Jazz Articles

Benny Lackner Trio: Drake

by Dan McClenaghan
May 7, 2019

Pianist Benny Lackner was born in Germany, but moved to the United States at thirteen years of age. He spent his formative years in California, and received his BFA from the California Institute of the Arts. Studies with pianist Brad Mehldau followed. Then, at thirty years of age, Lackner returned to Berlin from his adopted New York base. From Germany, the albums—with a superb trio—started coming. Drake is the Benny Lackner Trio's sixth offering. Stylistically, Lackner doesn't sound ...

Benny Lackner Trio: Siskiyou

by Dan McClenaghan
June 9, 2015

The photo on the main page of Benny Lackner's website shows the pianist with one hand on an acoustic piano, the other plying the keys of a laptop computer. That's where his muse has taken him-into a very contemporary electro/acoustic piano trio mix with drummer Matthieu Chazarec and bassist Jerome Regard. Siskiyou is Lackner's  fifth trio outing, and his second with this particular line-up, after 2012's Cachuma  (BMH Productions). It is his best and most focused outing. The ...

Benny Lackner Trio: Cachuma

by Dan McClenaghan
February 1, 2012

Pianist Benny Lackner can do whatever he wants, and says as much with “I Can Do Whatever I Want," the opener on his forward-leaning Cachuma. This piano trio outing suggests he wants to nudge the trio setting into a modern groove while giving voice to his own artistic vision.Modernization of the tried and true piano trio format is an ongoing process. e.s.t., led by the late Swedish pianist Esbjörn Svensson, incorporated electronics with great success, while John Medeski ...

Benny Lackner Trio: Pilgrim

by Michael J. West
January 12, 2008

The rock-ish but very adult Pilgrim is a cautionary example of why detail is important in jazz. On a cursory listen, the Benny Lackner Trio sounds like a Bad Plus imitator: the rock influence is heavy, pianist Lackner shares Ethan Iverson's harmonic trajectory and heavy touch, and drummer Robert Perkins' sound is superficially like Dave King's bash-and-crash. What's more, the fifth track is titled “Brad Plus," a dead giveaway if ever there was one. That first impression is illusory. Deeper ...

Benny Lackner Trio: Pilgrim

by Dan McClenaghan
June 27, 2007

The Benny Lackner Trio calls itself a “collective," with each member “interjecting equally toward the construction of the material." This sef-description was certainly true of the group's previous outing, Sign of the Times (Nagel Heyer, 2006). It's an even more accurate characterization of the group's approach on Pilgrim.The “collective" is a piano trio, with some subtle electronics added--Wurlitzer and Nord lead 2--along with a dash of electro-percussion. When you talk piano trio and equality of each member's input, ...

Benny Lackner: Evolving the Piano Trio Tradition

by Joao Moreira dos Santos
July 4, 2006

At 29, pianist Benny Lackner has just released Sign of the Times, his second CD for the prestigious Nagel Heyer label, touring Europe and paving way for his dream--playing at the Village Vanguard in NYC and the main jazz festivals around the world.

I caught up with him at the Hot Club de Portugal, in Lisbon, one of the oldest jazz clubs in the world, whose stage has hosted musicians from Bill Coleman and Dexter Gordon to Mark Turner and ...

Benny Lackner Trio: Sign of the Times

by Dan McClenaghan
June 4, 2006

New York-based pianist Benny Lackner came to my attention with the innovative jazz/pop outing Migratory (HeadFullaBrains, 2002) by Maroon, the group he co-leads with vocalist Hillary Maroon. That disc didn't make the splash it deserved, but in the music we loosely define as jazz, big splashes are fairly rare.Fast forward a few years--past another even more innovative Maroon outing, Who the Sky Betrays (HeadFullaBrains, 2003), and two earlier Lackner trios discs, and we find that Benny Lackner has ...