Benny Green - RENOVATION - Drops Friday 9.18.2026

 

Good morning,

Just a note that pianist-composer Benny Green will release Renovation, his new solo piano album, THIS FRIDAY, September 18, 2026 via Sunnyside Records.

Recorded live at Dizzy's Club in New York City, Renovation is Green's first live solo recording, featuring 13 tracks that include eight originals alongside compositions by Bobby Timmons, Randy Weston, Hoagy Carmichael and Frank Loesser, and Matt Dennis and Tom Adair. The album continues a solo piano lineage that began with Green's feature on Art Blakey's Not Yet and continued through his studio recordings Green's Blues and Solo, this time bringing that thread before a live audience. Green has recorded for Blue Note, Telarc, Criss Cross, and Sunnyside, and spent formative years with Betty Carter, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Freddie Hubbard, and the Ray Brown Trio.

Find the full press release and usual assets below, and let me know if you'd like to schedule an interview with Benny. He has a full tour coming up - if Benny is going to be in your area and you'd like to come through, just let me know. 

All the best,
Lydia

OSCAR PETERSON PROTÉGÉ, JAZZ MESSENGER AND ACCLAIMED PIANIST-COMPOSER BENNY GREEN ANNOUNCES RENOVATION

RECORDED LIVE AT DIZZY’S CLUB IN NEW YORK CITY, GREEN’S FIRST LIVE SOLO PIANO ALBUM DRAWS FROM FOUR DECADES OF TRIO LANGUAGE AND BLUE NOTE FEELING

FEATURING EIGHT GREEN ORIGINALS ALONGSIDE PIECES BY BOBBY TIMMONS, RANDY WESTON, HOAGY CARMICHAEL & FRANK LOESSER, AND MATT DENNIS & TOM ADAIR

OUT SEPTEMBER 18, 2026 VIA SUNNYSIDE RECORDS

Pianist, composer and bandleader Benny Green is proud to announce Renovation, his new solo piano album, out September 18, 2026 on Sunnyside Records. Recorded live at Dizzy’s Club in New York City, the 13-track album marks his first live solo recording, with eight Green originals alongside pieces by Bobby Timmons, Randy Weston, Hoagy Carmichael & Frank Loesser, and Matt Dennis & Tom Adair.

“With my performing and recording activities of the past 40-plus years having been primarily centered around piano-bass-drums trios, I embraced the solitude of the 2020 lockdown as a golden opportunity to redirect my instrumental focus toward exploring the expansive freedom that playing solo provides me,” Green says.

“As Harold Mabern Jr. has said, ‘The piano knows what it can do — it wants to hear what you can do,’” he continues. “And I realized that liberated from the inevitable chemistry parameters that are conditionally subjective to whom I’m playing with, I can roam wherever I choose when playing solo, free from the need to cue other members to unscripted, spontaneous musical gear changes in the moment.”

Critics have recognized Green’s authority for decades. Leonard Feather of the Los Angeles Times called Green the “prototypical modern jazzman”; All About Jazz called him “one of the most gifted jazz pianists around” and a “consummate jazz pianist”; and DownBeat, writing on his 2023 Sunnyside album Solo, described “the master pianist in transition.”

Oscar Peterson named Green his protégé in 1992, chose him as the first recipient of Toronto’s Glenn Gould International Protégé Prize in Music, and later invited him to record the two-piano album Oscar and Benny.

Born in New York City in 1963 and raised in Berkeley, California, Green first heard jazz through his father, a tenor saxophonist whose record collection included Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, Ray Charles and many of the music’s founding voices. He began piano lessons at 7, played his first paid performance at 12, made his major concert-stage debut at 15 with the Monterey Jazz Festival High School All-Stars, and by his late teens was working with vocalist Faye Carol and NEA Jazz Master trumpeter Dr. Eddie Henderson.

