Date:
Monday, November 30
Time:
7:00 PM
Advance Ticket:
$46.62
Advance Member Ticket:
$42.00
Door Ticket:
$52.50
Student Ticket:
$26.25
All-in Pricing
Kuumbwa Jazz Presents

Benny Green

Buy Tickets
6:00 PM
All Ages
Café Kuumbwa
Dinner Specials can be purchased in advance or at the counter (subject to availability). To guarantee the purchase of the Dinner Special, please order in advance. The menu will be posted to this event page as soon as it is selected by our chef. If you are purchasing a dinner before the menu is announced, you will receive the menu via email within a week of the concert date. Please click the ‘Café Kuumbwa' button above for more information. Thank you!

Benny Green was born in New York City in 1963 and grew up in Berkeley, California. His father, who played the tenor saxophone, introduced him to jazz at an early age through his record collection that included Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, Ray Charles, and many founding voices of the genre. He began piano lessons at the age of seven, with his first paid performance at twelve. His major concert stage debut was in 1978 at the Monterey Jazz Festival as a member of the MJF High School All-Stars (now known as the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra).

As a band leader, Green recorded two albums for the Dutch Criss Cross label in the late 1980s before signing to Blue Note Records in 1990. He remained with the label for ten years recording seven albums, as well as two albums for its Japanese subsidiary, Toshiba–EMI. Oscar Peterson named Green as his protegé in 1992, and chose Green as the recipient of the Glenn Gould Award for excellence in Music and Communication. He recorded many albums as a sideman throughout the 1980s and 90s, including a duet with Diana Krall on her GRAMMY Award winning album, All For You. He recorded two albums as a leader for the Telarc label in the early 1990s, as well as two duo albums for the label with Russell Malone. In 1998, Peterson invited Green to record a two-piano album with him, entitled Oscar and Benny.

Green began recording for the Sunnyside label in 2014, and has released five albums for the label to date. He’s been focusing on solo piano performance and recording since 2020, and his most recent release is entitled, Solo, on the Sunnyside label.

(Ticket Includes 5% City of Santa Cruz Admission Tax)

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