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Les Benedict

Specializes in doubling on all low brass instruments.

About Me

B.S., Music Education, Tennessee Technological University M.M., Trombone Performance, University of Hawaii

Les performed on Elvis Presley’s Aloha From Hawaii, the first world-wide live television broadcast. It was also an RCA double album which went quintuple platinum, and has been released on video tape, DVD and CD. The dress rehearsal was recorded by RCA and released as The Alternate Aloha in 1988 with crowd noise dubbed in. A new DVD release in 2013 featured previously unreleased material.

An accomplished instrumentalist who plays alto, tenor and bass trombone, Les has also played and recorded on alto flugelhorn, euphonium, tuba, contra-bass bugle, trumpet and Eb cornet. He's performed or recorded with Frank Sinatra, Quincy Jones, Sammy Davis, Jr., Bette Midler, Cy Coleman, Joe Zawinul, Clare Fischer, Bob Dorough and Jack Sheldon, Julio Iglesias, Michael Buble, Mariah Carey and many others. He was the featured euphonium and trombone soloist with Mr. Jack Daniel's Original Silver Cornet Band for five years of national tours and a live double album recording in Nashville.

Les was a member of the world-famous Disneyland Band from 1982-1993.

Les played lead trombone with the Gerald Wilson Orchestra from 1996 until Gerald's death in 2015. He played on Wilson's Suite For Monterey, which was nominated for two Grammys. As the lead trombonist with Buddy Colette's big band, he played on Buddy's Grammy-nominated Live in the Nation’s Capital. Les played tuba with the 50th Grammy Orchestra accompanying duets with Lang Lang and Herbie Hancock, and Andrea Bocelli and Josh Groban. He performed on the soundtracks of Ken Burns' Thomas Jefferson and Baseball soundtracks as the co-leader of the California Gold Rush Band.

He is a long-time member of the Mark Masters Ensemble, and is featured on a recent release, Blue Skylight on the Capri label. Other affiliations have included New Valley Symphony (principal trombone), San Fernando Valley Symphony (2nd trombone), Thousand Oaks Philharmonic (bass trombone & tuba); he played principal trombone (Petrushka) and principal tuba (Prokofiev Symphony No. 5) with the Bakersfield Symphony. Steve Huffsteter Big Band, Jelly Roll Jazz Band, and Roundtop Brass (trombone); Angel City Dixieland Band (tuba), and Windy City Blues Band (trombone & tuba). He joined the Los Angeles Police Department Concert Band on euphonium, and performed with the band for the annual Peace Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C..

Les performs on Michael Rath Trombones and Terry Warburton mouthpieces.