Samm Bennett was born in 1957 in Birmingham, Alabama, in the heart of the "deep south" of the United States. The music that surrounded him during early childhood reflected the unique cultural hodgepodge of the region: the radio was overflowing with generous portions of country & western by artists like Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, and Tammy Wynette; with the R&B of Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett, the essential funk of James Brown, and the deep soul of Aretha Franklin (who had recorded some of her greatest sides in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, a stone's throw from home). Also everpresent on the radio waves were gospel music programs and the ubiquitous preachers, both black and white, who in fiery and sing-songy cadences warned us of the evils of Satan and the salvation of Jesus. Then there was the Nat King Cole that seemed to emanate constantly from his parents' record player, and his older sister's "folk" music by people like Joan Baez and Woody Guthrie, whose songs she'd both listen to on record and strum on her own guitar. Young Bennett was taking it all in, and after seeing Ringo on TV around age seven, he started stacking up magazines into the shape of a drum kit: after a few years of banging on the family cookware, his father gave in and bought him a starter drum set for his twelfth birthday. During his high school years he did the obligatory jamming in loose-knit "bands," and was often to be found drumming along with records (headphones cranked!) by the Allman Brothers (a particular favorite down south), Sly and the Family Stone, Jimi Hendrix, or the Grateful Dead.
Perhaps it was the Dead's use of unstructured or "free" improvisation that planted a seed of interest in more adventurous avenues of musical expression. Whatever the reason, Bennett was starting to experiment with different instruments and different ways of playing them: by the time he was just out of high school, he was already augmenting his drum kit with pieces of junk metal, kitchenware, bells, bicycle horns, and what-have-you. This was essentially an intuitive, home-grown process: the result of a restless desire to expand his repertoire of sounds and his modes of expression. He began to consciously seek out the new types of music that he had heard about here and there, but these were all-too-often impossible to find in the record shops of Birmingham. Fortunately, around this time he met Davey Williams and LaDonna Smith, who were the first practicing "free improvisers" Bennett had ever met, and they introduced him to recordings by folks like Derek Bailey and Evan Parker that they had mail-ordered from obscure English record labels. The solo on percussionist Tony Oxley's February Papers was a revelation, as was hearing, around the same time, recordings of African and Indonesian percussion on the early Nonesuch releases. The world of music was opening up fast, and Bennett decided he needed to get out of Birmingham and into a livelier, more cosmopolitan scene. In 1977, at the age of twenty, he took his drums and automotive springs and headed to Boston, Massachusetts.
Though never enrolling in any institution of musical higher learning, he did start in playing almost immediately upon arrival, mostly with young musicians who were attending the New England Conservatory. The "free jazz" of groups like the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Air, and the Revolutionary Ensemble had a big influence on Bennett and his contemporaries during the late seventies, and during this period he performed frequently with a unit called Ensemble Garuda, whose members (including cellist Jaques Morelenbaum and trumpeter Frank London, now of Klezmatics fame) were eagerly exploring new ways to work together as a unit, analyzing the mechanics of "free" improvising. During this time he also played with clarinetist Don Byron, as well as guitarist Joe Morris, and started doing his first solo percussion concerts in the various galleries and lofts where "experimental" music was happening. Concurrent with his interest in new jazz was his fast-growing love of African music. He listened voraciously to field recordings from all over the continent, continually in awe of the complex and dynamic rhythms of African traditional drumming. He began attending weekly drum ensemble workshops held at the Friends of Great Black Music Loft, which was run by former Sam Rivers drummer Sidney Smart, an excellent teacher of Africanesque styles who first taught Bennett the magic of three against two, among other jewels of rhythmic expression.
Eventually Bennett decided he had to get over to Africa himself, to get a firsthand look at a little bit of the life and culture there. So in 1980 he traveled through Europe down to Palermo, Sicily, where he took a boat to Tunis and a train to Algiers. From there he traveled south, overland across the Sahara desert (mostly riding atop trucks carrying huge sacks of dried dates) all the way down to Nigeria. He lived for six months with a family there, in Benin City, making daily visits to the home of Idemudia Izevbihen, the leader of a traditional music group called the Ehengbuda Cultural Messengers. With Idemudia (and his extended family) Bennett studied, in an informal atmosphere, the music of the Benin people, learning the techniques of the Olokun drum and the Ighede drum. On a couple of occasions he performed with the group at all-night funerals: lively, extended affairs which demanded plenty of drumming and singing to see off the deceased in style.
