Benny Green Trio with Kenny Washington

Benny Green possesses the history of jazz at his fingertips. Combine mastery of keyboard technique with decades of real world experience playing with no one less than the most celebrated artists of the last half century, and it’s no wonder Green has been hailed as perhaps the most exciting hard-swinging, hard-bop pianist to ever emerge from Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. Born in New York in 1963, Benny Green was introduced to jazz by his father, a tenor saxophonist. Green’s blossoming talents, supported by mentors such as Walter Bishop, Jr. and others, propelled him to the upper strata of jazz luminaries.

Green’s list of accomplishments and accolades could literally fill a book. He began his touring life with Betty Carter and later realized his dream of becoming a Jazz Messenger; In 1993 Oscar Peterson chose him as the first recipient of the Glen Gould International Protégé Prize in Music which led to the recording of Oscar & Benny for Telarc in 1998. He’s appeared on well over one hundred recordings, with legacy artists such as Betty Carter, Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, Freddie Hubbard, Bobby Watson, Milt Jackson, Diana Krall, and Ray Brown.

As the leader of his own groups, Green’s recording career includes more than ten albums. For his most recent release, Magic Beans, he crafted ten new pieces performed by his working trio and the legendary Kenny Washington on drums. With this recording, Benny Green unconditionally steps out as the bearer of the torch and guardian of a legacy handed down to him, personally, by his musical mentors. Magic Beans delivers the message that swinging is never out of style.