Music

Charnett Moffett’s new power trio features acclaimed vocalist/guitarist Jana Herzen and hard-swinging drummer Corey Garcia. Available on all of your preferred DSPs

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Charnett Moffett Delivers his Love Letter To Humanity on his trio/quartet album New Love now available on Spotify or your favorite DSP.

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In honor of our first anniversary, Jana Herzen and I have released the new collaborative single, MYSTERY, via our group NETT DUO. Vocals and lyrics by Jana. Bass and production by yours truly.

Love is the Greatest Mystery! Enjoy!

Learn more about Nett Duo here.

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Reinterpreting Men at Work, Roberta Flack, The Beatles and more while also introducing five captivating originals, acclaimed singer/songwriter/guitarist Jana Herzen joins forces with world-renowned bassist Charnett Moffett on ‘Round the World. Quirky, smart and sophisticated, the virtuosic duo finishes each other’s musical sentences, setting a dreamy vibe evoking Saturday nights around a warm fireplace with a glass of wine and an old friend. (Motema 2020)

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Inspired by the electric periods of three chief influences – Jaco Pastorius, Ornette Coleman, and Miles Davis – legendary jazz bassist Charnett Moffett’s Bright New Day represents a new chapter in his expanding legacy of jazz innovation. Internationally acclaimed for his pyrotechnic upright acoustic bass work on his own recordings and with a virtual “who’s who” of jazz, Moffett changes the game here, appearing for the first time exclusively with his fretless electric bass guitar and a new powerhouse touring band featuring rising-star violinist Scott Tixier, keyboard specialist Brian Jackson (known for his innovations with Gil Scott-Heron), drummer Mark Whitfield Jr, and electric guitarist Jana Herzen, a fellow Motema recording artist who happens also to be the founder and president of Motema.

Bright New Day with its fusion of free-jazz, rock, and classical themes, follows up Moffett’s acclaimed, ‘Music from Our Soul’ (Motema 2017) – feat. Pharaoh Sanders, and his recent Nett Duo: ‘Overtones’ digital release with Jana Herzen. (Motema, 2018 – digital release)

Nett Duo, is a new acoustic bass and guitar duo formed in 2018 by legendary jazz bass virtuoso Charnett Moffett with guitarist Jana Herzen, Motéma Music’s founder and President.  The project is an outgrowth of the duo’s work together on a variety of projects, including Herzen’s work in Charnett Moffett’s touring band and their work together on Herzen’s vocal/guitar and bass duo project on Motema titled Passion of a Lonely Heart.

Their debut EP, OVERTONES came out digitally on December 28, 2018. The all-original free-form program takes the listener on a highly sensitive improvisational journey with jazz, folk, and classical overtones. Conceived by Moffett as a stress-busting antidote to anxiety, and the hustle and bustle of our times, this is music that relaxes the mind, brings a smile and leads the listener within. A perfect program to re-center for the New Year, Overtones faithfully captures the vibrational nuances of Moffett and Herzen’s distinctive string instruments and reveals their considerable musical empathy.

Learn more about Nett Duo here.

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  “One of the 10 Best Jazz Albums of 2017 (So Far)” – NY Observer 

In Celebration of his 30th Year as a Lead Recording Artist Charnett Moffet is proud
to release Music From Our Soul which features his long-term collaborators and friends:
Pharaoh Sanders, Stanley Jordan, Cyrus Chestnut, Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts, Victor Lewis, Mike Clark.

READ CHARNETT’S 2017 JAZZIZ DIGITAL FEATURE HERE:
“BOLD AS LOVE: CHARNETT MOFFETT CONTINUES TO EXPLORE INNER
AND OUTER SPACE IN HIS QUEST FOR HONEST EXPRESSION.”

