Bennie Maupin
b. 29 August 1940, Detroit, USA. Maupin played saxophone in high school before studying music at the Detroit Institute for Music Art. He came to New York, in 1963 making his living from commercial music while playing with saxophonists Marion Brown and Pharoah Sanders. In 1966, he played with Roy Haynes and in 1968 joined the Horace Silver Quintet. By 1969, drummer Jack DeJohnette had introduced him to Miles Davis who made his bass clarinet improvisations an integral part of BITCHES BREW. He went on to play with pianists Chick Corea and Andrew Hill before joining Herbie Hancock's sextet in 1970. He played with the band which recorded the influential HEADHUNTERS, and continued with Hancock when the sextet became the funk band. He settled in Los Angeles where he has worked ever since.