In 1982, at 19, he returned to New York City, where Walter Bishop Jr. and Walter Davis Jr. mentored him during his first year in town, and where his earliest gigs included work with Barry Altschul, Bobby Watson and Jo Jones Jr.

Betty Carter hired Green in 1983, beginning four years of international touring with the vocalist. He played on her Grammy Award-winning Verve album Look What I Got before joining Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers from 1987 to 1989. He joined Freddie Hubbard’s quintet in 1989 and recorded Live at Fat Tuesday’s with Hubbard in 1992. That same year, he joined the Ray Brown Trio, his longest sideman tenure, remaining with Brown for four and a half years.

As a leader, Green recorded two albums for the Dutch Criss Cross label in the late 1980s before signing with Blue Note Records in 1990, where he made seven leader albums across the decade, plus two for Toshiba-EMI. He went on to record for Telarc, including his 2001 solo piano album Green’s Blues and two duo albums with guitarist Russell Malone. In 1998, Peterson invited Green to record Oscar and Benny. In the 2010s, Green began recording for Sunnyside, with albums including Magic Beans, Live in Santa Cruz, Happiness, Then and Now, Benny’s Crib and Solo.

During Green’s Jazz Messengers tenure, Blakey would sometimes turn off his snare drum and send the other musicians offstage mid-set, leaving Green alone to play a long solo piano medley. In the studio in Milan in 1988, while recording his first album as a member of the Messengers, Blakey also gave him the chance to play what became the only solo piano track in the Jazz Messengers’ discography: “I’ll Never Be the Same,” chosen on the spot after Green had been listening to versions by Art Tatum and by Louis Armstrong with Oscar Peterson.

Green’s recorded solo-piano history before Renovation began with his feature on Blakey’s Not Yet, followed by Green’s Blues in 2001 and Solo in 2022; all were studio recordings. Renovation places that solo thread before an audience.

“In live performance,” Green says, “this newfound freedom allows me to tune in more directly to the mood and vibe of a live audience when I enter a room, so that regardless of whatever I’d preconceived as an opening selection, I can respond untethered by allowing abrupt diversions from my pre-planned choices of selections.”

The title carries several meanings. Musically, Green describes Renovation as a conscious refresh of the setting that has defined much of his working life. Personally, it refers to the renovation of his home in Berkeley, where his family moved in 1968. His wife is overseeing a major project there, adding rooms, building a deck and bringing new love to the 100-year-old house his parents left to him and his sister.

On Renovation, Green channels what he has long loved about piano-bass-drums trios into solo piano: the bassist’s melodic pulse, the drummer’s ride cymbal and snare, and the pianist’s single-note storytelling. He draws on the flowing lines of Sonny Clark, Barry Harris, Cedar Walton and Kenny Barron, and the two-fisted swing of Fats Waller, Erroll Garner, Hank Jones and Ray Bryant. He also admires pianists who treated the instrument, in his words, “in ways not per se intended to impress, but rather to paint.”

As a composer, Green’s reference remains the small-group language that first seized him as a listener: Charlie Parker’s 1947 quintet with Miles Davis, Duke Jordan, Tommy Potter and Max Roach; the classic Blue Note records of the 1950s and ’60s; the Miles Davis Quintets; and the expanded frontlines of Blakey’s Jazz Messengers.

“When I write,” Green says, “I’m channeling the textures of horns playing melodies together in a quintet or sextet to the piano. My main inspiration as a composer stems especially from classic Blue Note records and the Jazz Messengers. I strive to write singable, swinging melodies that channel some sort of feeling of the blues that a listener can remember.”

Renovation opens with “For Duke Pearson,” a piece that began when Wynton Marsalis commissioned Green to write a new original composition as a big band arrangement for the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. Premiered at Rose Hall in New York City and later scaled down for solo piano, the piece tips its hat to the titular pianist-composer-arranger — one of Green’s favorites of the 1960s.

