Lifestyle
Charnett Moffett, expansive bassist who could challenge legends, dies at 54
![](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/charnett-moffett_wide-d15629539296f562fb6a5479fb6ae38bd2225195.jpeg)
Jazz bassist Charnett Moffett.
Courtesy of the artist
disguise caption
toggle caption
Courtesy of the artist
![](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/charnett-moffett_wide-d15629539296f562fb6a5479fb6ae38bd2225195-s1200.jpeg)
Jazz bassist Charnett Moffett.
Courtesy of the artist
Bassist Charnett Moffett, a stylistically agnostic staple of the jazz scene because the ’80s, died final week on April 12 at Stanford College Hospital following a coronary heart assault. He was 54. The information was confirmed by his publicist, Lydia Liebman; Moffett was together with his spouse and musical collaborator Jana Herzen on the time.
![](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/gettyimages-564024151-c3b8775b736acbb3d70cfd4fc52297ec427f6e07-s1100-c50.jpg)
Bass participant Charnett Moffett, performing in 2006 on the Hollywood Bowl in LA.
Ricardo DeAratanha/Los Angeles Instances by way of Getty Imag
disguise caption
toggle caption
Ricardo DeAratanha/Los Angeles Instances by way of Getty Imag
![](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/gettyimages-564024151-c3b8775b736acbb3d70cfd4fc52297ec427f6e07-s1200.jpg)
Bass participant Charnett Moffett, performing in 2006 on the Hollywood Bowl in LA.
Ricardo DeAratanha/Los Angeles Instances by way of Getty Imag
Through the ’80s and ’90s, it appeared as if Moffett was in every single place within the jazz scene, recording with then-up-and-comers like Wynton and Branford Marsalis and Stanley Jordan, and was working with legends like Artwork Blakey, Ornette Coleman, Sonny Sharrock and Tony Williams. It appeared as if each Tuesday, what was once file launch day, introduced forth new recordings that have been elevated by Moffett’s massive, elastic tone and his acute rhythmic sensibility. He may elevate a tune with out soloing on it; his skill to intertwine with drummers and pianists created versatile but sturdy foundations for soloists to drive the music in no matter route she or he happy. And this ubiquity and dynamic excellence obscured Moffett’s youth. When he performed on Branford Marsalis’ debut 1983 recording, Scenes within the Metropolis, the bassist was 16 years previous.
“The household is in shock and devastated, but additionally grateful that he’s launched from the extraordinary ache [of a Trigeminal Neuralgia diagnosis], and we invite all his followers and family members to have fun his indomitable, vastly artistic, excessive flying and joyful spirit,” the household writes in an announcement.
Wynton Marsalis, “For Wee Of us”
YouTube
Wynton Marsalis, “Blues”
YouTube
Moffett was born right into a musical household in New York Metropolis: He’s the son of drummer Charles Moffett Sr., who performed on the pivotal Ornette Coleman assortment On the Golden Circle Stockholm (Blue Notice), which was launched on two volumes in 1966. The bassist was born the next yr – his title is a contraction of the primary names of his father and Coleman. When Charnett was eight, he toured internationally together with his household’s band.
Sonny Sharrock, “Guarantees Saved”
YouTube
Charnett Moffett, “The Star-Spangled Banner”
YouTube
Moffett’s work on Wynton Marsalis’ excellent 1985 recording, Black Codes from the Underground, is a superb showcase of his vary. On “For Wee Of us,” he works deftly with pianist Kenny Kirkland and drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts to create a lithe rhythmic ground. Then, a number of tracks afterward “Blues,” Moffett duets with the chief, pushing and prodding him.
A couple of years later, he holds his personal amid esteemed elders on “Guarantees Saved” from Ask the Ages, with Sharrock, saxophonist Pharoah Sanders and drummer Elvin Jones. As is commonly the case with drummers and bassists, Moffett was at all times so in-demand that he (too) sometimes led his personal dates. However when he did, they have been masterful; on his debut as a pacesetter, Internet Man (Blue Notice), he confirmed his expansive scope.
Maybe his signature achievement as a pacesetter was his solo rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” which pays homage to Jimi Hendrix’s model.
All through the 2000s, Moffett continued to make stellar music each as a pacesetter and as a sideman, typically with the Manhattan Jazz Quintet, however the scene had modified due partially to his affect. When Moffett arrived, jazz was Balkanizing into contentious camps, and phrases like “the Jazz Wars” have been used with out irony. Moffett ignored the borders and have become a one-man demilitarized zone, working in all types – acoustic, electrical, mainstream and avant-garde – and bringing parts of world music into his sound. By way of the ’90s and into the brand new millennium, musicians and the hierarchy of jazz establishments got here round to his perspective: music is probably greatest appreciated and took part in with out preconceived definitions.
