"Most widely known as the bass clarinetist on Miles Davis’s “Bitches Brew,” Bennie Maupin has been making excellent albums lately. He recorded “Early Reflections” (Cryptogramophone), his latest, with a group of young Polish musicians who aren’t well known here. Many of the pieces begin with small melodic motifs that he and the quartet patiently explore, sometimes with Hania Chowaniec-Rybka’s wordless vocals. This is patient, well-planned music, and Mr. Maupin’s sound on bass clarinet, as well as tenor and soprano saxophone and flute, is provocatively honest and strong and almost plain, with spaces in between phrases; he’s never playing too much. It’s a remarkably clear-minded record." -by Jonah Jones
The New York Times
May 2008
