Maupin to Help Pay Tribute to 2 Jazz Mentors

Miles Davis’ “Bitches Brew” is one of the milestone recordings in a career filled with dramatic high points. Moving the legendary trumpeter into what was, in essence, the troisieme age, or third segment of his remarkable career, it is an album filled with mysterious currents and sudden changes of pace.

One of the primary contributors to the atmospheric qualities of “Bitches Brew” was woodwind player Bennie Maupin, whose dark, roving bass clarinet sounds are for many listeners the most distinctive quality of the recording.

On Saturday night, Maupin will be one of a line of all-star players participating in “A Tribute to Miles Davis and Billy Higgins” at UCLA’s Royce Hall. Among those scheduled to appear are tenor saxophonist Harold Land, guitarist Kenny Burrell, pianist Billy Childs, vocalist Flora Purim and percussionist Airto Moreira (also a veteran of the Davis groups). The performance takes place a day after the 75th anniversary of Davis’ birth. Higgins passed away earlier this month while awaiting a second liver transplant.

Both Davis and Higgins played prominent roles in the career of the Detroit-born Maupin. “It was in the early ‘60s,” recalls Maupin, whose soft-spoken manner contrasts sharply with the passionate, envelope-stretching qualities often present in his tenor saxophone and bass clarinet work.

“I was playing with a local band on a concert that featured Sonny Rollins with Billy on drums. After we did our set, Billy literally waited for me at the bandstand to pack up my stuff and said, ‘Yeah, man. You’re going to be OK.’ He asked me if I knew Newk [Rollins’ nickname, gained because of his physical resemblance to Dodger pitcher Don Newcombe]. I said I didn’t, and he took my hand and led me to meet Sonny Rollins. Billy was just that kind of guy, always eager to help a young player.”

Meeting Rollins, says Maupin, “changed my life.” When the Rollins group returned to Detroit for a rare two-week run at a local club, the mentoring connection between the two solidified.

“It meant,” continues Maupin, “that I could see and hear him every night, sit and talk about music and mouthpieces and all sorts of things. It was great, and it continued when I moved to New York. You know, most people are aware of Sonny going up and practicing on the bridge over the East River, but he used to like to go out to New Jersey to practice in the woods, too. He’d call me up, sometimes at night, and we’d just head out into the woods to play. And Billy was the guy who made it happen.”

Maupin, now 60, was an active participant in the turbulent avant-garde activities exploding around Manhattan throughout the ‘60s. Playing with dozens of musicians, from John Coltrane and McCoy Tyner to lesser-known figures such as Marion Brown and Archie Shepp, he worked hard to hone skills embracing mainstream, chordal-based music as well as various forms of free improvisation.

He first came to the attention of Davis when he was working in a Tyner-led ensemble.

“It was a great musical environment, because McCoy would set up these great melodies and incredible rhythms and just open up the rest of it for individual expression,” Maupin says. “But I think the thing that Miles liked was the bass clarinet, which I was really starting to get into at the time.”

Davis was in a state of change at the time. Wayne Shorter and Joe Zawinul were on the way to forming Weather Report, Chick Corea and Dave Holland were looking toward solo careers, and Davis maintained a small collection of primary players to call upon for various projects.

The call for Maupin came as a result of the efforts of drummer Jack DeJohnette, who urged Davis to bring him into the mix for the “Bitches Brew” project.

“I think what it really was,” says Maupin, “was that Miles had heard something in me that he wanted to add to his palette. All together it turned out to be an amazing group he came up with. We had a few sketches, and we played them and shaped them, but we never really knew anything about them.”

According to Maupin, Davis insisted upon creating an environment that provided the best possible options for creative expression.

“I believe in taking chances musically, and I really feel I was urged along in that path by my experience with Miles. He kept making it clear that you’re not going to make discoveries if you don’t take chances.

“And it took me years to understand why he never let us hear anything played back while we were recording. I finally figured out it was because he didn’t want us to imitate ourselves. He knew how it was with young guys. If you play something that you like, you figure, ‘OK, I’ll play that on the next take and improve it.’ He didn’t want any of that. He wanted us to approach everything with a clean slate and an open mind.”

A New York resident at the time “Bitches Brew” was made in 1969, Maupin now has been living in the Southland for nearly three decades. Like most jazz artists, he works hard at maintaining his sense of musical authenticity in the face of uncertain employment conditions. He has recently appeared with Eric Reed, the Luckman Jazz Orchestra and various ensembles of his own.

As a beneficiary of aid, comfort and direction from both Billy Higgins and Miles Davis, Maupin feels an obligation to carry on their dedication to the music.

“It’s not easy,” he says. “We all struggle from one week to the next, trying to find a way to keep something interesting happening and working to pass on the tradition of the music itself. But if you hang in there long enough, the opportunities will come. After all, look at what happened to me with Miles Davis and ‘Bitches Brew.’ ”

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* “A Tribute to Miles Davis and Billy Higgins,” Friday at Royce Hall on the UCLA Campus. $35, $20 and $10 (for UCLA students with valid, full-time I.D.). The majority of the proceeds will benefit the Billy Higgins Medical Fund and help establish a Billy Higgins Scholarship Fund for UCLA’s jazz studies program. Information: (310) 825-2101.