Samm Bennett was born in 1957 in Birmingham, Alabama. The music that surrounded him during his childhood reflected the unique cultural hodgepodge of the deep south. The radio offered up the Memphis soul of Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett and Al Green: huge favorites below the Mason-Dixon line, and ever-present on southern airwaves. There was country & western by singers Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard and Tammy Wynette, and Hank Williams was still getting regular radio play. You'd hear James Brown, often with the local disc jockey chiming in just after the end of a track with something like "that was so nice I'm gonna play it twice", whereupon he'd drop the needle right back at the top of the record! There were also gospel music programs and radio preachers, who in fiery or sing-songy cadences warned of the evils of Satan and promised the salvation of the Lord. Nat King Cole seemed to emanate constantly from his parents' record player, as did his older sisters' "folk" music by Joan Baez, Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie, whose songs they'd also strum on their own guitars. At age seven he saw Ringo Starr on TV, and soon after started stacking up magazines into the shape of a drum kit. After a few years of banging on the furniture and family cookware, his father gave in and bought him a starter set for his twelfth birthday. During high school years he did the usual jamming in loose-knit bands, and spent a lot of time drumming along with records by the Allman Brothers (very popular down Alabama way), Sly and the Family Stone, Jimi Hendrix or the Grateful Dead.

Perhaps it was the Dead's free psychedelic jam style that planted a seed of interest in more adventurous avenues of musical expression. Whatever the reason, Bennett was starting to experiment with different instruments and different ways of playing them: just out of high school, he was already augmenting his drum kit with kitchenware, bells, springs and what-have-you. This was an intuitive, home-grown process: the result of a restless desire to expand his repertoire of sounds and modes of expression. At this time he had still heard very little in the way of "avant garde" or "experimental" music. He had started hearing about some things here and there, but the record shops of Birmingham were not the place to find any of it. Luckily, up from Tuscaloosa (remember the old Groucho Marx pun?) came Davey Williams and LaDonna Smith, who were the first practicing "free improvisers" Bennett had ever met. They introduced him to recordings by Derek Bailey and Evan Parker that they had mail-ordered from obscure English labels. The solo on drummer Tony Oxley's February Papers was a revelation, as was hearing, around the same time, recordings of African and Indonesian music on the early Nonesuch releases. As his interests expanded, Bennett felt the need to get out of Birmingham and into a more cosmopolitan music scene. In 1977, at the age of twenty, he took his drums and junk metal and headed to Boston, Massachusetts.

He started in playing almost immediately upon arrival, mostly with young musicians who were attending the New England Conservatory. The "free jazz" of groups like the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Air, and the Revolutionary Ensemble had a big influence on Bennett and his contemporaries during the late 70's, and during this period he performed frequently with a unit called Ensemble Garuda, whose members (trumpeter Frank London, saxophonist Tom Hall, cellist Jacques Morelenbaum, marimbist Greg Selker and bassist Tuco Freire) were eagerly exploring new ways to work together as a unit, analyzing the mechanics of "free" improvising. During this time he also played with clarinetist Don Byron, as well as guitarist Joe Morris, and started doing his first solo percussion concerts in the various galleries and lofts where new music was happening. Concurrent with his interest in improvisation was his fast-growing love of African music. He listened voraciously to field recordings from all over the continent, and was tremendously inspired by the complex, dynamic rhythms of African traditional drumming. He began attending weekly drum ensemble workshops held at the Friends of Great Black Music Loft, which was run by former Sam Rivers drummer Sidney Smart, a great teacher of Africanesque styles who first taught Bennett the classic "6/8" African bell rhythm and how it sits on top of a 2-beat or 4-beat rhythm. To absorb that feel, and get it into the body, was an epiphany!

Bennett decided he had to get over to Africa himself, to experience firsthand some of the life and culture there. So in 1980 he traveled with friend and African language specialist Victor Manfredi to Palermo, Sicily, where he took a boat to Tunis and a train to Algiers. From there he traveled south, overland across the Sahara desert (mostly riding atop trucks carrying huge sacks of dried dates) down to Nigeria. He lived for six months with a family there, in Benin City, making daily visits to the home of Idemudia Izevbihen, the leader of traditional music group the Ehengbuda Cultural Messengers. With Idemudia (and his extended family) Bennett studied, in a friendly, informal atmosphere, the music of the Benin people. He learned playing techniques of the Olokun and the Ighede drums, as well as the mouth bow. On a few occasions he performed with the group at all-night funerals: lively, extended affairs which demanded plenty of drumming and singing to send off the deceased in style.

