Home » Jazz Musicians » Bennie Green
Bennie Green
Green gained some fame for his work with Charlie Ventura (1948-1950) before joining Earl Hines' small group (1951-1953). He then led his own group throughout the 1950s and '60s, using such sidemen as Cliff Smalls, Charlie Rouse, Eric Dixon, Paul Chambers, Louis Hayes, Sonny Clark, Gildo Mahones, and Jimmy Forrest. Green recorded regularly as a leader for Prestige, Decca, Blue Note, Vee-Jay, Time, Bethlehem, and Jazzland during 1951-1961, although only one further session (a matchup with Sonny Stitt on Cadet in 1964) took place.
Bennie Green was with Duke Ellington for a few months in 1968-1969 and then moved to Las Vegas, where he spent his last years working in hotel bands, although he did emerge to play quite well at the 1972 Newport Jazz Festival and in New York jam sessions.
Tags
Bennie Green: Soul Stirrin’ - 1958
by Marc Davis
In the 1950s, Blue Note was a reliable bastion of hard bop. Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers set the tone, and dozens of artists--some famous, some not--followed. But Blue Note also had small oases of not-bop, often by artists you've never heard of. Bennie Green is one of those guys, and if you haven't heard him, you should. Specifically, you should hear Soul Stirrin'. This is a bluesy, almost pre-bop record. Green plays trombone, but ...
read moreBennie Green: Mosaic Select 3: Bennie Green
by C. Andrew Hovan
As Mosaic’s ingenious new series of reissues continues, we come to an artist where the approach seems certainly tailor made. Trombone man Bennie Green bridged the gap between swing era stylists and bop practitioners, making him somewhat of an enigma in the eyes and ears of the casual jazz follower. As such, he has not received recognition commensurate with his undeniable talents.
It’s even curious that Blue Note front man Alfred Lion stuck with Green for as ...
read moreBennie Green: The Swingin'est
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Bennie Green had a distinctive trombone. He played in a powdery, insistent staccato style seasoned with the Chicago blues. A member of the challenging Earl Fatha" Hines and Charlie Ventura bands in the 1940s, he also recorded in bop ensembles. In the 1950s, Green was a sideman on numerous sessions, including the Miles Davis Sextet with Sonny Rollins in 1951, the year he began recording as a leader. One of his best jazz-blues albums is The Swingin'est, recorded for Vee-Jay ...
read more
Eddy Williams and Bennie Green
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
So little is known about tenor saxophonist Eddie Williams that his Wikipedia entry simply lists his birth date as (ca. 1910)." It doesn't help that Williams appeared on only 21 known jazz recording sessionsfrom 1927 to 1961. But the jazz albums on which Williams appeared are uniformly superb, particularly the two he made with trombonist Bennie Green. [Photo above of Eddy Williams by Francis Wolff] Williams was paired with Green on Green's Minor Revalation (November 1958) and Walkin' and Talkin' ...
read more
Raymond Horricks