Wayne Bennett

Wayne Talmadge Bennett (December 13, 1931 – November 28, 1992) was an American blues guitarist.

Biography

Bennett was born in Sulphur, Oklahoma, and died in New Orleans, Louisiana. He worked with blues musicians such as Bobby Bland, Boxcar Willie, Buddy Guy, John Lee Hooker, Alan Haynes and Elmore James, as well as with jazz musicians, including Cannonball Adderley, Sonny Stitt and Dexter Gordon. In 1990, he played on Willy DeVille's album Victory Mixture. Bennett also played with the Chi-Lites, the Lost Generation, The Hues Corporation; among many others and cut his own record in 1968, an instrumental called "Casanova, Your Playing Days are Over" on the now defunct Brunswick label.

Bennett was a guitarist originally known for his jazz-tinged blues guitar work with Bobby "Blue" Bland. He worked with Bland for a long time, and his solo on "Stormy Monday" on Bland's album Here's The Man is still considered by many guitarists to be a classic, drawing both from T-Bone Walker and jazz influences. Another standout solo on Bland's "Wishing Well" displays a compelling virtuosity in the blues idiom that would become a model for young guitarists in England such as Eric Clapton who would become part of the British Invasion of the 1960s.

Bennett himself never liked to claim to be a blues player, preferring instead to be as versatile as he could be, and taking pride in being able to quote from a wide variety of popular music, including TV theme songs. In his earlier years he played a Gibson Byrdland hollow-body, but in later years he was also seen playing a custom Tom Holmes Cadillac solid-body.

At one time or another Bennett had also been a member of the house orchestra at the Apollo in New York, the Regal Theatre in Chicago, the Howard in Washington, D.C., the Uptown Theatre in Philadelphia and the Royal Theatre in Baltimore.

Some of Bennett's training included studying guitar with Harry Volpe in New York City for two years; studying harmony with Nate Griffin in Chicago for one year; studying harmony with Junior Mance in Chicago for two years; and studying harmony and ear training with Tony Hanson in Cleveland, Ohio for one year.

Bennett died from heart failure, a week before a scheduled replacement could be transplanted, at the age of 60. Bennett was inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame in 2001.

Discography

Solo

• "Casanova, Your Playing Days are Over" (1967)

With others

• Sam McClain – 1
• Ramsey Lewis – Columbia – 1
• Tyrone Davis – Dakar-Brunswick – 5
• Bobby Bland – Duke-Peacock – 8
• The Chi-Lites – Brunswick – 4
• Jackie Wilson – Brunswick – 4
• The Lost Generation – Brunswick – 2
• Hamilton Bohannon – Brunswick – 3
• Independents – Scepter – 1
• Jerry Butler – Mercury – 1
• Jimmy Reed – ABC-Blues Way – 5
• Five Blind Boys – Peacock – 2
• Soul Stirrers – GRT/Chess – 1
• Mighty Clouds of Joy – GRT/Chess – 2
• Salem Travelers – GRT/Chess – 1
• Fats Domino – Imperial – 1
• Operation Breadbasket – Chess – 2
• Little Junior Parker – United Artist – 1
• James Cotton – 3
• Zuzu Bollin – 1

With Jimmy McGriff

• Groove Grease (Groove Merchant, 1971)