![](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/np-logo.png)
Lifestyle
Take a sneak peek into a legendary songwriter's creative process
![Take a sneak peek into a legendary songwriter's creative process](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/899x506+220+151/resize/1400/quality/100/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F61%2F8a%2F4b490bcd4549b60391c86b2b7dde%2F662494.jpg)
The Library of Congress acquired the papers of Leslie Bricusse an Academy Award-winning songwriter, earlier this year.
The Library of Congress
hide caption
toggle caption
The Library of Congress
You may not know the name Leslie Bricusse (pronounced Brick’-us), but you very likely hum some of the songs he’s written: “Pure Imagination,” “What Kind of Fool Am I?,” “Talk to the Animals,” Superman’s theme “Can You Read My Mind,” “Goldfinger.”
And remarkably, some 60 years after his heyday, the composer-lyricist is having a moment.
![Lupita Nyong’o as Samira looking at a reflection of herself in the mirror.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/2000x2000+69+0/resize/100/quality/100/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F74%2F46%2F3f43d35e4b16ab23f8b78e4f1cd3%2Faqpd1-17562r.jpg)
In A Quiet Place: Day One, a woman who may be the last human survivor on a Manhattan infested with aliens checks her iPod and pulls up Nina Simone singing “Feeling Good.” She needs a song to express defiance and how, as her world lies in ruins, she exults in being alive. Sentiments Bricusse put to music six decades ago seem perfect.
That same song popped up on the premiere of the Netflix series Obliterated to help a bomb defuser steady his hand. And family audiences spent last Christmas singing along with “Pure Imagination,” crooned by Timothée Chalamet’s Willy Wonka to tie him firmly with the Gene Wilder original.
Bricusse often wrote lyrics for other composers’ music. He wrote “Pure Imagination” and “Feeling Good” with Anthony Newley. At other times, he wrote both music and lyrics. He was a master of many styles, all of them entertaining, and it turns out that’s every bit as true of the papers his widow, actress Yvonne “Evie” Romain Bricusse, best known for co-starring with Elvis Presley in Double Trouble, donated recently to the Library of Congress.
Mark Eden Horowitz, a senior music specialist at the Library of Congress, where the Bricusse papers join those of Leonard Bernstein, Richard Rodgers, the Gershwins and others, says that in addition to the scripts, musical scores, notes for ideas on shows that never came together, recordings and other items, what’s remarkable about this particular collection is Bricusse’s notebooks.
“Just sort of drugstore notebooks,” he says, holding one out, “but he lived his life in these things.
“They’re beautifully calligraphed, most pages are numbered and often dated and indicate where he was in the world at the time, Acapulco on November third, 1986.” And then he does these amazing calendars.”
Calendars rendered in five or six colors, and necessary because “he’s constantly working on 10 or 12 projects at a time.”
![Leslie Bricusse's multicolored](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3000x4000+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F40%2F9b%2Fc0ed7f9e465094f8b349e040ea39%2Fdolittle-calendar-page.jpg)
Leslie Bricusse’s multicolored “Doctor Dolittle” calendar.
The Library of Congress
hide caption
toggle caption
The Library of Congress
Some of those, no one’s heard of. “For a long time, chuckles Horowitz, “he was working on a musical version of Henry VIII. I swear he considered 30 different titles, one of which was The King & I & I & I & I & I.”
There are lots of fun discoveries. Bricusse’s lyrics sound so natural that it’s hard to imagine they didn’t just spring from him that way, but the notebooks are where he polished them. Take page 58 in the one where he’s working on “Goldfinger.” He has heart of gold/this heart is cold….web of sin but don’t come in. But he has too many “golden”s, so in the notebook, he’s slashed through golden, in “the man with the golden touch” and replaced it with “Midas.”
![A sneak peek into Bricusse's creative process as he worked on](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/1019x1332+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F38%2F7c%2F139a2ad44e7080c09f72e73ea1af%2Fmidas.jpg)
A sneak peek into Bricusse’s creative process as he worked on “Goldfinger.”
Library of Congress
hide caption
toggle caption
Library of Congress
That turned an OK line into a classic and goes much better with the next line that he already had: “A spider’s touch.”
