Thank you Ben C.

After 10 years of playing together, Tea Leaf Green bassist Ben Chambers has announced that he is leaving the band.

I had a lot of fun with Ben Chambers over the course of his career. We laughed a ton and experienced some of my favorite musical peaks together. He was a strong force on the stage, tons of personality and always enhanced the vibe. He will surely be missed in the dynamic of the band. I have a high degree of respect for someone who can step out of what they're doing on a daily basis and make the life changing decision that they're looking for something else. It's not quitting, it's stopping. At a certain point for any professional musician, it becomes more about what they want for themselves than necessarily the fans want for them. It seems that this occurs more around the 10 year mark, or after they turn 30...as someone once said.

Of course adding even more intrigue to this storybook is the fact that they've tapped one of my favorite bass players in the world to fill the void, Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey's Reed Mathis. JFJO was one of the first bands we covered on JamBase back in 2001. Talk about worlds colliding. The Fred don't have plans until mid-year '08, so it's opportunity for Reed, and Tea Leaf, to connect again. Reed sat in for a large Hot Dog at the High Sierra Music Festival this past summer. Their first show together will be TLG's next show on December 7th in Santa Cruz. There will be no Ben C farewell show. The last Planet has been sung.

As the evolutions and de-evolutions of the band progresses into the future, it will be interesting and hopefully continually entertaining to see how they embrace this transition with the type of poise and grace they have met their previous career show moments. It's a unique thing to devote your trust to an artful organization, in simple hopes that they will deliver you to the great bliss moment of epic fist pumping triumphancy. I still have faith. I still beleive, in Tea Leaf Green.

Thank you Ben C, no words can amount to show the joy that you bring.

It feels appropriate to end this post one of Ben's finer contribution to our musical landscape.

Addressing the Community
Words by Ben Chambers

Well I’m a bass man, loving the crowd,
I came to get up, I came to get down
I use to always dream about the band,
Gettin’-a rock, maybe shake a few hands

So its easy to say that I’m happy today
And I didnt even need a jay.
I didn’t even need a jay.

We’re not everybody’s cup of Tea,
But we play from the heart see,
And my name is Ben C.
I try to make my bass lines silky,
Sometimes they’re filthy,
That’s when they call me Milky

I got a bucket of bud, gotta girl that I love
I got a beat that makes me fly like a dove
I guess it’s easy to see, I be the freak that I be
Coming to your town to let my flows be free
You know Snoop Dogg, I understand you better today.
And I still got something to say
I still got something to say

All you haters, stop spreading your seed,
Choppin’ up the music man you’re killin the scene
It ain’t about who’s best, it’s about good times,
About the rhythm, about the rhymes

I’m about to bust, into your door,
To give you some flow baby you knew I was pro
This is Beak, he came to speak,
I brought my cheeks all the way from the Austrian peaks,
To the San Francisco Bay…
And I didn’t even need a jay.

(Chours)
And I didn’t even need a jay…today
Everything is so heavy
And I didn’t even need a jay…today
Everything is so heavy

Don’t be hateful be grateful,
For the groove on your table
Don’t be hateful be grateful
For the groove on your table

Now I can see your cold face,
You’re riding the bar
Hate all you want, kid we’re still going far
Cuz we work hard and play harder than that
And we’re just stars and it’s a natural fact.
We attack the stage when we’re rippin’ a set,
Get about as nutty as a Vietnam vet
I’ll teach ya lil’ a thing or two about sweat boy,
You’re talking to me I don’t believe that we’ve met:

We’ve got The Beak.
We got Scotty Rage.
Not to mention Balls and T-bone on the stage.
We’re gonna form like Voltron and do what we please,
And if you do not like it don’t go cryin to me
Just dont show, hey we can still be bros,
but you never really know which way a Leaf blows

So many haters try to ruin your day,
Just ask my boy Trey

And I didn’t even need a jay…today
Everything is so heady
And I didn’t even need a jay
Everything is so heady.
Don’t be hateful be grateful
For the groove that’s on your table
Don’t be hateful be grateful
For the groove that’s on your table

Bring the Green!

Don’t be hateful be grateful
For the groove on your table
Don’t be hateful be grateful
For the groove that’s on your table