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Spirit of Sound (July 9, 2013) is a cinematic free/world/jazz adventure conceived, composed and produced by the visionary bassist Charnett Moffett in association with Motéma label president Jana Herzen, his son Charnett “Max” Moffett, and famed jazz manager Mary Ann Topper, who co-produced his previous release, The Bridge (Solo Bass Works). Spirit of Sound takes the listener on a groundbreaking sonic journey into Moffett’s very adventurous composer/performer/producer world of multi-layered basses – an upright acoustic, a fretless electric and a piccolo bass guitar mystically intermingle with magical vocalese, mysterious poetry and East Indian drones along with hard-swinging jazz piano, drums and sax. Spirit of Sound also features the current generation of the Moffett family musical legacy, along with cameo appearances from five acclaimed leaders from the Motéma roster: Marc Cary, Oran Etkin, Jana Herzen, Babatunde Lea and Tessa Souter.Respected as one of the most virtuosic and expressive bassists in jazz, Moffett has outdone even himself this year. Spirit of Sound, his 13th release as a leader, follows his searing and internationally acclaimed solo recording The Bridge, released by Motéma in April 2013. The intensely focused release was an astounding acoustic solo bass tour-de-force on which Moffett pulled a seemingly impossible symphony of sounds out of one instrument. In contrast, Spirit of Sound has the composer toying with an extraordinarily wide spectrum of sounds and textures on a multi-dimensional studio project. These two 2013 releases join Moffett’s previous recordings for Motéma: Treasure (2011) and his 2009 label debut The Art of Improvisation.
Read the Spirit of Sound Press Release

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The Bridge (April 9, 2013) is one of a very limited number of solo acoustic bass discs ever recorded and is an astounding project in musical range and sound. It features 20 dynamic tracks that will delight all fans of music. The recording showcases Moffett’s uncanny ability to play melody and harmony while evoking sound that sometimes is like a trumpet, a sitar or a band – and is always real music. The thoughtful musical selections reflect his entire 30-year-plus career and showcase his compositional excellence. “Caravan,” which opens the recording, connects to Moffett’s 25-year history performing with the Manhattan Jazz Quintet and performing this tune as his signature piece with the group. The Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby,” taps into his distinctive ability to inhabit any sound within the entire musical spectrum – jazz, contemporary, pop, classical, Middle Eastern – and make it resound deeply for the listener. “Black Codes” links to Moffett’s experience with the Wynton Marsalis Quintet when he was fresh out of Juilliard at age 16. The idea of pairing the early 19th century Negro spiritual “Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho” with 21st century Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” came from Mary Ann Topper, the co-producer of The Bridge, who was also a key figure in Charnett’s ’80s career breakout. Other selections represent additional pivotal influences such as Thelonious Monk, Ornette Coleman, McCoy Tyner and Tony Williams. Moffett contributes eight compelling originals, including the electric-leaning “Free Your Mind,” which closes this remarkable disc – his 12th as a leader.

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For Charnett Moffett’s eleventh CD as a leader, he has chosen to play acoustic upright, but mainly electric bass guitar in settings that have a distinct Eastern Indian flavor. Surrounded by sitar, harmonium, and tabla, Moffett’s popping, funky bass melds into an ethnic fusion that also taps on American jazz or rhythm & blues. The combination is very palatable, arresting, and captivating, considering the concept and high virtuosity the bassist has always employed. Moffett has always been curious and able to challenge himself outside conventional jazz, on this date, he occasionally goes into speed-demon mode, working with spoken word vocals and even a bit of country and eastern fusion. Bass clarinetist Oran Etkin is used effectively on a dense, Asiatic parallel to the famous Nat Adderley standard “Work Song” titled “Swing Street,” and tapping guitarist Stanley Jordan guests on two tracks, specifically the quick waltz “The Celebration” aside a small horn section. Casimir Liberski is the sleeper sideman of the group, playing distinctly spare piano, while Moffett really digs into the raga arena during “Say La La” with the Kugo harp playing of Tomoko Sugawara. But it’s clear that Moffett is the leader, playing main stem lines on every track, taking many solos, or forcefully pushing the envelope with his instrument. It’s another bold statement from a fine instrumentalist who has always deserved wider recognition.

