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Casey Benjamin

GRAMMY® award-winner Casey Benjamin is one of the original members of the Robert Glasper Experiment. Through his melodic ingenuity on the vocoder, textual mastery on the keytar, and spiky virtuosity on the alto and soprano saxophones, Benjamin gives the Experiment some of its most defining sounds. This has enabled the group to gain international acclaim in the jazz, R&B, and hip-hop scenes on such trailblazing records as Black Radio (Blue Note Records, 2012) and Black Radio 2 (Blue Note Records, 2013). Born in 1978, Benjamin grew up listening to music in his South Jamaica Queens, New York home. He started playing the saxophone when he was eight years old and continued his studies at the Harlem School of the Arts and Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and Art. Benjamin complemented his early jazz studies by attending pianists Barry Harris’ Jazz Workshops and Dr. Billy Taylor’s Jazzmobile. Living in Jamaica Queens also afforded Benjamin contact with musicians involved in the bustling Jamaica Funk crew - bassist Marcus Miller, trumpeter Tom Browne, and keyboardists Bernard Wright, Ozell Miller, and Weldon, Irvine Jr. After graduating from Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and Art, Benjamin attended The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City, where he met Robert Glasper in 1997. Glasper played piano on Benjamin’s demo for Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead program. Benjamin and Glasper collaborated formally in 2004 with the first edition of the Robert Glasper Experiment, which played its first gig at New York City’s Knitting Factory. In addition to the Experiment, Benjamin tours with singer Patrick Stump, and has worked with a string of other stellar musicians comprised of jazz greats, including singer Betty Carter, bassist Derrick Hodge, vibraphonist Stefon Harris, trumpeter Roy Hargrove, bassist Victor Bailey, and pianist Kris Bowers; hip-hop artists, including Nas, Kendrick Lamar, Mos Def, Q-Tip, Lupe Fiasco, Kanye West, Busta’ Rhymes, Diddy, Heavy D, Consequence, DJ Logic, and Wyclef Jean; R&B singers, including Bilal, Mary J. Blige, John Legend, and Beyoncé; and Black Rock Coalition gurus, including Vernon Reid and Melvin Gibbs. Benjamin co-leads the funk-forward combo HEAVy with singer/songwriter Nicky Guiland. The band has released multiple albums, including HEAVy (Kindred Spirits, 2000), Jazz Money$$ (BBE, 2007), and First Sessions (Kindred Spirits, 2008).


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Album Review

Kinga Glyk: Real Life

Read "Real Life" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


Throughout daredevil bassist Kinga Głyk's Real Life there are several moments which border menacingly on mainstream Euro-pop and wanna-be fusion. Fortunately those (intentional or unintentional?) moments are heavily outweighed and outnumbered by thrillingly incandescent moments which lend themselves to that old catch-all street phrase of the '60s, '70s, and '80s: “Man this is some really high powered s**t!" Because Real Life is high powered. And should be. Maybe that is the lesson to be learned from listening--live life ...

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Interview

Casey Benjamin: EclectRic Expressionism

Read "Casey Benjamin: EclectRic Expressionism" reviewed by Barbara Ina Frenz


Casey Benjamin aka Stutzmcgee--all-through New Yorker with Caribbean roots, born in 1978--grew up in the borough of Queens in a musical household. Despite economically rough conditions that his mother, a single parent, heroically managed, he started with piano around six, added the alto saxophone around ten, and the vocoder and talk-box around fifteen. At sixteen, he performed on alto saxophone together with Grover Washington Jr. on TV, and two years later he toured Europe as a saxophonist with Betty Carter, ...

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Album Review

Matthias Bublath: Second Angle

Read "Second Angle" reviewed by Woodrow Wilkins


It's difficult to imagine good jazz without a bass, but a Hammond B3 organ in the right hands can cover the absence quite well. Matthias Bublath has such hands. Bublath, a fixture on the New York scene, has performed at many festivals around the world and toured extensively in the United States, Europe and Japan. Accompanying him on Second Angle are Tim Collins on vibes, Scott Bourgeois on saxophone and Obed Colvaire on drums. The melody ...

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Album Review

Matthias Bublath: Second Angle

Read "Second Angle" reviewed by John Barron


Since moving to New York City from Germany, pianist/organist Matthias Bublath has been making a name for himself as an in-demand sideman for the likes of Lenny Picket, Mike Clark and Lionel Loueke. For Second Angle, his third release as a leader, Bublath stirs up a greasy set of organ-driven funk with the help of vibraphonist Tim Collins, saxophonist Scott Bourgeois and drummer Obed Calvaire. With the exception of Antonio Carlos Jobim's “Luiza" the disc is comprised of ...

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Jesse Levit
saxophone
Ikechi Onyenaka
saxophone, alto

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Real Life

Warner Music Group
2024

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Double Booked

Blue Note Records
2009

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Second Angle

Self Produced
2008

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