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Richard X Bennett

Pianist/Composer Richard X Bennett plays modernistic and soulful music with a wide ranging sound all his own. He has six jazz and electronica releases on Ubuntu Music and Ropeadope Records as well as six critically acclaimed raga-based records on Indian labels. His quartet album with dynamic saxophonist Matt Parker, Parker Plays X arrived in May 2023.  Beyond the sonic, lies the visual, an indispensable element of his creative process. RXB's art videos accompany most of his compositions, evoking a myriad of emotions through their abstract, whimsical, and esoteric nature. In 2022 he delved even further, expanding his artistic horizons with WIREPARK, a twenty-seven-minute post-industrial lo-fi film. In the convergence of these seemingly disparate elements, a new art form emerges, born of a restless spirit that refuses to be confined by tradition or convention.

In New York, his groups have performed at Lincoln Center Out of Doors, The Guggenheim Museum, The Rubin Museum and Central Park Summerstage. Internationally, he has played in over twenty countries.


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Album Review

Richard X Bennett: RXB3

Read "RXB3" reviewed by Chris May


Brooklyn-based pianist Richard X Bennett is kind of the love child of Ramsey Lewis and Norah Jones with a head stuffed full of mescaline. He has Lewis' two-fisted poppy funkiness down and Jones' gift for a melodic hook, too. The combination is enriched, one speculates, by extensive first-hand knowledge of hallucinogens. Bennett, who is by his standards conservatively attired on the front cover of this album, and even more so in the YouTube clip below, enjoys sporting ladies' leopard-skin tights ...

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Recording

Richard X Bennett & Matt Parker Bring Their All-Encompassing Musical Visions Together With 'Parker Plays X,' Set For Release May 5 By BYNK Records

Richard X Bennett & Matt Parker Bring Their All-Encompassing Musical Visions Together With 'Parker Plays X,' Set For Release May 5 By BYNK Records

Source: Terri Hinte Publicity

Friends and collaborators Richard X Bennett and Matt Parker heighten their creative relationship with the May 5 release of their album Parker Plays X on BYNK Records (Because You Never Know). The record finds pianist-composer Bennett and saxophonist Parker co-leading a session for the first time as they—along with bassist Adam Armstrong and drummer Julian Edmond—explore a dozen Bennett compositions that range from straight-ahead bebop to avant-garde freakouts to classic jump blues, among other styles. Both musicians embrace this kind ...

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Recording

Pianist/Composer Richard X Bennett Connects Mumbai & New York City With Two New Ropeadope Releases, His First Recordings On An American Label, Due Oct. 6

Pianist/Composer Richard X Bennett Connects Mumbai & New York City With Two New Ropeadope Releases, His First Recordings On An American Label, Due Oct. 6

Source: Terri Hinte Publicity

Since moving to New York from his native Toronto in the 1990s, pianist and composer Richard X Bennett has thrived as a performer in a broad variety of stylistic contexts. Splitting his time between New York and Mumbai, he released a series of acclaimed albums on several Indian imprints, with his last two on Times Music, India’s largest label. Until now, however, Bennett had yet to put an album out on an American label. On October 6, a dual release ...

"fresh and inviting...Bennett pursues his own path to take us somewhere unexpected" **** DownBeat Magazine "a lively and engaging journey laced with tuneful grooves, raga influences and funky patterns" London Jazz News "refreshing, interesting and thought provoking" Simply Jazz Talk "a flamboyant dresser...exciting, energetic and entertaining" The Jazz Man "almost ridiculously enjoyable" Elsewhere (New Zealand) "fresh, perky and inspiring" Grotesqualizer "the danceable quirkiness of his compositions rarely obscures their depth or poise" Mojo Magazine "the love child of Ramsey Lewis and Norah Jones with a head stuffed full of mescaline" All About Jazz

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Parker Plays X

BYNK Records
2023

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RXB3

Ubuntu Music
2021

buy

Wood/Water

Ropeadope
2018

buy

What Is Now

Ropeadope
2017

buy

Videos

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