His departure from Africa in 1981 was via Europe, where he played his first solo concerts outside the U.S. He was back in Europe in 1983, where he resided for the better part of a year above the old Bloomdido jazz club in Brussels, Belgium. His apartment doubled as the dressing room for the musical acts coming through! During this period he performed extensively in the solo format, in the cities and towns of Belgium and Holland. In Gent he did a solo set as opening act for Afro-pop pioneer Manu Dibango, whereupon Dibango invited Bennett to join his band that night for their entire show! He appeared on Belgian TV, and was invited to perform a solo set at the North Sea Jazz Festival in the Hague. It was in Brussels during 1983 that Bennett recorded his first solo LP, Metafunctional, which documented the rhythm-intensive music that he was presenting in solo performances at that time. It featured his playing on a unique, custom-built percussion kit consisting of 2 resonant kick drums and 7 or 8 small, bongo-sized drums. He paid special attention to their tuning, emphasizing their melodic as well as rhythmic potential. Reviewing the record for Downbeat magazine, critic Howard Mandel called it "solidly satisfying" and "thoughtfully paced" while characterizing Bennett as "a funky, imaginative rhythmist," further pointing out that "he's attentive to pitch as well as rhythm ... he approximates an entire troupe of Yoruba percussionists, limbs independent and patterns interdependent."

He returned to Boston in 1984, but didn't stay put for long. He was booked for a solo set on the same bill with John Zorn, up from New York, who heard Bennett that night and invited him to play in his piece "Track and Field" at the Kool Jazz Festival, NYC. Following that appearance, Bennett wasted little time in moving to New York City. Brooklyn, to be exact.

Prior to the actual move, he had (since the late 70's) been making semi-regular treks to the city to hear music and to take some lessons with drummers Barry Altschul, Andrew Cyrille and Milford Graves. He was soon working with many of the folks who loosely formed what became known as "the downtown scene." With guitarist Elliott Sharp and saxophonist Ned Rothenberg, he formed an edgy, noisy trio called Semantics, which recorded two LPs and toured Europe a couple of times. He was cofounder (with Kumiko Kimoto, Yuval Gabay, and Hahn Rowe) of the slapdash rhythm-based group Bosho, who released one LP and did several European tours. With cellist Tom Cora he formed the improvising trio Third Person, a group that always featured a different "guest" member. These included Marc Ribot, Zeena Parkins, George Lewis, Nic Collins, Don Byron, Wayne Horvitz, and many others. Later, saxophonist Kazutoki Umezu (who Bennett had first met on a "blind date" improvised gig in Tokyo in 1986) became the permanent third member during the last couple of years of the group's existence. Umezu was instrumental in bringing the band to Japan for several tours during the early nineties. They released 3 CDs, the latter 2 featuring Umezu. Covering a 3P gig for the New York Times in 1994, Neil Strauss wrote: "Third Person sounded more like a cohesive band than an improvisatory game." Bennett was (and occasionally still is) a member of the Kropotkins, a band which was alt.country before there was even such a category. Described by critic Robert Christgau as "postmodern pre-blues," the group featured the endearingly creaky banjo playing of bandleader Dave Soldier and the trailer-park drawl of Memphis vocal legend Lorette Velvette. Bennett contributed percussion as well as two original tunes to the Kropotkins' first release, and will be appearing on their upcoming 3rd release as well. Samm also served as drummer for George Cartwright's southern-bent-jazz unit Curlew on that group's Paradise release, and for Umezu's "First Deserter" project with Ribot, Horvitz, and Cora. In addition to these groups, there were other less formalized but nonetheless important musical liaisons, and over the course of the mid-eighties to mid-nineties Bennett performed and/or recorded in the U.S., Europe, and Japan with artists such as Christian Marclay, Shelly Hirsch, and Otomo Yoshihide. He also performed on several occasions (along with drummers Joey Baron or Bobby Previte) in John Zorn's "New Traditions in East Asian Bar Bands" project.

