Benny Rietveld – Smooth Operator

Carlos Santana’s long-time bassist Benny Rietveld reflects on a career at the front line of expression

- By Joel Mclver

The Holland-born, Hawaii-raised bassist Benny Rietveld is no stranger to demanding gigs, having played with the late Miles Davis towards the end of the late jazz icon’s career, and holding down the low end with the mighty Carlos Santana since 1990. His most-heard bass part is undoubtedly the line anchoring the inescapable ‘Smooth’ in 1999, but he has also delivered miraculous contributions to recordings by Herbie Hancock, Eagle Eye Cherry, John Lee Hooker, Sheila E, and as a solo artist. Let’s find out what he’s up to...

What’s happening, Benny?

We just came back from a week of doing some recording with the Santana band—just personal projects that Carlos wanted to do. That’s what all the rock stars are doing now: They can’t play live, so they want to record. I’ve been writing a lot and doing bass lessons, but the bass is a hard one to do remotely. It’s a rhythm section instrument, and I can’t even clap along with the students to give them a sense of where to go in time. I don’t do a lot of those lessons, because they don’t really work.

Do you still need to practice to keep your chops up?