It Must Be a Camel

Frank Zappa (electric guitar, percussion), Ian Underwood (all saxes and clarinets, flute, piano, organ), Jean-Luc Ponty (violin), Max Bennett (electric bass) and John Guerin (drums). From the album Hot Rats (1969).

Max Bennett was an American versatile bass player, studio musician and composer. He performed in concert tours, soundtracks for feature films and music for television, in which he appeared numerous times. In the field of jazz he accompanied Ella Fitgerald, Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and Stan Getz. He also contributed to singers Peggy Lee, Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, Barbra Streisand and Joan Baez, as well as Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Quincy Jones, The Beach Boys, Henry Mancini, The Crusaders, Ray Charles and many others. His work on recording sessions with most of these musicians allowed him to learn blues, jazz, Latin music, pop and rock, and combine these genres into his own music.

Bennett began his career, which lasted 70 years, in 1949 with Herbie Fields, Charlie Ventura, Georgie Auld and Terry Bigs, and from 1951 to 1953 he did military service in the Korean War. On his return to the United States he entered Stan Kenton’s big band and then moved to Los Angeles, where he played regularly with his own group at the Lighthouse Cafe. During 1955 and 1956 he published three albums as a leader and then incorporated into the 1958 Jazz at the Philarmonic tour. In 1969 he played the bass on the Lalo Schiffrin soundtrack of the thriller Bullit directed by Peter Yates. In addition, he took part in Greater Science Fiction Hits, Vol. 1-3 with Neil Norman & His Cosmic Orchestra and Frank Zappa’s Hot Rats and Chunga’s Revenge.

In 1973 he joined the jazz fusion group L.A. Express of saxophonist and composer Tom Scott along with guitarist Larry Carlton, keyboardist Joe Sample and jazz-rock percussionist John Guerin. In 1974 they recorded Tom Scott and the L.A. Express and Tom Cat, and in 1974 and 1975 they banded with Joni Mitchell to play on three of her albums. In 1976 they released L.A. Express and Shadow Play. After Scott left the group that same year, they recorded two smooth jazz albums and then disbanded. Then, Bennett founded his own group Freeway and then Private Reserve using all his professional experience. He died in San Clemente (California) in 2008 at the age of 90.