Accepting the onset of middle age can be trying for anyone, but navigating a midlife transition can be especially difficult for a precociously gifted artist.
For Benny Green, the brilliant pianist who emerged in the early 1980s as one of Berkeley High School's most promising players and went on to gain fame in New York through long stints with drummer Art Blakey and bassist Ray Brown, moving from the youth vanguard to middle-career eminence has left him widely respected but often strangely overlooked.
Green performs Tuesday as part of KSDS Jazz 88.3's “Jazz Live” concert series at San Diego City College's Saville Theatre as part of a trio featuring San Diego bassist Paul Keller, who has toured widely with Diana Krall, and Los Angeles drummer Kevin Kanner, a regular collaborator with trumpeter Gilbert Castellanos. While Green is well-acquainted with both players, it's the first time he's performed with them.
DATEBOOK
KSDS Jazz 88.3's “Jazz Live” featuring Benny Green, Paul Keller and Kevin Kanner
8 p.m. Tuesday;
Saville Theatre, San Diego City College, 1313 Park Blvd., downtown;
$10; (619) 388-3037 or www.jazz88online.
org/sch_jazzlive.php
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“I know the audience is receptive to spontaneity,” said Green, 43. “People can feel if musicians are phoning it in or taking chances together, which is inevitably going to be the case with us. We're going to challenge each other in the spirit of this music.”
It's an enduring paradox of the jazz scene that such a high premium is put on youth. Like Green, most musicians feel that the experience they've gleaned makes their music far deeper at 40 than at 25. But 40 is right about the age that players often start falling into a career funk, with fading interest from labels and journalists.
“Despite the fact Benny has made so many records and was a major label recording artist, I feel like these days he's underappreciated,” said Joshua Redman, a fellow Berkeley High graduate. “I don't hear his name mentioned as often when people are talking about great jazz pianists on the scene today, and he can play circles around most pianists.
“The range of his vocabulary and the depth of his knowledge are just astounding, and he keeps getting better.”
In recent years, Green has forged a partnership with guitarist Russell Malone, recording two duo albums for Telarc. For Green, who often talks about being spoiled by his long associations with the definitively swinging Brown and Blakey, Malone provides the same kind of inspiration. The exhilarating push and pull of their musical partnership can be heard on the 2004 album “Bluebird” (Telarc).
The freedom to pursue his muse isn't something that Green takes for granted. Associated with Blue Note throughout the 1990s, the pianist left the label several years ago thinking he was being pushed in musical directions that weren't his own.
He established a relationship with Telarc through the many albums he recorded as part of Brown's trio, and he seems to have found a comfortably creative home there. While he knows he has a way to go before he attains the venerable status of an old master, Green is starting to adjust to life as a well-traveled veteran.
“I feel good about getting older now,” Green said. “Turning 30 was sort of rough, because I felt like I was bidding ado to my youth. Now, I really welcome the added perspective. I remember playing with some younger musicians, and there was an instant when I noticed being a little short on patience.
“Then I remembered people like Ray and Art, and I asked myself, 'What do you think they were doing with you, Benny?' They never made me feel like they were doing me a favor. They made me feel that I belonged there.”
Andrew Gilbert is a Bay Area writer.
