Benny Green – Solo

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 music. He began piano lessons at the age of seven, and his first paid performance was at the age of twelve. His major concert stage debut was in 1978, when he was fifteen, 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 leader, Green recorded two albums for the Dutch Criss Cross label in the late 1980s before being signed to Blue Note Records in 1990 and remained with the label for 10 years, receding seven albums as a leader for the label, as well as two albums for it’s 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 ’90’s, 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 Oscar Peterson invited Green to record a two-piano album with him, entitled Oscar and Benny.

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

Benny Green Website
Sponsored by Teresa Green
(Ticket Includes 5% City of Santa Cruz Admission Tax)