A limited number of FREE tickets for music students and 50% DISCOUNT tickets for working musicians & music educators are available. See ticket link above for options. Learn about our Great Experience Guarantee and No Barriers policy.
Benny Green
Jazz Coterie live music concert series presents one of the great hard bop pianists of our time. A member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, this Blue Note and Sunnyside recording artist has worked with such greats as Diana Krall, Oscar Peterson, Milt Jackson, Etta Jones, Freddie Hubbard, and Ray Brown.
“When you say he’s got it all, you’ve said it all. That is the most concise summation of the genius of pianist Benny Green.”
Born in New York in 1963, Benny Green grew up in Berkeley, California, and began classical piano studies at the age of seven. Influenced by his father, a tenor saxophonist, his attention soon turned into Jazz: "I began trying to improvise on the piano, imitating the records I'd been hearing from my father's collection, which included a lot of Monk and Bird… it was a gradual process of teaching myself". Benny played in school bands before hooking up with Jazz singer Fay Carroll: "That was good training for me in terms of accompaniment and learning about the blues, and she also gave me a chance to play trio, opening for her every night.”
“In terms of sheer technique, Green has plenty to burn.”
“His mastery of the tradition and the instrument are astonishing.”
As a teenager he worked with Eddie Henderson, and got some big band experience with a 12-piece group led by Chuck Israels. After his graduation, Benny freelanced around the bay area for a year, and then moved to New York in the spring of 1982. Back in the Big Apple, he met veteran pianist Walter Bishop Jr.: "I began studying with him and he helped point me in the direction of developing my own sound, and he also encouraged me to check out and study the whole scope of Jazz piano history, so I could get a sense of how I was to fit in.”
After a short stint with Bobby Watson, Green worked with Betty Carter between 1983 and 1987. In 1987, he joined Art Blakey's band. He remained a Jazz Messenger through late 1989, at which point he began working with Freddie Hubbard's quintet.
“The solo jazz pianist has an extreme challenge, as they need to do the work of four brains and would ideally have at least three hands. Benny Green handles this challenge as brilliantly as anyone alive today.”
“When he is not amazing the crowd with his more obvious virtues, Green shows himself capable of graceful messages.”
In 1993, Oscar Peterson chose Benny as the first recipient of the City of Toronto's Glen Gould International Protégé Prize in Music. That year, Green replaced Gene Harris in Ray Brown's Trio, working with the veteran bass player until 1997. From 1997 on, Benny resumed his freelance career, led his own trios, and concentrated on his solo piano performances.
His recording career, which includes over one hundred sessions, is very impressive: amongst many others, he has recorded as a sideman with Betty Carter (including Grammy-Award winner Look What I Got), Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, Freddie Hubbard, Bobby Watson, Milt Jackson, Diana Krall, Ray Brown's trio series of CD's for Telarc: Bass Face (1993), Don't Get Sassy (1994), Some of My Best Friends … (1994), Seven Steps to Heaven (1995), Super Bass (1996) and Live at Sculler's (1996).
“Green is a pleasure to hear in improvisation.”
“A stellar solo career.”
As a leader of his own groups, Benny's recording career began with two albums for the Dutch label Criss Cross: Prelude (1988) and In This Direction (1989). In 1990, Green started recording for Blue Note, releasing Lineage (1990), Greens (1991), Testifiyin' (1992), That's Right! (1993), The Place To Be(1994), Kaleidoscope (1997) and These Are Soulful Days (1999).
Benny’s most recent recordings on the Sunnyside label include Then and Now (2018), Benny’s Crib (2020), and Solo (2022).
“One of the most soulful pianists to emerge in the past two decades..”