2x GRAMMY-Award winner Casey Benjamin

Seating times: 7:00pm, 8:30pm, & 10:15pm. Doors open 30 minutes early.

TICKET AVAILABILITY:  IF SELECTED TICKETS ARE “SOLD OUT”, PLEASE CHECK AVAILABILITY FOR ANOTHER TIME AND ANOTHER SEATING TYPE

Black Cat JAZZ@theEDGE Summer Festival!! Presents: 2x GRAMMY-Award winner Casey Benjamin

Randy Runyon – guitar
Carlos Henderson – bass
Basil Wajdowicz – keyboards
Eric Brown – drums
Kofi Hunter – percussion

Two time GRAMMY® award-winning Casey Benjamin is the first original  member of the Robert Glasper Experiment. Through his melodic ingenuity on the  vocoder, textual mastery on the keytar and spiky virtuosity on the alto, soprano and  tenor saxophone, Benjamin gives the Experiment on its most defining sounds that has  enable it to gain international acclaim in the jazz, R&B and hip-hop scenes on such  trailblazing as Black Radio (Blue Note Records, 2012), Black Radio 2 (Blue Note  Records, 2013) and ArtScience (Blue Note Records, 2016).  

In addition to the Experiment, Benjamin toured with singer Patrick Stump (Fall  Out Boy) and has work with a string of other stellar musicians that include jazz greats –  singer Betty Carter, vibraphonists Roy Ayers and Stefon Harris (Blackout), drummer  Mike Clark (Headhunters) trumpeter Roy Hargrove, bassist Victor Bailey, drummer  Terri Lyne Carrington and bassist Buster Williams; hip-hop artists – Nas, Kendrick  Lamar, Mos Def (Yasiin Bey), Q-Tip, A Tribe Called Quest, Common, Lupe Fiasco, Kanye  West, Busta’ Rhymes, Pusha T, Diddy, Heavy D, Consequence, DJ Logic and Wyclef  Jean; R&B/Pop singers – Anderson Paak, Solange, Bilal, Mary J. Blige, John Legend,  Lady Gaga, Summer Walker and Beyoncé; and Black Rock Coalition gurus – Vernon  Reid and Melvin Gibbs. With singer and songwriter Nicky Guiland, Benjamin co-leads  the funk-forward combo, HEAVy, which has released three discs –HEAVy (Kindred  Spirits, 2000), Jazz Money$$ (BBE, 2007) and First Sessions (Kindred Spirits, 2008).  

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 8-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. As a young kid  growing up 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, Donald Blackman, 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. Although Benjamin remains a charter member of the  Robert Glasper Experiment, he’s working on his forthcoming solo project in which he  released his first single/video, “Dig”.