That’ll be a fun find for somebody’s dissertation. Mixed in with that sort of thing is marginalia about theater, movies, budgets, life … seemingly whatever was on his mind.
“He asks himself questions,” says Horowitz, “he puts down what he’s thinking, asks himself should he be thinking that? Why is he thinking this? What should he do about it?” It’s his thoughts about everything that is ideal for researchers.
Asked whether George Gershwin did something similar, Horowitz almost laughs. “No. I’ve never seen a collection with this much-organized detail.”
![A page from Leslie Bricusse's notebooks.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/1190x1540+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F22%2Ffd%2F0bb80605460aa64ee248a65e05dc%2F662472.jpg)
A page from Leslie Bricusse’s notebooks.
The Library of Congress
hide caption
toggle caption
The Library of Congress
So, it is a treasure trove, but also one in which those details are sometimes puzzling — blocks of letters, say, in some of the margins. It turns out that’s how Bricusse wrote out the melodies — not with musical notes on sheet music as most composers do, but using the alphabetical letters that represented the notes. C, A, B-flat, and so on. Horowitz figured out how to read them and how to play the melodies if asked.
These pop songs were Leslie Bricusse’s life work. The notebooks, decorated, colorized, wildly ornate, feel — perhaps inadvertently — like art, themselves.
![Did you know 'Hook' was once a musical? Now you can hear the movie's long-lost songs](https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2023/12/20/2jd8bhb_sq-3b2892c4d785945b7f71e6eefd58f2a4bfb18bc3.jpg?s=100&c=100&f=jpeg)
Horowitz, noting that Bricusse’s widow is an artist and that they collaborated on some things together, agrees. “Clearly, yes, he has a sense of design, and color, and he seems to want to keep things lively and interesting and attractive.
“I think he’s an entertainer in every sense. He wants people to be bubbling joyous; I think he’s always looking for the rainbow, for the magic.”
Judging from the notebooks that have found a new home in the Leslie Bricusse Collection at the Library of Congress, he found it.
Lifestyle
Justin Timberlake and Tiger Woods Plan To Open New Bar in Scotland
![Justin Timberlake and Tiger Woods Plan To Open New Bar in Scotland](https://imagez.tmz.com/image/1f/16by9/2024/07/05/1f0a2cf903234f8196f02a0e8ed8e9fa_xl.jpg)
Justin Timberlake isn’t letting his drunk driving arrest get in the way of his business aspirations … He’s reportedly opening a new saloon in Scotland with Tiger Woods!
According to Billboard … Justin and Tiger – who’s also had a past DUI arrest – are partnering to turn the New Picture House Cinema into a T-Squared Social sports bar in the historic Scottish town of St. Andrews.
The singer/actor and the golf great first opened T-Squared in New York City – and it was so popular the pair decided to expand the operation overseas to Scotland.
The Manhattan-based watering hole boasts fun games such as bowling and playing darts, as well as simulated golf.
In St. Andrews, the town council gave the thumbs up to break ground on the project, which will create upwards of 45 jobs.
Billboard obtained documents that described the proposed bar as an “experience” with a “broader range of cinema, dining and entertainment.”
Sounds like a blast! But, let’s hope JT and TW don’t have too much fun. As you know, Justin got arrested recently for DWI in Sag Harbor, New York. And, Tiger once pled guilty to DUI in Florida.
Lifestyle
'MaXXXine' closes a grisly trilogy in style : Pop Culture Happy Hour
!['MaXXXine' closes a grisly trilogy in style : Pop Culture Happy Hour](https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/07/03/a24_maxxxine_firstlook_confidential_wide-4b703f38c45da39ae6dddb41619bc504f923d0b4.jpg?s=1400&c=100&f=jpeg)
-
Politics1 week ago
Popular Republican and Trump running mate contender makes first Senate endorsement in 2024 races
-
News1 week ago
Toplines: June 2024 Times/Siena Poll of Registered Voters Nationwide
-
Politics1 week ago
Fox News Politics: Trump Ungagged…Kinda
-
News1 week ago
Iowa floodwaters breach levees as even more rain dumps onto parts of the Midwest
-
Politics1 week ago
Mike Kennedy advances past crowded GOP primary to secure nomination for open Utah House seat
-
Politics1 week ago
The many faces of Donald Trump from past presidential debates
-
News1 week ago
New Jersey gamer flew to Florida and beat fellow player with hammer, say police
-
News5 days ago
Video: How Blast Waves Can Injure the Brain