His departure from Africa in 1981 was via Europe, where he played his first solo concerts outside of the United States. Europe, of course, was very appealing to a young musician from the U.S., as interest in "new music" seemed to exist in relative abundance throughout the continent. It was gratifying to learn that such interest might exist not only in the big cities, but also in smaller towns and even villages. Bennett returned to Boston, but was back in Europe in 1983, this time for an extended stay in Brussels, Belgium. He resided for the better part of a year above the old Bloomdido jazz club, where his apartment doubled as the dressing room for the musical acts coming through! During this period he performed extensively in the solo format, in cities and towns throughout Belgium and Holland. In Gent, Belgium, he did a solo set as an opener for the Manu Dibango band, whereupon Dibango invited Bennett to join his band that night for their entire show! He even appeared on Belgian TV a couple of times, one of those appearances resulting in an invitation to perform a solo set at the North Sea Jazz Festival in the Hague. And it was in Brussels during 1983 that Bennett recorded his first solo LP, entitled Metafunctional, which was released the following year on the Igloo label. Metafunctional documented the rhythm-intensive music that he was presenting in his performances of that time. The disc featured his playing on a unique, custom-built drum kit consisting of two very resonant kick drums and seven or eight small, bongo-sized drums: he took great care in their tuning, emphasizing the melodic potential of such a set-up. Reviewing the record for Downbeat magazine, critic Howard Mandel called it "solidly satisfying" and "thoughtfully paced" while characterizing Bennett as "a funky, imaginative rhythmist," further pointing out that "he's attentive to pitch as well as rhythm" and that "he approximates an entire troupe of Yoruba percussionists, limbs independent and patterns interdependent."
He returned to Boston in 1984, but didn't stay put for long. He happened to have been booked for a solo set on the same bill with John Zorn, up from New York, who heard Bennett that night and invited him to play in his piece "Track and Field" at the Kool Jazz Festival, NYC. This seemed a kind of omen, a sign that it was time to get out of Boston, and Bennett wasted little time in moving to New York City. Brooklyn, to be exact.
Prior to the actual move, he had (since the late seventies) been making semi-regular treks from Boston down to New York to take lessons with drummers Barry Altschul and Andrew Cyrille, and later with Milford Graves. So the terrain wasn't altogether unfamiliar, and he was soon working with many of the folks who loosely formed what became known as "the downtown scene." Along with guitarist Elliott Sharp and saxophonist Ned Rothenberg, he formed an edgy, rock-leaning trio called Semantics, which recorded two LPs (Semantics for Rift and Bone of Contention for SST) and toured Europe. He was cofounder (with Kumiko Kimoto, Yuval Gabay, and Hahn Rowe) of the slapdash rhythm-based group Bosho, who released one LP (Chop Socky, Dossier Records) and did several tours in Europe. A few years later, with cellist Tom Cora he formed the improvising trio Third Person, a group that always featured a different "guest" member. Those who passed through included Marc Ribot, Zeena Parkins, George Lewis, Nic Collins, Don Byron, Wayne Horvitz, and many others. Later, saxophonist Kazutoki Umezu (who Bennett had first met on a "blind date" improvised gig in Tokyo in 1986) became the permanent third member during the last couple of years of the group's existence. Umezu was instrumental in bringing the band to Japan for several tours during the early nineties, during which 3P did some of their finest playing. They released a total of three CDs, the latter two of which featured Umezu. Covering a 3P gig for The New York Times in 1994, Neil Strauss wrote: "Third Person sounded more like a cohesive band than an improvisatory game." Bennett was also a member of the Kropotkins, a band which was alt.country before there was even such a category. Described by critic Robert Christgau as "postmodern pre-blues," the group featured the endearingly creaky banjo playing of Dave Soldier and the trailer-park drawl of Memphis vocal legend Lorette Velvette. Bennett contributed percussion as well as two original tunes to the Kropotkins' first release on Koch records. Bennett also served as drummer for George Cartwright's southern-bent-jazz unit Curlew on that group's Paradise release (a chance to play with old buddy Davey Williams!), and for Umezu's "First Deserter" project with Ribot, Horvitz, and Cora. In addition to these groups, there were other less formalized but nonetheless important musical liaisons, and over the course of the mid-eighties to mid-nineties Bennett performed and/or recorded in the U.S., Europe, and Japan with artists such as Christian Marclay, Shelly Hirsch, and Otomo Yoshihide. He also performed on several occasions (along with drummers Joey Baron or Bobby Previte) in John Zorn's "New Traditions in East Asian Bar Bands" project, in a piece for two drummers and Korean narration.
