Benny Green Trio

Art of the Trio

Nobody plays straight-ahead modern jazz piano with more swinging joy and finesse than Benny Green, the one-time Berkeley High wunderkind who developed his leanly lyrical and propulsive playing in the star-making bands of singer Betty Carter, drummer Art Blakey, and bassist Ray Brown. With this performance, Green is joined by a historic rhythm section including bass great Christian McBride and the influential drummer Carl Allen — a supremely attuned trio who worked in the early 1990s with the legendary trumpeter Freddie Hubbard and recorded Green’s Blue Note sessions Greens (1991), Testifyin’!: Live at the Village Vanguard (1991), and That’s Right! (1992). 

A successful bandleader for over 35 years, Green has released a string of fine records played on scores of dates with the likes of Etta Jones, Ralph Moore, and Milt Jackson. In 1993, the late great Oscar Peterson picked Green to receive Toronto’s Glenn Gould International Protégé Prize in Music and later recorded the dazzling Oscar & Benny album with him.  

More than a bass superstar, Christian McBride has become a commanding force in American culture as an eight-time GRAMMY Award-winning bandleader and recording artist. 

“One of the most prominent contemporary jazz drummers” (All Music Guide), Carl Allen was a protégé of the legendary Art Blakey and has amassed a staggering resume as a bandleader, sideman, and educator.