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Bunky Green

Performer, educator, composer, arranger, lecturer, and music education consultant, Professor Green has 14 albums released in his name on vintage labels such as Chess, Exodus, Cadet, and Vanguard. As an international performer, educator, and lecturer, his European tours have taken him to Poland, Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, and Africa.

Professor Green received film credit for his background solo work in Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, featuring Danny Glover and Esther Rolle. He is Past President and permanent chair of the Past Presidents Council of the world's largest jazz education organization, the International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE). Professor Green received a rare five star rating from Downbeat Magazine for his album Healing the Pain. Along with Gary Burton, Gerald Wilson, Jackie McLean, and Rufus Reid, he was cited in a 1995 DownBeat Magazine article recognizing the nation's leading jazz educators who are also respected players.

In a 1997 DownBeat article, saxophone great Joe Lovano said, "Bunky personifies what jazz is all about. He's combined all the inspiration of Parker and Dolphy and fused it into an individual voice. He's the kind of player I've always strived to be in my music, taking hold of history and then moving on, through self-expression. Working alongside him has been a real highlight."

In January of 1999, Professor Green was inducted into the IAJE Hall of Fame. Most recently in 2003, he was inducted into the DownBeat Hall of Fame for Jazz Education.


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Radio & Podcasts

A Summer night of Soul Jazz, Hard Bop and Funk

Read "A Summer night of Soul Jazz, Hard Bop and Funk" reviewed by David Brown


It's hot. Its summer. Let's ease into the night with some hard bop & soul jazz from the classic era--Lee Morgan, Ray Bryant, Bunky Green, Leo Wright and the Freedom Sounds. We'll then electrify the sounds as we move into the '70s with Eddie Harris, Bobbi Humphrey, Sun Ra and Parliament. Eventually we'll end up in the here and now of cosmic funk with William Parker and Esperanza Spalding. Playlist Thelonious Monk “Esistrophy (Theme)" from Live at the ...

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Interview

Bunky Green: Urgency and Continuity

Read "Bunky Green: Urgency and Continuity" reviewed by Anil Prasad


Saxophonist Bunky Green bristles at the idea of playing by the rules. On more than one occasion, the Milwaukee, Wisconsin native was on his way to jazz stardom, but each time his principles guided him elsewhere. This is a significant reason why the highly influential musician has mostly remained unsung and out of the spotlight for decades, instead focusing his energies on his role as a leading jazz educator. For the past two decades, Green has served as the Director ...

452
Profile

Bunky Green

Read "Bunky Green" reviewed by Marcia Hillman


Vernice “Bunky" Green (born Apr. 23rd, 1935) is a product of Wisconsin, where he was raised and learned to play the alto saxophone. His first big break came when Charles Mingus briefly hired him in the '60s--an association that left a lasting influence on Green's own style. Green left Mingus to relocate in Chicago where he performed regularly, appearing with such players as Sonny Stitt, Yusef Lateef and Louie Bellson among others. His style was ever-evolving and ...

647
Album Review

Bunky Green: Another Place

Read "Another Place" reviewed by Norman Weinstein


This release is a welcome reminder that Bunky Green is alive and well--and one of the dozen most important alto sax players in the country. In spite of notable associations with bands led by Charles Mingus, Sonny Stitt and Yusef Lateef, Green's available catalog until this release consisted of a single disc, Healing the Pain (Delos, 1990). But Green was befriended by Steve Coleman, and we have this recording as a result. Part of Coleman's genius is getting talent, ranging ...

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59

Interview

Saxophonist Bunky Green Interviewed at All About Jazz!

Saxophonist Bunky Green Interviewed at All About Jazz!

Source: All About Jazz

Saxophonist Bunky Green bristles at the idea of playing by the rules. On more than one occasion, the Milwaukee, Wisconsin native was on his way to jazz stardom, but each time his principles guided him elsewhere. This is a significant reason why the highly influential musician has mostly remained unsung and out of the spotlight for decades, instead focusing his energies on his role as a leading jazz educator. For the past two decades, Green has served as the Director ...

90

Recording

CD: Rudresh Mahanthappa and Bunky Green

CD: Rudresh Mahanthappa and Bunky Green

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey

Rudresh Mahanthappa & Bunky Green, Apex (Pi). Mahanthappa, aged 40, is one of the most visible alto saxophonists of the 21st century; Green, aged 75 one of the least. As a result of this album, Green is gaining the prominence he might have achieved in the 1960s had he not left Charles Mingus for academia. Among the saxophonists he influenced through recordings was Mahanthappa. Together, they are formidable kindred spirits. Throughout, but notably on “Summit" and “Playing with Stones," their ...

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Recording

Rudresh Mahanthappa and Bunky Green - Apex (2010)

Rudresh Mahanthappa and Bunky Green - Apex (2010)

Source: Something Else!

By Pico Maybe it hasn't been talked about that much, but in spite of all the advances in the mastery the instrument led by Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane, the development and evolution of the jazz saxophone didn't end with those guys. Many of the sax players play a modern style that's more intricately articulated, cerebral, sophisticated and, yes, even funkier than most from the prior generations. The progression from Johnny Griffin to, say, Steve Coleman didn't happen instantaneously, however. ...

193

Interview

Rudresh Mahanthappa and Bunky Green Lock Horns at the Jazz Standard

Rudresh Mahanthappa and Bunky Green Lock Horns at the Jazz Standard

Source: All About Jazz @ Spinner

One of the great jazz stories of 2009 and 2010 has been the partnership between alto saxophonists Rudresh Mahanthappa and Bunky Green. The career of Mahanthappa, a Guggenheim Fellow and Downbeat Rising Star, has taken off, thanks to some strong post-Coltrane style playing of his own and his association with Vijay Iyer and other new bright lights on the jazz scene. Green is a different animal altogether—now 75, the saxophonist had a brief stint with Charles Mingus and played around ...

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Recording

Rudresh Mahanthappa and Bunky Green - Apex (Pi Recordings, 2010)

Rudresh Mahanthappa and Bunky Green - Apex (Pi Recordings, 2010)

Source: Music and More by Tim Niland

This is an auspicious meeting between great alto saxophonists of different generations. Rudresh Mahanthappa who has burst on to the scene in recent years with a series of progressive and thoughtful albums drawing on mathematics and linguistics along with a deep knowledge of the history of jazz is joined by Chicago based improviser and educator Bunky Green. Green came up in the shadow of bebop, developing his own sound as a recording artist and as a respected teacher. They are ...

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Performance / Tour

Rudresh Mahanthappa and Bunky Green from Different Generations but on the Same Page

Rudresh Mahanthappa and Bunky Green from Different Generations but on the Same Page

Source: Michael Ricci

Rudresh Mahanthappa and Bunky Green are alto saxophonists born 36 years apart. The younger, Mr. Mahanthappa, matured in the 1990s in New York after studying at Berklee College of Music. Mr. Green played in clubs as a teenager in Milwaukee in the early 1950s, when jazz was still a vernacular language, then went on to New York and Chicago, working with Charles Mingus and Sonny Stitt. But at times during the late set at the Jazz Standard on Tuesday, in ...

Greg Osby
saxophone
Tyrone Birkett
saxophone, alto
Kevin Huang
saxophone, alto

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