American jazz musician Charnett Moffett is a man on a mission. Throughout his 25 years on the scene, Moffett has been bringing people together on the planet through his music. “That’s part of my calling here in life,” according to Charnett Moffett. Charnett Moffett plays piccolo bass, double bass and bass guitar and is a current member of the Manhattan Jazz Quintet. The group was formed in 1983 at the suggestion of Japanese jazz magazine Swing Journal and the King Record label and became quite a success in Japan, earning the Gold Disk Award of Swing in 1984.

Charnett’s new CD release The Art Of Improvisation is his personal manifesto for the bass and one of his most eclectic outings to date. “I’m just trying to be true to form,” says Charnett. “All you can do is be who you are anyway, so you might as well go ahead and play all of the music that you enjoy.”

Ucombo music editor Meg Dilts interviewed Charnett Moffett this week about his early musical training, his career, and the release of the new CD entitled “The Art Of Improvisation”.

Meg: Hi Charnett, thank you so much for talking to us. A jazz musician on the scene for 25 years, you are truly living a life of every musician’s dream. There is a story that your first name was created as a combination of that of your father (Charles Moffett, the jazz drummer) and that of Ornette Coleman (the jazz saxophonist). Is that true? What was the exact story of making your name?

Charnett: Yes that is true, my father Charles Moffett played drums for Ornette Coleman in the sixty’s, they grew up together in Texas, they became friends playing music together in school, so by taking the ‘char’ from Charles and the ‘nett’ from Ornette when put together you get Charnett. So I really had no choice but to become a musician.

Meg: In that case, then you were destined to play jazz music. It’s wonderful that you truly love it too. How old were you when you started taking lessons? What instrument did you play first?

Charnett: My first instrument was the drums, with my father being a drummer everyone in the Moffett family began playing on drums (smile) I was age two. I later moved to trumpet by the age of five, by the time I was seven I found myself playing bass. The following year in 1975, I was on tour performing with my half sized upright bass with The Moffett Family Jazz Band, we were touring Japan. At that time there was also another bass player on tour with us, his name is Patrick McCarthy, He taught me the technical positions of the instrument, my first bass teacher, at that time he was the principle bassist for the Oakland Symphony Orchestra. The Moffett Family Band consisted of two drummers, my father Charles and my brother ‘Cody’, two horns, my brother Mondre on trumpet and my brother Charles Jr. on sax and two upright basses, Patrick McCarthy, and me on my half sized bass. During the tour Patrick had to return to the Symphony so my career as a bassist had begun.

Yes Meg, I loved the music then and I certainly love it now.

Meg: For a jazz musician, there’s nothing luckier than starting playing in a professional band while learning at the same time. When did you first start playing in live concerts?

Charnett: The Moffett Family Jazz Band was my start as a professional live performer. We were performing frequently in the Bay Area when I lived in California. I then went on to perform live in Germany with Keshervan Meshlock’s ‘Loved By Millions Band’, which was a punk rock group mixed with jazz rhythms, I was fourteen and playing an electric bass guitar which I had begun playing with the Moffett Family Band shortly after I started playing my half size acoustic bass.

Meg: As a teenager you played in your father’s band, but by the mid-1980s you had begun to create a reputation playing with Wynton Marsalis and Branford Marsalis. How did you meet them? What was it like to play with the greats at such young age?

Charnett: I met Wynton a little later that same year after the performances in Germany. I was studying in New York City at Mannes College of Music with Eli Magen who left to play with the Philharmonic in Israel. Carolyn Davis replaced Magen.. I Then got a scholarship to study with Homer Mench at Juilliard. It was a very interesting time for me I was learning music from many different sources.Two years later I recorded on Branford’s debut ‘Scenes In The City’. I was sixteen at the time. A year later I recorded with my buddy Wynton on the Grammy award winning ‘Black Codes From the Underground’. I look back now and realize we were all young at the time. I’m just the youngest.

Meg: You’ve amassed an impressive discography before releasing “The Art Of Improvisation”. What was the inspiration behind of making this great project?

Charnett: The Inspiration behind AOI is that I wanted to return to playing music the way I started. For me It’s more exciting to improvise and create a form as you go, as opposed to improvising in a form that has already been set. When you compose your improvising. When you improvise your composing.

Meg: It has been great talking to you. And we look forward to hearing more wonderful music from you.

Charnett: Thank you Meg, I’m always working on the next idea, It has been a pleasure!

Charnett Moffett’s record label is Motema Music.

Management – The Management Ark.

Internet Marketing – Redwood Entertainment Inc. in New York city.

Redwood Entertainment, Inc. 138 Haven Avenue, Suite 4D New York, New York 10032 Tel: (212) 543-9998 Fax: (212) 543-9911 E-Mail: Janet.Castiel@RedwoodEntertainment.com www.RedwoodEntertainment.com www.myspace.com/redwoodentertainmen