- Active: '50s, '60s
- Genres: Jazz
- Instrument: Liner Notes
Biography
Benny Green is among the elite class of music critics who actually had careers as musicians, his involving the busy British jazz scene of the '50s and bandleaders such as drummer and club owner Ronnie Scott and visiting American big band maestro Stan Kenton. Green's writings, many of which appear on album liner notes as well as in publications such as Record Mirror, are flavored by a high degree of intelligence and insight: it is no surprise that he studied both modern history and English literature in college.Green's father, a saxophonist and clarinetist, began giving his son lessons on the soprano saxophone in the early '40s. Tenor and baritone saxophone were next, the latter low bellowing horn Green's axe of choice when enlisted by the
Scott band during the first half of the '50s. Green performed with Kenton during a 1956 English tour and is featured on a variety of mostly out of print recordings from the British scene circa the '50s and '60s. His voluminous writings onjazz have not acted as a blockade against further creative expansion -- Green wrote lyrics for the 2005 London production of Bashville. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, All Music Guide