AllMusic Review by Michael G. Nastos

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(…) This recording, his eighth as a leader, could advance any listener’s view of Moffett, as he overdubs fretless electric bass guitar, piccolo bass, and acoustic upright in a variety of different progressive jazz and ethnic contexts, referencing the title as a prerequisite for making this heady, always intriguing music that commands attention from start to finish. Drummers Will Calhoun (Living Color) and Eric McPherson are on board, the band expands and contracts with guitarists and keyboardists, and Tibetan vocalist Yungchen Lhamo is included, making for a stew and brew of epic proportions that is the foundation for Moffett’s many whims and fancied flights of improvisation through soloing and layering of his instruments. The more exotic works here are so intriguing they deserve additional listenings. “Enlightenment, Pt. I/II” is based in Middle Eastern, oud like sounds and ethnic swing respectively, the outstanding track “The Awakening” adds tapped and bowed bass sounds folded into a sound that is at once modal, kinetic, bright, ancient and modern. “We Pray” retains the folk ethnicity but is powered by Moffett’s Jaco Pastorius-like lead sound up front, while “Swing Rock” keeps the Pastorius pulse, add drums only, and effects, in an extension of what Weather Report might have evolved into. A powerhouse theme, “The Story,” has the bowed electric bass contrasted into choppy excursions and wah-wah fusion with neo-bop and classical overtones all in one treatise. Swing and funk are juxtaposed during “Moses,” a soured tone in a 6/8 contrabass solo identifies “Elements of Life,” and sister Angela Moffett recites poetry on the free piece “Dreams.” Lhamo is most prominent on “Call for Peace” as her oohs and ahhs buoy Moffett’s bowed acoustic bass. The tricky balance between pure, arty improvisation and overdubbing is difficult to discern or break down, but easy to enjoy. Perhaps Moffett’s very best effort in his three-decade career, it completely sums up where he came from, and where he’s headed, into a fully formed identity as a leader who is now emerging in a singular voice, with disparate elements blending beautifully. This spirited and soulful recording comes highly recommended, especially to those who tire of the less substantive, flashy, speed king quotient prevalent in far too many other bassists.

AllMusic Review by Michael G. Nastos

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Throughout ten action-packed years of building Motéma – which now boasts three Grammy nominations and a catalog of close to 100 CDs by over 40 critically acclaimed artists – Herzen has been a devoted label leader, but she also never lost sight of her own artistry. She continued to perform, write and record, and is happy at last to share some of the fruits of her labors on Passion of a Lonely Heart, a quiet duo project she recorded ‘live in the studio,’ with esteemed bassist (and Motéma label mate) Charnett Moffett, whose stellar resume includes work with McCoy Tyner, Wynton Marsalis and Ornette Coleman, as well as vocalists Harry Connick, Jr., Anita Baker and, recently, Melody Gardot.

“Jana’s a fabulous songwriter who has great compositions with interesting structures,” says Moffett, who met Herzen one night after performing with Stanley Jordan at the Iridium jazz club in New York City. “Learning Jana’s music forced me play in a different style and concept that was unusual for me to experience.”

Though she plays mainly jazz on Passion of a Lonely Heart, Herzen’s influences range from Maria Muldaur, Leonard Cohen and Bob Marley to Miles Davis, Joe Pass and Leonard Bernstein and beyond. Much like the label that she runs, she has a penchant for crossing genres. “There aren’t that many singer-songwriter-guitarists in the jazz idiom,” she comments, “but there are some great examples – such as John Pizzarelli, George Benson or Raul Midon. “ Herzen humbly declines comparison with those master guitarists in regards to her instrumental chops, but her musicality and deep understanding of the jazz idiom are as apparent in this recording as they are in her artistic direction of Motéma.