During the early-to-mid-nineties another side of Bennett's musical persona emerged: that of performing singer/songwriter. He had been working for much of the eighties with electronics as well as acoustic percussion, and using a sampler he began to put together various kinds of harmonic support materials for creating songs, which he started writing and performing in earnest. In 1989 he formed the group Chunk, the vehicle for his earliest song work. That first version of Chunk still had a primary emphasis on percussion, with members Tim Spelios and David Simons providing mostly acoustic drum and percussion underpinning to Bennett's ethereal samples and vocal. Covering their very first live appearance, The New York Times' Jon Pareles wrote: "Chunk sets up intricate, off-center patterns--clanking, jingling, sputtering... Amid the rhythm, Mr. Bennett sings sustained, modal melodies in a country-tinged tenor, calmly unfolding quizzical observations and images of dislocation." By 1990 the group had morphed into a somewhat more "traditional" lineup including guitar, bass, and standard trap set, with Bennett triggering samples from drum pads and singing. Over the next few years Chunk would include members Oren Bloedow and Jerome Harris on bass, Dickie Dworkin and Billy Martin (now of Medeski, Martin and Wood) on drums, and Mark "dog" Deffenbaugh and Hahn Rowe on guitars. On Chunk's first release, Downbeat magazine wrote: "Life of Crime is a surprisingly 'inside' pop album with intelligent lyrics and engaging rhythms. Bennett is an appealing crooner, but what distinguishes Chunk is Bennett's imaginative use of percussion and odd (or found) sounds in otherwise mainstream settings." Stereo Review wrote: "Bennett has a smooth voice that belies the darker subjects explored in his songs," and described Life of Crime as "a crazy quilt of disparate elements that shouldn't work together but do, maintaining poise and elegance even in an environment of chaos and disorder." Bennett's 1993 release The Big Off featured seventeen guest musicians including (but not limited to) members of Chunk. The CMJ New Music Report described the songs as "always exciting and never predictable," and continued: "The Big Off is the kind of record where a quick stroll through the lyric sheet on about the fourth or fifth listen can open up new avenues and tip off a whole new phase of admiration and enjoyment." In 1995 he released his third collection of songs, History of the Last 5 Minutes, a collaboration with the amazing Hahn Rowe (of Hugo Largo, Foetus, etc.) on guitar and co-production. Billboard magazine wrote: "Bennett's loping grooves and elastic voice fuel these slightly skewed tales, with Rowe's expressive lines adding color and diversion." CD Review wrote: "The duo quickly homes in on the obscure musical objects of their desire--country kicks, swamp blues, avant bossa nova, and Zairean soukous--and uses the rock dynamic between them to shake out interesting new textures and rhythms." Both Chunk (in its various incarnations) and the History duo did a great amount of touring in the U.S. and in Europe, with "History" also performing at venues in Israel and Japan.
The years he had spent in NYC had been productive and fruitful for Bennett, but by 1995 he was eager once again for a change of scene, so after eleven years in New York he moved to Tokyo, a city he had grown fond of over the course of several visits there during the preceding years. In Japan he has worked with improvisers such as drummer Yasuhiro Yoshigaki, guitarist Natsuki Kido, clarinetist Wataru Ohkuma, and vocalist Koichi Makigami. He has worked with Butoh dance figure Min Tanaka, and has appeared on two CD releases from the highly regarded Tetsuhiro Daiku, a singer of Okinawan traditional music. He was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to perform with revered Korean hojok master and shaman Kim Suk Chul. He has served as guest member (performing and recording) of rock musician Takashi Nakagawa's Soul Flower Union, and worked closely with Nakagawa as contributing writer and co-producer of his solo project Soul-cialist Escape (Ki/oon Sony Records). He has appeared on releases from the singers Tujiko Noriko, Carmen Maki, Haco, and UA. And he's been a regular guest at Uchihashi Kazuhisa's yearly Festival Beyond Innocence in the Kansai region, where he has matched improvising wits with guitarist Hans Reichel, shamisen great Yumiko Tanaka, Keiji Haino, Eugene Chadbourne, ondes martenot master Takashi Harada, Ikue Mori, and many more, including Uchihashi himself. He and Uchihashi are also members of the trio R.U.B., along with Ned Rothenberg. R.U.B.'s first CD (Are You Be) was released in 2002 on the Animul label. Writing for the L.A. Reader, Greg Burk calls the record "a real mind-stretcher." Bennett has also been performing of late with composer/laptop wizard Carl Stone, in a new duo called Hinge.
Bennett is currently very much focused on the electronica/vocal project Skist, a duo which he formed in 1998 with sound creator and vocalist Ito Haruna. Together they are exploring new directions in song, with an emphasis on non-linearity and the use of space. They released two limited-edition CDs in 2000 (Ready Question and Jook Parachute, from the S-inc label), and in 2002 released Ellipsis, the first CD from their own label, Polarity. Skist tracks have also appeared on compilations from Mille Plateaux (clicks+cuts =, '00) FatCat (No Watches, No Maps, '01), Luaka Bop (Blip Hop, '02), QUT (Emit 2, '03), and ::Room 40:: (Melatonin, '04). Reviewing Ellipsis for The Wire magazine, David Elliott wrote: "The duo's sense of restraint plus Ito's wonderful voice ensure that their digital methods serve the songs, rather than the reverse.... Their songs are realized with the utmost economy, from an electronic stress fracture stitched with pin-metal beats, or a pulsing line of rhythm and a counterforce of near melodic accents held together by latent tension."
In 2004 Bennett released Secrets of Teaching Yourself Music (on the Improvised Music from Japan label), his first collection of solo material since "Metafunctional" came out twenty years ago. "Secrets" is a live recording, culled mostly from performances at Tokyo music spots during late 2003. It featuries his work with a hybrid electro-acoustic kit on which he's exploring the elements of rhythm and sonic texture that interest him. The Wire's Edwin Pouncey called the record an "amusing and entertaining DIY musical primer... Bennett's lively manipulation of sound never fails to uncover some new means of communication between the objects he has assembled. His choice of rhythms and styles is as mixed as his orchestration, with random electronica drifting into robotic Techno dance grind. Just as that becomes irritating it collapses into a bout of backward voice sampling overlaid with a metallic drip effect." After a long hiatus from regular solo performing, Bennett is now pursuing it fully once again.