Learn every song you can, and then learn 5 more! When you learn a new song, make sure you can play it in all 12 keys...learn the lyrics to every song...listen to every recording of your favorite players...the devil is in the details! Just keep working; working, working and the music will take care of you! And be social ! go out and support other musicians gigs, and always have your instrument with you! You never know where your next opportunity will come from.
1.Tell us more about your background and journey.
I come from three generations of Jazz in my family! My grandfather Benny Benack Sr. was a very notable Jazz trumpeter and my father Benny Jr. plays saxophone. My mother Claudia is a singer and voice teacher, so I have been surrounded by music in my entire life.
I've been performing professional gigs with my Dad since I was barely a teenager, and haven't looked back since! After getting both my Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Jazz Performance from the Manhattan School of Music, I have called New York City my home for the last 12 years, as it's the center of the world for Jazz, the music I love!
2.When and how did you realize your passion for music?
I have always been infatuated with music and specifically JAZZ music since my earliest memories. They say my Dad used to put the bell of his clarinet up against my Mom's stomach and play for me in the womb and I would dance...maybe it started there..
I played classical piano from age 5, and while I liked it well enough, it was always a chore to get me motivated to practice when I would rather be outside with my friends horsing around. But, at age 9 when I was given one of my grandfather's old trumpets, a cornet...my life changed forever! I became obsessed with practicing and improving, and that has been my life's craft and passion ever since.
3.What fascinates you about jazz?
I love how Democratic, communicative and free Jazz music is. To really play the music well on the highest level, you have to be engaging with the other musicians in the band at all times.
There's a musical conversation happening between each soloist and the drums, piano, bass, etc. - you can play the same song over and over again 1,000 times and it will sound unique and different every single time. For someone that is a Millennial and grew up overstimulated, this musical variety suits my ADHD just fine, ha!
4.What was your most embarrassing moment on stage and how did you overcome it?
My most embarrassing moment would probably be as a Finalist in the Thelonius Monk International Jazz Trumpet Competition in 2014. I had hopes of winning the competition and being propelled immediately to stardom, but I had a bad day on the trumpet and woefully underperformed.
It wasn't an "embarrassing" performance per se, but it felt short of the lofty expectations I had set for myself and it took me a long time to get over that loss. I ultimately used it as motivation to continue to improve and get better, and while I didn't get "instantly famous", it's been rewarding to see my career steadily continue to ascend as I've kept working and hustling.
5.Which has been your most memorable performance till date?
I think getting to tour Europe with Jazz luminary and bassist Christian McBride's Big Band a couple years ago was the most "pinch-me" moment I could ask for to date. He has been a hero of mine since I was a teenager, and to be able to take a trumpet solo with him playing bass behind me as a 20-something was just truly incredible.
We also played giant concert halls and packed clubs, and the thrill of that tour being in a different country every night...it was amazing! I also loved every moment of my European tour with Postmodern Jukebox the Fall before covid-19 hit...playing for thousands of people every night was an incredible rush.
6.How do you think you have played a role in spreading awareness about covid 19?
As one of the very first musicians in NYC to resume live performances last Summer when "outdoor dining" became a thing, I felt it was important to show people we were taking every precaution to be as safe as possible. That began with me getting a personalized "Zipper Mask" custom-made, so that I could wear a mask while still playing the trumpet.
I wanted people watching livestream shows from around the world to see me taking the pandemic seriously, and my thought is that it would encourage others to wear their masks whenever possible.
I also wrote a song on the very first day of NYC's "Stay At-Home" Quarantine called "Put a Mask on Your Face" that is a parody of the Jazz standard "Put on a Happy Face" - at the time I wrote the song, I was trying to encourage people to put on their masks, even when the science community was still divided on whether healthy people should or not.
Obviously it proved to be a very prescient song, and it went viral and was featured on multiple news outlets including wbgo.com and NY1 nightly news.
7.What would you advise aspiring jazz musicians?
There truly are no shortcuts in the quest to become a master of your instrument and Jazz music. The only way is through diligent, disciplined (and often painstakingly repetitive) practice - for many hours a day! I continue to practice at least 3 hours every single night, and that pursuit of continual growth hasn't waned in me one bit as I've gotten older.
Learn every song you can, and then learn 5 more! When you learn a new song, make sure you can play it in all 12 keys...learn the lyrics to every song...listen to every recording of your favorite players...the devil is in the details! Just keep working; working, working and the music will take care of you! AND...be social ! go out and support other musicians gigs, and always have your instrument with you! You never know where your next opportunity will come from.
8.Which musician do you admire the most and why?
My favorite living Jazz musician is one of my chief mentors in music and life: Trumpeter and Educator Sean Jones. Sean is a living master of the trumpet, truly one of the best alive! On top of that, he has always stressed having diversity to one's career, and he has shown to be equally passionate about Education, and passing on the knowledge he has learned.
Whether he is performing a concert of his own, or teaching his students at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, MD he has equal energy and passion for both sides of that coin.
Benny Benack III
By age 29, trumpeter and singer Benny Benack III has proven to be that rarest of talents: not only a fiery trumpet player with a stirring command of the postbop trumpet vernacular in the vein of Kenny Dorham and Freddie Hubbard, but also a singer with a sly, mature, naturally expressive delivery in the post-Sinatra mold, performing standards and his own astute songs with a thrilling sense of showmanship.
His superb intonation and bracing virtuosity enable him to handle astounding feats of originally composed vocalese (complex solos with written lyrics). On top of it all, he’s a highly capable pianist as well. Benny performs internationally as an Emcee/Host for Postmodern Jukebox, the vintage music collective famed for canny old-school covers of modern pop.
In early 2020 he released A Lot of Livin’ to Do, the follow-up to his well-received 2017 debut One of a Kind. This sophomore effort, richly varied in mood and brimming with bop inflection, features bassist extraordinaire and Jazz ambassador Christian McBride (whose Grammy-award winning Big Band frequently calls upon Benny in the trumpet section) and drummer/producer Ulysses Owens, Jr., as well as the radiant Takeshi Ohbayashi on piano and Rhodes.
Alongside his global touring as a straight-ahead/contemporary bandleader, Benny has appeared as a trumpet soloist in more commercial circles alongside Josh Groban, Ben Folds, fashion icon Isaac Mizrahi, Ann Hampton Callaway and more. He’s been featured at Birdland, Jazz @ Lincoln Center, Mezzrow, Bemelmans Bar at the Carlyle and other leading New York venues, and has also been a special guest with the Pittsburgh Symphony Pops Orchestra, the Columbus Jazz Orchestra and the Minsk Philharmonic Orchestra.
He made his television debut in NBC’s short-lived, SNL-inspired variety show “Maya & Marty” playing in the in-studio band led by acclaimed bassist & Broadway arranger Charlie Rosen. Third in a generational line of Pittsburgh jazz notables, Benny follows in the footsteps of his trumpeter/bandleader grandfather, Benny Benack, Sr. (1921-86), and his father Benny Benack, Jr., a saxophonist/clarinetist who gave the young Benny his first professional experience.
Benny, Sr. hailed from a Pittsburgh lineage that also produced Roy Eldridge, Earl Hines, Art Blakey, Billy Strayhorn and so many more. He recorded the Pittsburgh Pirates’ 1960 theme song “Beat ’Em Bucs” and toured with Tommy Dorsey and Raymond Scott, among others. Benny III returns to Pittsburgh often to perform, saluting his family forebears and the jazz heritage as a whole, nonetheless staking his bold and highly individual artistic claim.
Instagram id: bbjazziii
Interviewed by : Aliza Hussain
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