Saxophonist, clarinetist and flutist Bennie Maupin has been a formative, if rarely in the spotlight, figure in jazz for decades. On Miles Davis’s Bitches Brew he contributed iconic colors as bass clarinetist, later he was part of Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters and was responsible for classics like Head Hunters or Thrust. During this time, he also produced his first albums under his own name – including The Jewel in the Lotus, a work of restrained radiance.
On his debut, Maupin takes a different approach from his prominent employers: no rock elements like Davis, no funk like Hancock. Instead, he favors open spaces that unfold beyond stylistic definitions. Hancock is joined on piano by two drummers, Billy Hart and Frederick Waits, and Bill Summers on percussion. Buster Williams on bass and Charles Sullivan as the only other horn player complete the ensemble – but instead of leading to dense rhythms, the music dissolves into floating arcs of sound.
The result is a structure that seems like living tissue: growing, breathing, never fixed. No trace of pathos, but a deeply individual tone. The Jewel in the Lotus is a jazz album of quiet grandeur – unobtrusive but lasting.
