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Benjamin Lackner

Born in Berlin to an american father and a german mother, Benny Lackner, moved to California at the age of 13. He received his BFA from the California Institute of the Arts under the direction of Charlie Haden and David Roitstein. From 1997-1998 he studied privately with his mentor, pianist Brad Mehldau. He has performed at numerous jazz festivals including the North Sea Jazz Festival, Montreux and Monterey. He has worked with artists such as the late Billy Higgins, Marc Ribot, Brad Shepik, Pheeroan akLaff and is now residing in NYC and Berlin where he is working with his internationally touring trio as well as a sideman and composer.

The Benny Lackner Trio just finished its fifth huge world tour playing 19 concerts in 19 cities starting with Auckland, NZ and ending in Lausanne, CH.  The trio featuring Benny Lackner (piano,  electronics),  Jerôme Regard (bass) and Matthieu Chazarenc (drums) was founded in New York City in 2002. Past concerts include five extensive Asia – Australia – New Zealand  tours taking them to places such as  Sydney, Melbourne, Hong Kong and Jakarta. Other tours included Brazil,  South Africa, Canada, Portugal, Spain, United States, Germany, France, Croatia, South Africa, Austria, Turkey, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The trio has headlined at jazz clubs such as the Blue Note in NYC, Joe’s Pub in NYC, Smalls in NYC, Birdland in Vienna and the A-Trane in Berlin, sharing the stage with John Scofield at the Traumzeit Jazz Festival,  the American Jazz Festival in Paris, as well as concerts at the Montreux Jazz Festival, the North Sea Jazz Festival and the Monterey Jazz Festival, Viersen Jazz Festival, Leverkusener Jazztage, the Augsburger Jazzsommer and the Düsseldorfer Jazz Rallye.

Born in Berlin to an american father and a german mother, Benny Lackner, moved to California at the age of 13. He received his BFA from the California Institute of the Arts under the direction of Charlie Haden and David Roitstein. From 1997 - 1998 he studied privately with his mentor, pianist Brad Mehldau. He has performed at numerous jazz festivals including the North Sea Jazz Festival, Montreux and Monterey. He has worked with artists such as the late Billy Higgins, Marc Ribot, BradShepik, Pheeroan akLaff and is now residing in NYC and Berlin where he is working with his internationally touring trio as well as a sideman and composer.

The Benny Lackner Trio just finished its fifth huge world tour playing 19 concerts in 19 cities starting with Auckland, NZ and ending in Lausanne, CH.  The trio featuring Benny Lackner (piano,  electronics),  Jerôme Regard (bass) and Matthieu Chazarenc (drums) was founded in New York City in 2002.

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12
Year in Review

Dan McClenaghan's Top Jazz Recordings of 2022

Read "Dan McClenaghan's Top Jazz Recordings of 2022" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


The top jazz recordings of 2022, in no particular order. Justin MorellExit Music For Intelligent Life On Earth Sonic Frenzy Records A provocative and beautiful guitar and drums album. Guitarist Justin Morell has teamed with drummer Mark Ferber (see postscript concerning Ferber at the end of this article) to construct an important set of sounds addressing climate change and global warming with a science fiction-like exit of the Earth to escape these problems. This ...

20
Album Review

Benjamin Lackner: Last Decade

Read "Last Decade" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


In a 2006 interview for All About Jazz written by Joao Moriera dos Santos, pianist/keyboardist Benjamin Lackner was asked: “What label would you like to be on in the near future?" He said, simply, “ECM." That seemed ambitious for Lackner at that stage of his career. He was 29 years old at the time and boasted only two albums under his own name—one of them was Sign Of The Times (Nagel Heyer, 2006), released a bit before the interview—along with ...

7
Album Review

Benny Lackner Trio: Drake

Read "Drake" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Pianist Benny Lackner was born in Germany, but moved to the United States at thirteen years of age. He spent his formative years in California, and received his BFA from the California Institute of the Arts. Studies with pianist Brad Mehldau followed. Then, at thirty years of age, Lackner returned to Berlin from his adopted New York base. From Germany, the albums—with a superb trio—started coming. Drake is the Benny Lackner Trio's sixth offering. Stylistically, Lackner doesn't sound ...

3
Album Review

Benny Lackner Trio: Siskiyou

Read "Siskiyou" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


The photo on the main page of Benny Lackner's website shows the pianist with one hand on an acoustic piano, the other plying the keys of a laptop computer. That's where his muse has taken him-into a very contemporary electro/acoustic piano trio mix with drummer Matthieu Chazarec and bassist Jerome Regard. Siskiyou is Lackner's  fifth trio outing, and his second with this particular line-up, after 2012's Cachuma  (BMH Productions). It is his best and most focused outing. The ...

111
Album Review

Benny Lackner Trio: Cachuma

Read "Cachuma" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Pianist Benny Lackner can do whatever he wants, and says as much with “I Can Do Whatever I Want," the opener on his forward-leaning Cachuma. This piano trio outing suggests he wants to nudge the trio setting into a modern groove while giving voice to his own artistic vision.Modernization of the tried and true piano trio format is an ongoing process. e.s.t., led by the late Swedish pianist Esbjörn Svensson, incorporated electronics with great success, while John Medeski ...

183
Album Review

Benny Lackner Trio: Pilgrim

Read "Pilgrim" reviewed by Michael J. West


The rock-ish but very adult Pilgrim is a cautionary example of why detail is important in jazz. On a cursory listen, the Benny Lackner Trio sounds like a Bad Plus imitator: the rock influence is heavy, pianist Lackner shares Ethan Iverson's harmonic trajectory and heavy touch, and drummer Robert Perkins' sound is superficially like Dave King's bash-and-crash. What's more, the fifth track is titled “Brad Plus," a dead giveaway if ever there was one. That first impression is illusory. Deeper ...

314
Album Review

Benny Lackner Trio: Pilgrim

Read "Pilgrim" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


The Benny Lackner Trio calls itself a “collective," with each member “interjecting equally toward the construction of the material." This sef-description was certainly true of the group's previous outing, Sign of the Times (Nagel Heyer, 2006). It's an even more accurate characterization of the group's approach on Pilgrim.The “collective" is a piano trio, with some subtle electronics added--Wurlitzer and Nord lead 2--along with a dash of electro-percussion. When you talk piano trio and equality of each member's input, ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Last Decade

ECM Records
2022

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Drake

Ozella Music
2019

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Siskiyou

Unit Records
2015

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Cachuma

BHM Productions
2012

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Pilgrim

Stray Dog Music
2008

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Night for Day

Self Produced
2008

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Dresden Blues

From: Sign of the Times
By Benjamin Lackner

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