Artscene: A multi-tasking musician Artscene: A multi-tasking musician (January 12, 2005)

Woodside High student Bennett Roth-Newell lives for the wordplay of hip-hop and the swing of jazz.

By Rebecca Wallace

Almanac Staff Writer

You're a 16-year-old coming into your own as a hip-hop artist. In fact, you've just self-produced your first CD. So where do you spend New Year's Eve?

Bennett Roth-Newell, a.k.a. Big Murph, was at the Crane Place senior community in Menlo Park.

Bennett, who also plays piano with the Woodside High School jazz band, teamed up with a bassist and a drummer to bring the residents Latin jazz, swing and plenty of jazz standards.

"I did 'My Romance' -- that brought them back (in time), I think," he says from a bench on the high school campus, breaking into a smile. "They were up doing the fox trot and the swing. It gives you a good feeling when you're getting the music across to people."

Life's about multi-tasking these days for the driven musician, who squeezes in an interview between school and basketball practice, plunking down an orange duffel bag and a backpack bursting with binders. And so is music.

Besides playing with the jazz band and teaching piano lessons, Bennett crafted the rhymes and beats and played drums and keyboards on his CD, a hip-hop work entitled "The Unexpected" that was completed last October.

It all happened at the Riekes Center, a mentoring organization on Edison Way near Menlo Park with programs in athletics, the arts and nature studies. Bennett had started training there for basketball and ended up discovering the recording studio and music mentors Shamako Noble and B.J. "B-Jada" Alexander, who work in the center's hip-hop program.

Bennett's eyes light up as he talks about his role models, saying of the center, "That's really been something that's taken my life to a whole new place."

For the uninitiated, hip-hop has many flavors, from gritty gangsta tales of life on the street to fast-paced dance beats. Bennett favors a West Coast style, with heavy bass lines, distinct chords, "a good-natured pace" and a clear focus on the meaning of the words.

The wordplay of rapping is what first drew him in, and he enjoys playing with metaphors and similes in his rhymes. He also doesn't shy from criticizing social and economic inequities.

In "I Hate To Rep It," he decries problems he sees in Redwood City. It may be his hometown, he says, but he doesn't want to "rep" -- represent -- it.

Lyrics include: "It's a quiet town; the police got barely any wrath / but now a millionaire can barely afford a two-bed, one-bath" and "It's a shame there's people waitin' on the blocks to be employed / get in a pick-up truck and work on property they can't enjoy."

Several of Bennett's lyrics also oppose racism, something he says he personally experiences.

"There are a lot of people hating on me because of what I do," he says. "It's shallow -- they see a white guy doing this kind of music, and they'd rather not see it."

Although he isn't yet performing to large crowds as "Big Murph," Bennett says he hopes his CD will boost his music career. He's peddling it at school and has already sold about 60 copies. He also hopes to major in music, perhaps at the University of the Pacific.

So where did that stage name come from? Seventh-grade gym class. A couple of guys had seen commercials for the Papa Murphy's pizza chain, which was offering a special pizza called the "Big Murph."

Slight of stature, Bennett laughs good-naturedly. "I wasn't the biggest guy there."
INFORMATION

A launch party for "The Unexpected," Bennett Roth-Newell's CD, will be held Saturday, January 15, from 7 to 10 p.m. at the Riekes Center at 3455 Edison Way near Menlo Park. For more information about the CD, call Bennett at 868-7421 or email him at rlroth@rcn.com.

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