“Life has taken me to incredible places, and I’ve been lucky enough to have always been ready to catch the trains that came my way.” The trumpet solo of a young neighbor practicing in an apartment down the street drifts into the bar, while Carles Benavent enjoys a coffee and a sandwich – “not big, but good” – for breakfast. “Working and studying to be prepared for whatever life throws at you is very important, and it’s something I always emphasize to my students,” he adds.
At thirteen, he befriended Emili Baleriola – “who was already playing electric guitar back then” – and that’s how he came into contact with the electric bass. “The truth is I chose this instrument because it had four strings, and it seemed easier. But I played it like a guitar, using a pick, and focusing more on Eric Clapton’s phrases than on Jack Bruce’s. That way of playing later opened a number of doors for me".
A year later, Emili, Carles, and Salvador Font (son) founded their first band, Crak. They ended up opening for Los Brincos and, shortly after, joined the second lineup of Enric Herrera’s Máquina!, with which they recorded two singles and the legendary album En directo. After this stage, the musician participated in various jazz and Brazilian music projects, such as Les Etoiles by Rolando Faria and Luiz Antonio. “Music has always impacted me through its rhythm: funk, jazz, Brazilian music and, of course, flamenco. I am fascinated by the control of the offbeat, and by how emotions are conveyed through rhythm!” he exclaims.
Meeting Joan Albert Amargós was another turning point. “His way of composing, with its classical foundation, was incredible. Nobody wrote and arranged like that here.” They founded the band Música Urbana, one of the big names of the Onda Laietana scene of the late 70s, “during which my generation was lucky enough to experience the end of a dictatorship and the opening up to many freedoms, and we expressed it through a diverse musical scene, where everything from Latin sounds to progressive, jazz or funk fit in.” His time in the band gave him “the experience he needed to eventually play with Paco de Lucía.” And, after a brief moment, he clarifies: “mind you, I mean playing with him, not just accompanying him.”
In defense of the electric bass
Carles Benavent’s path crossed with Paco de Lucía’s thanks to musicians Jorge Pardo and Rubem Dantas. “We immediately saw that we clicked wonderfully, that it had a future, a long journey. Think that the first song we worked on together was Monasterio de sal, which is a dialogue between guitar and bass and, I’ll tell you: if I had to do it again, I would do it exactly the same.”
But it was not an easy path. Not only because of all the work and study it entailed, but also because of the need to overcome the widespread prejudice against his instrument. “You see, at first, my father didn’t even know what an electric bass was. Then, at the conservatory, maestro Sala, my double bass teacher, told me not to play ‘that low guitar’. Jazz purists looked down on it, and I’m not even talking about, later on, flamenco purists, who contemptuously referred to the bass as ‘Chinese guitar’,” he laughs. Musicians of his generation like Jaco Pastorius, Stanley Clarke or Carles himself helped elevate the instrument beyond pop.
A trip to Japan brought Carles and Paco together with Chick Corea, with whom they immediately developed a deep rapport. “The tour I remember with the most affection was the one I did alongside these two musical giants in 1982.” With Corea, he would record several albums in the 80s and in the early 2000s, among which his final album, The Ultimate Adventure (2006), stands out, “where monsters like Steve Gadd or Hubert Laws participate".
Determined not to lose his enthusiasm for life and the profession he loves, the musician has led his own projects – “my debut in 1983 opened the Nuevos Medios catalog” –, has accumulated countless awards – the most recent, from the San Javier Festival in Murcia – and has been alongside greats like the aforementioned Pardo and Dantas, Vlady Bas, Don Alias, Alex Acuña and Miles Davis himself. The latter called on him in 1991 to perform some songs from Sketches of Spain in Montreux. “It was like a kind of dream,” remembers Carles, the only Spaniard to have played with the master. And, as always, he was ready when the opportunity came. And, judging by the way his eyes light up when he talks about it, it is obvious that he has not lost a shred of that enthusiasm..
Gaudí’s enchantment
“Currently I don’t go down to Barcelona much. I live with my wife in Begues, in a house next to the forest, and I find going into the city stressful, with so much traffic, so much pollution and, above all, so many people dragging wheeled suitcases along the streets.” Although he snakes through traffic on his motorbike, the musician – a native of Poble-sec – opts for the tranquility of a village where his daughter also lives “and where I hear the birds in the morning".
He still adores Gaudí. He confesses that when he saw the blessing and inauguration ceremony of the Tower of Jesus Christ of the Sagrada Família, “tears welled up in my eyes.” In fact, the electric bass he plays —which he has christened Barcelona— which he has christened Barcelona — “was designed with the visionary architect’s forms in mind,” he clarifies.
A brief silence falls, broken only by the trumpet solo of the diligent student. Carles Benavent feels at ease. He is able to look back on a singular career full of magical moments, while also looking ahead, helping and teaching young musicians to always be ready for whatever comes their way.
– Since you’ve come all the way down here, would you like another coffee?
The musician smiles and shrugs.
– Of course, why not?– he replies.
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