Charnett Moffett: 10/6/1967 - 11/4/2022

Charnett Moffett, who has died suddenly at age 54 following a heart attack, was destined to be a jazz musician. His father had been serving as drummer in Ornette Coleman’s trio at the time of his birth on 10 June 1967, when Moffett junior was duly named for the saxophonist, Charnett being a portmanteau name made up of a contraction of his father’s – Charles – and that of the Shape of Jazz to Come free jazzer. In 1996, Charnett would perform on Coleman’s Sound Museum: Hidden Man and Sound Museum: Three Women.

Born in New York, he soon relocated to the West Coast – Oakland specifically – with his family. He had an extremely musical childhood and toyed with playing the trumpet – but was advised by no less a horn authority than Miles Davis to give it up for the drums. The youngest of five children, he soon found himself performing alongside his siblings – drummer Codaryl, vocalist Charisse, trumpeter Mondre and tenor saxophonist Charles Jr. At the age of eight and beginning to master a half-sized bass, he toured Asia. (Later, he would maintain the Moffett family tradition by performing with his own children on the Eastern-influenced albums Treasure (2010) and Spirit of Sound (2013).)

Moffett studied at the Juilliard School of Music, launching his professional career with appearances on Branford Marsalis’s Scenes in the City (1983), Wynton Marsalis’s Grammy-winning Black Codes (From the Underground) (1985) and Stanley Jordan's best-selling Magic Touch (also 1985) before he had turned 18.

Blue Note soon came calling with a solo deal. Moffett’s debut, Net Man, appeared on the label in 1987. The follow-up, Beauty Within (1989), reunited his family, featuring his father, Charles, on drums alongside his four siblings – as well as Stanley Jordan on guitar and Kenny Garrett on alto sax. 

A virtuoso performer on both upright acoustic and (frequently fretless) electric bass with a remarkable lyrical gift, Moffett was determined to define a lead roll for his instrument of choice. In 1994, he recorded a remarkable version of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ for his Planet Home album, on which his acoustic double bass was run through an effects pedal. The experiment was inspired partly by a recording accident and partly by hearing Jimi Hendrix’s version of the song.

In recent years, Moffett made some wonderful records for Motéma. He partnered on a number of them with the label’s founder, singer-songwriter and guitarist Jana Herzen, beginning with her 2012 album Passion of a Lonely Heart. The pair recorded two of this writer’s favourite albums of the pandemic period: ’Round the World (2020), reflecting Herzen’s repertoire in her early days performing in coffee houses; and the very personal, joyous and mystically resonant 2021’s New Love. Bright New Day, a 2019 collaboration also featuring Scott Tixier on violin, Brian Jackson on keyboards and Mark Whitfield Jr. on drums, is no less remarkable. Moffett and Herzen married in February 2020.

“The family is in shock and devastated,” a statement released at the time of Moffett’s death said, “but also thankful that he is released from the intense pain [that he had been suffering as a result of bouts of trigeminal neuralgia], and invites all his fans and loved ones to celebrate with them that his indomitable, vastly creative, high flying and joyful spirit is now free to fly even higher.”