“Seoul Station,” a minor-key original theme, combines Green’s love of Blue Note with his affection for jazz audiences in Korea; its title refers to the principal train hub in Korea while nodding to Hank Mobley’s Soul Station. 

“Cedar Would” honors Cedar Walton, one of Green’s foremost heroes as a pianist and composer. “I’ve waited all my life to write something in honor of how much his sound means to me,” Green says, “and I’ve put my heart into this piece.”

“This Here” brings Bobby Timmons directly into the program. While preparing to become a Jazz Messenger, Green listened closely and played along with Blakey bands featuring Horace Silver, Timmons and Walton in the piano chair. On Renovation, Green plays Timmons’ “romping blues waltz,” which he finds to be a perennial audience favorite.

Green also turns to “The Night We Called It a Day,” the Matt Dennis and Tom Adair ballad whose melody has long drawn him in; after hearing Dennis sing and play it online, Green brought its haunted mood into the live recording date at Dizzy’s Club.

For Green, the format harkens back to those nights with Blakey. “This was a character-building challenge,” Green says, “as my solo endeavor was sandwiched between a powerhouse sextet, presented to live audiences, and I needed to maintain a strong level of sound and feeling for the continuity of the shows.

“As Art would remind us, ‘You’ve got to project beyond the floodlights,’” Green recalls. “Meaning not to just play to and for ourselves, but to actually reach into the hearts and minds of our listeners.”

Tracklisting:

1. For Duke Pearson

2. Constitutional

3. Cedar Would

4. This Here

5. Hi-Fly

6. Two Sleepy People

7. Seoul Station

8. Blues for Junior

9. My Girl Bill

10. The Night We Called it a Day

11. Wiggin’

12. Sophy’s Chant

13. Ernie’s Uncle

Tour Dates:

Sept 17 – University of Tennessee Chattanooga
Sept 19-20 – Venue TBA (Philadelphia, PA)
Sept 22 – Jazz, TX (San Antonio, TX)
Sept 23 – Monks (Austin, TX)
Sept 25-26 – The Jazz Corner (Hilton Head, SC)
Sept 28-29 – University of Missouri, Kansas City
Sept 30 – Crystal Bridges (Arkansas)
Oct 1 – Keystone Korner (Baltimore, MD)
Oct 22-25 – Dizzy’s with Carl Allen Tribute to Jazz Messengers
Oct 31 – Scullers (Boston, MA)
Nov 1 – William Paterson with Carl Allen Tribute to Jazz Messengers
Nov 6 - University of New Hampshire
Nov 12-15 – Cotton Club Tokyo, Japan
Nov 19-22 – JazzCultural (NYC)
Nov 30 – Kuumbwa (Santa Cruz, CA)

Jazz from the Pacific Northwest - Shelly Manne and His Men

 © Introduction. Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

We Were All Influenced by Him: A Conversation with Joe LaBarbera

About Shelly Manne

A Sound Colorist: Peter Erskine Reflects on Shelly Manne

I Wanted to Sound Like Him: Jim Keltner Talks About Shelly Manne

The word “community” is very much in vogue these days. But when people use “community” today they have a particular meaning in mind: they want the term to denote something that is a force for good.

Perhaps this meaning for the term community may also be used in retrospect as when it came to the “Jazz community,” especially in Los Angeles in the 1950s and 1960s, no one contributed more “good” to it than drummer, band leader and club owner Shelly Manne [1920-1984].

Vocalist Ruth Price explains Shelly’s demeanor and role this way in the booklet from the soon-to-be-released Jazz from the Pacific Northwest - Shelly Manne and His Men:

“Thinking back now, I'm just really glad I fell into everything accidentally in the first couple of weeks I was out on the West Coast. I had a steady gig at the Manne-Hole and it kept me going. It helped me survive. There are just a few things that musicians have said to me that I really utilize. One of them was from Shelly. One night I came in and I just wasn't musical. I don't know how to explain it, except I didn't sound musical to myself. The band didn't sound musical to me either, but I know they were just like they always were. I just couldn't sing and I was having trouble. I mean, I was unhappy and he sensed it. He took me aside and said, "You know, Ruthie, it's OK to copy yourself." And I knew exactly what he meant.

