“For a quarter-century, Benny Green has been deemed one of the most technically superb jazz pianists of his generation.” – New York Daily News

Since emerging under the tutelage of Betty Carter, Art Blakey, Freddie Hubbard and Ray Brown in the early 1980s, pianist Benny Green truly possesses the history of jazz at his fingertips. Hailed as perhaps the most exciting hard-swinging, hard-bop pianist to ever emerge from Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers Benny Green has become a highly regarded bandleader whose efforts to expand upon the language of the classical jazz canon have placed him not only among the best interpreters, but also among the vanguard of musicians keeping jazz’s evolution going.

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 to 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 never looked back and never stopped learning as his blossoming talents, supported by mentors such as Walter Bishop, Jr. and others, plus his love for the music, propelled him to the upper strata of jazz luminaries.

Today, it can be argued that nobody plays straight-ahead modern jazz piano with more swinging joy and finesse than Benny Green. You can hear his absolute mastery of the artform on a gamut of recordings including his newest release; Then And Now on Sunnyside Records (his 20th album as leader), or one of his other fine albums such as Greens and Kaleidoscope on Blue Note, or Telarc’s Naturally with bassist Christian McBride and guitarist Russell Malone, as well as his scores of records with top artist like Diana Krall, Freddie Hubbard and Milt Jackson. In 1993, the great pianist Oscar Peterson picked Green to receive Toronto’s Glenn Gould International Protégé Prize in Music and later recorded the dazzling Oscar & Benny album with him.

JazzYYC is excited to present Benny Green with his iconic trio featuring master bassist David Wong, and hard swinging drummer Aaron Kimmel.

Band members

Benny Green, piano
David Wong, bass
Aaron Kimmel, drums