a couple of "up" tunes as well, but is it a fine piece of work, once again showing how these masters can take a tune you have heard a thousand times and make you hear it afresh, allow you to see again why it's a good tune.

Selected Discography for Bennie Wallace -all CDs I have - there are many others.

The Fourteen Bar Blues (Enja3029-2) 1978

Bennie Wallace Plays Monk (Enja ENj30912) 1981

The Free Will (Enja, R279613) 1982

Brilliant Corners (Denon Cy30003) 1986

Bennie Wallace (Audioquest AQ-CD1051) 1998

Bennie Wallace in Berlin (Enja ENJ94252) 1999

Moodsville (Groove Note GRV1010-2) 2002.