When you're dealing with jazz, what you're hoping you can do is bring something fresh to it every time and that's hard to do. I wasn't finding anything fresh and I was floundering. He meant that I could sing off the stuff that I'd done before and perhaps recorded, even though that would normally be something I would never want to do. I wouldn't want to do it the same way twice, but he said, "You can copy yourself, Ruth. That's OK."

I loved him. And so did a whole lot of other people as well. He was more than just a wonderful musician. He was really a supporter of the guys, of the musicians who needed support. He was pretty wonderful.”

- Excerpted from an interview with Ruth Price conducted by Zev Feldman on May 12,2022.

Many of us in the broader Jazz community who came of age in the music during the time that Shelly was active with his various quintets and especially after he established his Jazz Club, The Manne Hole, in 1961 in Hollywood, CA, experienced his warm-heartedness first-hand, so it’s nice to see it brought forward and acknowledged in the legacy recordings from the 1958 Monterey Jazz Festival and a 1966 appearance at The Penthouse in Seattle, WA that make up this double CD set - Jazz from the Pacific Northwest - Shelly Manne and His Men - another in the Jazz Discoveries series by the “Jazz Detective”  Zev Feldman.

In the customary superb booklet materials that accompany the music on these “discoveries,” Shelly’s humanity and good-heartedness are reaffirmed many times over in the stories about him recounted by drummers Joe La Barbera, Peter Erskine and Jim Keltner, all interviewed by Zev in 2002 as these recordings were entering production. I venture to say that these anecdotes could have been compounded many times over by other stories from any musician, let alone drummer, who ever met Shelly.

Shelly was everywhere in Left Coast Jazz Circles from 1950-1970: with Stan Kenton’s Orchestra at the Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa, CA; as a member of Howard Rumsey’s All Stars at the Lighthouse in Hermosa, Beach, CA; with Shorty Rogers Giants at Zardi’s and Jazz City in Hollywood, CA; with various iterations of his own quintet at the Blackhawk in San Francisco and later on every weekend in his own club, The Manne Hole. He even returned to work for his old boss Stan Kenton when the latter formed his Neophonic Orchestra for a series of concerts at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles from 1966-1968!

His best selling quintet albums and Broadway show LPs with Andre Previn and bassists Leroy Vinnegar and Red Mitchell helped to establish the viability of Les Koenig’s Contemporary Jazz label.

He was the drummer on Hank Mancini’s score for the ground-breaking Peter Gunn TV series [1959-63] which made Jazz a mainstay in the music scores of the then ubiquitous TV detective series, a tradition continued by the likes of Pete Rugolo, Elmer Bernstein and Skip Martin. 

His Filmography details an exhausting schedule throughout his career. He spent so much time in the studios at Universal that there is a plaque just outside the drum booth with his name on it!

He even found time to teach a class in Jazz at California State University, Northridge!! [“It’s the least I can do to spread the word about this wonderful music. Besides I live in Northridge” <big grin>.].

But after all is said and done, Shelly Manne was all about creating music and there are certainly plenty of new sounds by him and his group to enjoy on Jazz from the Pacific Northwest - Shelly Manne and His Men [Reel to Reel, LP: RTRLPO 12; CD: RTRCDO 12]. The LP street date is April 20, 2024 to coincide with an exclusive for Record Store Day while the CD releases on May 10, 2024.

Disc One features The Men with Stu Williamson on trumpet, Herb Geller on alto sax, Russ Freeman, piano, Monty Budwig, bass and Shelly on drums performing three selections at the 1958 Monterey Jazz Festival, the highlight for me being the performance of Bill Holman’s four-part suite entitled quartet which I first heard on Volume 5, More Swinging Sounds on Contemporary.

