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Jazz Articles about Benny Green
Benny Green: Teaching Jazz to the Next Generation
by Victor Verney
After exhibiting great potential as a young pianist during his teens on the San Francisco jazz scene, Benny Green, long regarded as one of the most promising wunderkinds of jazz piano, spent his twenties serving apprenticeships with a virtual pantheon of musical giants. During his thirties, Green fulfilled his early promise, making the transition from sideman to a headline act in his own right. Now, in a small college auditorium in Des Moines, the student had become Zen master, and ...
Continue ReadingBenny Green and Russell Malone: Jazz at The Bistro
by Mike Perciaccante
Russell Malone can play it all -- rock, pop, country, blues, jazz -- you name it. But as anyone who has heard his recording knows, he's most at home (and comfortable) when he's playing jazz. And we as listeners are rewarded with some of the most beautiful sounds, tones and phrasing possible on the guitar. On Jazz at The Bistro, Malone is joined by pianist Benny Green. While live recordings in small rooms (and St. Louis's The Bistro is a ...
Continue ReadingBenny Green: The Place To Be
by William Grim
Benny Green is one of the most gifted jazz pianists around, and The Place To Be shows off his abilities in a variety of settings. The album starts off with a big band arrangement of “Nice Pants” which at times sounds like it’s based on the changes of “Critic’s Choice,” a tune that was a staple of the Buddy Rich book from the 1960s. It has a time medium tempo swing to it and features an excellent bass solo by ...
Continue ReadingBenny Green: Green's Blues
by Bill Donaldson
Benny Green's talent is such that he can adapt to any situation, as proven by the ultimate testing grounds of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and Betty Carter's group, not to mention Ray Brown's trio--all of which Green joined. As the aggressive hard bop pianist or the unpredictable Carter's accompanist who slips from one thought to the next within a single phrase, thereby creating special demands for her exceptional pianists, Green could switch from one style to another. And when Green ...
Continue ReadingBenny Green: Naturally
by AAJ Staff
On “Naturally", Benny Green offers due respect to several homes that are important to him. No, not a structure. That would be a “house". No, not Berkeley, California, where he grew up. That would be too obvious. In several ways, Green pays tribute to his father's, Bert's, hometown of Pittsburgh. Now, one may not think of Pittsburgh as fertile territory for the development of jazz, at least not from the sometimes myopic view of a coastal metropolis. But Pittsburgh did ...
Continue ReadingBenny Green: Naturally
by Mark Corroto
Pity Benny Green. Born 30 years too late, his fantastic piano technique isn’t the stuff of heated debates. The heir to Oscar Peterson’s legacy, Green’s trio work of the 1990s never made one choose sides, like Peterson, Ahmad Jamal, Erroll Garner, and Dave Brubeck fans once did. After a successful run of Blue Note records, Green like Tommy Flanagan and Hank Jones before him settled into the role of sideman. He recorded over a half dozen dates with bassist Ray ...
Continue ReadingBenny Green: Naturally
by AAJ Staff
On “Naturally", Benny Green offers due respect to several homes that are important to him. No, not a structure. That would be a “house". No, not Berkeley, California, where he grew up. That would be too obvious. In several ways, Green pays tribute to his father's, Bert's, hometown of Pittsburgh. Now, one may not think of Pittsburgh as fertile territory for the development of jazz, at least not from the sometimes myopic view of a coastal metropolis. But Pittsburgh did ...
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