During the early 1990's another side of Bennett's musical persona emerged: that of singer and songwriter. He had been working for much of the 80's with sampling and other electronics, and began using them to create harmonic support materials for creating songs, which he started writing and performing in earnest. In 1989 he formed the group Chunk, the vehicle for his earliest song work. That first version of Chunk featured Tim Spelios and David Simons who provided mostly acoustic drum and percussion underpinning for Bennett's samples and vocal. Covering their very first live appearance, the New York Times' Jon Pareles wrote: "Chunk sets up intricate, off-center patterns--clanking, jingling, sputtering... Amid the rhythm, Mr. Bennett sings sustained, modal melodies in a country-tinged tenor, calmly unfolding quizzical observations and images of dislocation." By 1990 the group's lineup included guitar, bass, and standard trap set, with Bennett triggering samples from drum pads and singing. Over the next few years Chunk would include members Jerome Harris and Oren Bloedow (now of Elysian Fields) on bass, Dickie Dworkin (often heard backing up Alex Chilton) and Billy Martin (now of Medeski, Martin and Wood) on drums, and Mark "dog" Deffenbaugh and Hahn Rowe on guitars. On Chunk's first release, Downbeat magazine wrote: "Life of Crime is a surprisingly 'inside' pop album with intelligent lyrics and engaging rhythms. Bennett is an appealing crooner, but what distinguishes Chunk is Bennett's imaginative use of percussion and odd (or found) sounds in otherwise mainstream settings." Stereo Review wrote: "Bennett has a smooth voice that belies the darker subjects explored in his songs," and described Life of Crime as "a crazy quilt of disparate elements that shouldn't work together but do, maintaining poise and elegance even in an environment of chaos and disorder." Bennett's 1993 release The Big Off featured seventeen guest musicians including many members of Chunk. The CMJ New Music Report described the songs as "always exciting and never predictable," and continued: "The Big Off is the kind of record where a quick stroll through the lyric sheet on about the fourth or fifth listen can open up new avenues and tip off a whole new phase of admiration and enjoyment." In 1995 he released his third collection of songs, History of the Last Five Minutes, a collaboration with the amazing Hahn Rowe (of Hugo Largo, Foetus, etc.) on guitar and co-production. Billboard magazine wrote: "Bennett's loping grooves and elastic voice fuel these slightly skewed tales, with Rowe's expressive lines adding color and diversion." CD Review wrote: "The duo quickly homes in on the obscure musical objects of their desire--country kicks, swamp blues, avant bossa nova, and Zairean soukous--and uses the rock dynamic between them to shake out interesting new textures and rhythms." Both Chunk (in its various incarnations) and the History duo did a great amount of touring in the U.S. and in Europe, with "History" also performing at venues in Israel and Japan.

The time in NYC had been productive, but by 1995 he was eager once again for a change of scene, so after 11 years in New York Bennett moved to Tokyo. Since then he has worked with improvisers such as drummer Yasuhiro Yoshigaki, guitarist Natsuki Kido, clarinetist Wataru Ohkuma, and vocalist Koichi Makigami. He has worked with Butoh dance figure Min Tanaka, and has appeared on 2 CDs by the highly regarded Tetsuhiro Daiku, a singer of Okinawan traditional music. He has performed with revered Korean hojok master and shaman Kim Suk Chul. He served as guest member (performing and recording) of Takashi Nakagawa's Soul Flower Union, and worked closely with Nakagawa as contributing writer and co-producer of his solo project Soul-cialist Escape. He has appeared on releases from singers Tujiko Noriko, Carmen Maki, Haco, and UA. He's also been a regular guest at Uchihashi Kazuhisa's yearly Festival Beyond Innocence in Osaka, where he has matched improvising wits with guitarist Hans Reichel, shamisen great Yumiko Tanaka, Haino Keiji, Eugene Chadbourne, ondes martenot master Takashi Harada, Ikue Mori, Kang Tae Hwan and many more. He and Uchihashi are also members of the trio R.U.B., along with Ned Rothenberg. He's also been performing of late with composer/laptop wizard Carl Stone, in a new duo called Hinge.

In 1998 he formed the experimental song project Skist, along with sound creator and vocalist Haruna Ito. Together they are exploring new directions in rhythm and form. They released two limited-edition CDs in 2000 and in 2002 released Ellipsis, the first CD from their own label, Polarity. Skist tracks have also appeared on compilations from Mille Plateaux, FatCat, Luaka Bop, ::Room 40:: and QUT. Covering Ellipsis, The Wire's David Elliott wrote: "The duo's sense of restraint plus Ito's wonderful voice ensure that their digital methods serve the songs, rather than the reverse.... Their songs are realized with the utmost economy, from an electronic stress fracture stitched with pin-metal beats, or a pulsing line of rhythm and a counterforce of near melodic accents held together by latent tension."

In 2004 Bennett released Secrets of Teaching Yourself Music, his first collection of solo material since Metafunctional came out twenty years ago. It's a live recording, culled from performances at Tokyo venues during late 2003. It features his work with a hybrid electro-acoustic kit centered around the amazing WaveDrum. The Wire's Edwin Pouncey called the record an "amusing and entertaining DIY musical primer... Bennett's lively manipulation of sound never fails to uncover some new means of communication between the objects he has assembled. His choice of rhythms and styles is as mixed as his orchestration..." After a long hiatus from regular solo performing, Bennett is now pursuing it fully once again. He's also writing and singing songs again: during the last year (2004-2005) he's performed new song material consisitently at various Tokyo venues, rediscovering that part of his musical persona that he had neglected for the past 10 years. He is currently putting together material for his next collection of songs to be released this year on Polarity.