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Michael Benedict

Percussionist Michael Benedict received a bachelor’s degree in Music Education from the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam and a master’s degree in Jazz Studies from Rutgers University. His teachers include Jim Petercsak, Ray Mosca and Keith Copland.

Michael has performed and/or recorded with jazz luminaries Gary Smulyan, Harry Allen, Dick Oatts, Ralph Lalama, Bruce Barth, Joe Locke, Renee Fleming, and Gene Bertoncini. He was a member of the Spike Jones Orchestra and the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra. He has toured the United States extensively, performing at numerous concert halls, colleges, clubs, and festivals and has performed in Europe. In 2012, Michael went on a US State Department tour of Tunisia, Africa where he taught and performed with the Planet Arts Trio.

Michael has extensive work in musical theatre playing in pit orchestras. He has performed with national touring shows including The Sound of Music, Beautiful-The Carole King Musical, Mean Girls and Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Time of The Temptations among others.

As a vibraphonist and drummer, Michael is currently the leader of two ensembles, JAZZ VIBES and BOPITUDE.  He has released six recordings to date. Downbeat Magazine picked “Five and One” as one of the Best Albums of 2013. “Circulation: The Music of Gary McFarland”, was an Editor’s pick in Downbeat Magazine and listed as one of the Best Jazz Albums of 2015 by National Public Radio and critics Ted Gioa and Scott Yanow. His newest album, “1-2-3 GO”, earned him the Local Hero Award for Best Local/Regional Release by J. Hunter on www.nippertown.com.

Michael is a highly regarded educator and taught high school band, jazz band and music theory in Greenville, NY for twenty-five years. Michael has served as a clinician and guest conductor for numerous high school honor jazz ensembles. He has served as the past president of the Albany Musicians’ Association and the Greene County Music Educators Association. He is currently a Vice President of the Schenectady-Amsterdam Musical Union. Michael is an Artist Endorser for Canopus Drums, Soultone Cymbals and Regal Tip Drumsticks.


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36
Album Review

Michael Benedict & Bopitude featuring Gary Smulyan: Five and One

Read "Five and One" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


Diamond hard bop is alive and well and living in Michael Benedict & Bopitude's studio. The quintet's debut, Michael Benedict & Bopitude (Planet Arts, 2011), established the group as a premiere hard bop unit employing the classic trumpet-tenor quintet format used by Miles Davis, Art Blakey and various others. For this edition of Bopitude, drummer Benedict adds baritone saxophonist Gary Smulyan, whose Smul's Paradise (Capri Records, 2012) made its own hard bop waves. The pairing is an opportune one.

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116

Recording

Michael Benedict and Bopitude (Planet Arts, 2011)

Michael Benedict and Bopitude (Planet Arts, 2011)

Source: Music and More by Tim Niland

Taking some of the best jazz compositions of the mid 1950's to mid 1960s hard bop movement and placing them into a more modern context, drummer Michael Benedict leads an exciting band called Bopitude which consists of Bruce Barth on piano, Chris Pasin on trumpet, Brian Patneaude on saxophones and Mike Lawrence on bass. There is a nice mix of bebop and hard bop including classy versions of Blue Note era classics like the Dexter Gordon favorite 'Cheesecake," a nice ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Five and One

Planet Arts Records
2012

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