Fast forward 8 years and Disc Two finds Shelly’s Men at The Penthouse in Seattle with the group comprised this time of alto saxophonist and flutist Frank Strozier, who made his mark in the Jazz world as a member of drummer Walter Perkins MJ2 + 3, a Chicago based quintet that also included pianist Harold Mabern. Joining Frank on the front-line is Manne’s old running mate Conte Candoli on trumpet with pianist Hampton Hawes and Monty Budwig forming the rhythm section along with Shelly and vocalist Ruth Price doing the honors on two tracks.

More of Shelly's sense of community is involved with these recordings in the form of a commissioned work by Bill Holman, Herb Geller replacing alto saxophonist Charlie Mariano and joining with Stu Williamson to form the front line at the MJF [Herb was dealing with the serious illness of his wife Lorraine [ she died about a month after the MJF appearance and Shelly’s offer of a gig was timely in the extreme] and new face Frank Strozier being brought onto the group in 1965 to help expand and extend his Jazz career. By the time of the Penthouse gig, Conte had been on the band for six years [talk about loyalty; a very long time for a regular Jazz gig] and Shelly’s hiring of Hampton Hawes for the Seattle gig was a magnanimous gesture following some difficult personal times for the pianist. It was also a reunion of sorts from their time together at the Lighthouse during the early years of Jazz at that iconic club.

Beyond these background narratives, the music on these recordings are full of zest, a high level of musicianship and lots of Shelly’s trademark swing. It ranges from all original compositions on the 1958 Monterey Jazz Festival set to music drawn primarily from the Great American Songbook on The Penthouse dates in Seattle.

None of these tracks are just loose vehicles for blowing. Shelly’s music always came with intriguing arrangements, riffs or vamps between solos and shout choruses to help take things out. But there is also another feature of Shelly’s music on display on these recordings - plenty of room for the musicians to stretch out where six of the nine tracks exceed ten minutes.

Here’s more information about the music and what’s included in the package from the media release issued by Lydia Liebman Promotions.

“Jazz from The Pacific Northwest combines two previously unissued concert recordings from one of the greatest jazz drummers of all-time, Shelly Marine. The first recording, recorded at the Monterey Jazz Festival on October 4, 1958, features Monty Budwig on bass, Russ Freeman on piano, Stu Williamson on trumpet, and Herb Geller on flute and alto saxophone. The second recording features Hampton Hawes on piano, Frank Strozier on flute and alto saxophone, Conte Condoli on trumpet and guest vocalist Ruth Price on two tracks recorded at the Penthouse jazz club in Seattle on September 7 and 15, 1966.

The hand-numbered, limited-edition, double LP set was transferred from the original tape reels and is pressed on 180g vinyl. The deluxe package includes an extensive 16-page booklet with essays by renowned archival producer Zev Feldman and label owner/producer/musician Cory Weeds, plus passages from Tim Jackson of the Monterey Jazz Festival, Charlie Puzzo Jr. from the Penthouse, and engineer/radio host Jim Wilke; interviews from musicians Jim Keltner, Peter Erskine, Ruth Price, Bill Holman and Joe LaBarbera; and rare photos and memorabilia. LP mastering by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio.

New York City-born Manne rose to fame in the 1950s after moving to Los Angeles and is known as a founding father of the "West Coast Jazz" scene. He is highly regarded as one of the most versatile and talented drummers of the day performing with countless legends including Andre Previn, Sonny Rollins, Stan Kenton, Charlie Ventura, Kai Winding and many others. Manne teamed up with Previn and Leroy Vinnegar to produce the first jazz album of a Broadway score for their version of "My Fair Lady," and he has numerous television/movie credits along with performing and composing scores. His recorded works include numerous albums for Capitol, Atlantic, Impulse!, Mainstream, Contemporary, Flying Dutchman and other international labels."