Mostly Samm Bennett, as in solo. Sometimes I'm lucky enough to have Ken Kawashima accompany my wailing and carrying on. And lately I've been doing trio gigs, singing my songs with Kido Natsuki (guitar) and Katsui Yuji (violin).
I write and sing songs. I started doing that around 1991, when I released my first record Life of Crime, featuring a group I used to lead back in NYC called CHUNK. After that followed a release called The Big Off (1993) which featured about 17 musicians from the New York scene of the time, and after that Samm Bennett's History of the Last 5 minutes with guitarist Hahn Rowe. During those years I did shows in NYC as well as some tours in the US, Europe and Japan. Upon moving to Japan, though, in the year 1995, I pretty much stopped writing and performing songs for about 10 years or so. But during the last couple of years I've gone back to it in a big way, writing a LOT, as well as going out to sing all this new stuff at gigs around Tokyo, with some frequency.
Unlike most singer/songwriters, though, I don't play guitar, or piano, or ukulele or bandoneon or banjo or bass... I'm a drummer and percussionist. So my song stuff is about beats and drones and textures, not chord changes. Harmonically primitive, you might say, but for me it's all about rhythm and melody, sound and word. I often use drones that I create using one synth or another (my beloved old JUNO 60 comes in handy for this purpose), but I also use jaw harps and mouthbow and whatnot to get some notes going: just enough to set up a tonality. You might notice that a lot of the percussion functions melodically as well, whether it's in how a drum is tuned, the note from a tiny bell, whatever. I enjoy playing the drum kit, though I'm more likely to use a variety of other percussion rather than the standard trap set when recording my songs: I think it's often more interesting and leads to different types of rhythmic expression to go that way. Some of my recent favorite instruments to work with when putting my own tracks together are talking drum, bodhran, udo, darbuka, bombo and that amazing electronic marvel, the Korg WaveDrum. Otherwise, all manner of shakers, scrapers, bells and miscellaneous soundmakers find their way into my music. I like to mix it up a lot. And by the way, the acoustic guitar you hear in "Lexington Avenue Line" on my player is by my buddy Ken Kawashima. Otherwise, all tracks on the other three songs are performed by yours truly.
My next recorded collection of songs, called GOT FROM GONE will be released in April or thereabouts, on the label I run (Polarity Records) here in Japan along with my partner Haruna Ito. It'll be available through CD Baby and downloadable at iTunes and elsewhere. Hope you'll take a little time to listen!
Now, if you want a really exhaustive biography (it'll take you about 3 or 4 days to read it) you can check here.
I did an interview last year for online magazine based here in Japan called GYAKU. If you'd like to read it, it's here.
I've posted some songs and whatnot at Metafilter Music (under my Metafilter username "flapjax at midnite") which you can find here.
I'm also a frequent contributor to MetaFilter with music-related posts (again, as "flapjax at midnite"), covering a wide range of musicians and genres that interest me. You can see a collection of my music-related MetaFilter posts here.
Concerning TOP FRIENDS: The whole "Top Friends" thing, as I'm sure many of you might agree, is a little weird. But I think about it like this: it's just a way for me to call attention to music and musicians that I find interesting or exciting. They may be musicians I know personally, or they may be folks I've never met. They may be living, they may be dead. Whoever they are, they're there so that anyone who happens to wind up on my page can get some idea of what I dig musically, and, more importantly, perhaps click on the links and go check out some folks they may not already know. So the whole ranking aspect, the whole "top" bit, that's not why the "Top Friends" are there. They're just there cause I like their music. And I like to change them around from time to time, too, so if you happen to be a "Top" friend, then later find that you've dropped off the page, please be aware that it was only to make way for some other interesting musician. It'll be a rotation. Doesn't mean I don't love you anymore! I still love you!
Concerning COMMENTS:
I'm of the opinion that comments here should (ideally) say something to me personally. For myself, whenever I make comments on other folk's pages it's always to say something to them about their music, or to respond to a comment of theirs, as part of a discourse or exchange. Honestly, all this "thanks for the add" business, doesn't it get a little bit tiresome? I don't really need folks to just say "thanks for the add" or "thanks for the request", if that's really all you have to say. Not that I don't think a "thank you" is a good thing, but, really, it's not necessary, as far as I'm concerned. If you want to say something about my music, or tell a good joke, or quote your favorite sonnet from Shakespeare, that's great. You know, something interesting! But there's absolutely no need to send me a pre-fab graphic thank-you note or suchlike. In fact, if you don't even bother to address it to me, to personalize it in some little way, I'll probably just delete it. Cause it can wind up just looking like advertising for your band or whatever. Sure, maybe it's not, exactly, but it can feel that way. So if there's an add, I'll assume that you are thankful for the add, and I'll assume you'll know that I appreciate the add when the situation is reversed! And you can save your comment for such a time as you have something to say about how frikkin' outta tune I'm singing, or something!
Konnichiwa Samm-san, Thank you for the addition and the message! Live in bullets was really wonderful. Especially, I was surprised at your Taishougoto playing. Always your playing is instructive for me. I'm looking forward to see you again. Best wishes, iqed
Hi, I just wanted to let you know that my new album Afrikan Machinery is out now on Tzadik Records. Check out some of the tracks on my profile! You can buy the CD here, here, or here. It's also available on iTunes.
Best Wishes, Lukas Ligeti
Just want to stop by and let you know I added 6 new tunes to my profile. Send me a message to find out how to get a hard copy of the album before it is released as a download. Thanks!
Yo Samm... I keep checking back looking for show info. Nothing coming up? We got to sort something out... Ever find that vocal act you were searching for?
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