Season 7 Episode 11 Benny Green PT 1

I grew up here, where I'm speaking to you from, in my family home in Berkeley, California, so the Bay Area.

I grew up here in the 70s.

I'm very blessed, of course, beginning with my parents and my father, who was a musician, played the tenor saxophone, just introducing me to this wonderful music.

this music this this black american art form actually connects people it connects cultures it connects generations it's it's so powerful and i'm very grateful to get to be a part of it

Well, and you were truly accepted along the path of your musical journey.

I mean, you've played with everyone that you can think of that is on the who's who list of jazz, starting out at gigs and getting to know people like Eddie Henderson.

And then later on, you know, you associated and collaborated with Betty Carter.

You worked with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Freddie Hubbard, Ray Brown, Christian McBride, and the list goes on and on.

And then more importantly, a protege of Oscar Peterson.

That didn't happen just because they liked you or they thought you were a swell guy.

No. It's because you were accepted and you established yourself as one of them.

Thank you for saying that.

One of the magical things that happened for me as a child here in Berkeley, following my father introduced me to the music and playing me records at home, was that when I entered Longfellow Elementary School at nine years old in the fourth grade, There was a man named Phil Hardiman who would visit each of the Berkeley public schools beginning at the fourth grade level, going through high school, and teach us about jazz.

And he acquainted us beginning as children with playing a 12-bar blues and choosing our own notes to construct so-called improvised solo.

And there was a true spirit of inclusion that I came up around and This truly laid the groundwork for these wonderful future opportunities that you've mentioned that I was blessed to take part in because I was sort of groomed to be a part of the music and to feel included and given a certain sense of confidence as a child that was part of Mr. Hardiman's agenda with us to help us feel like we had the wherewithal to play a solo of our own.

And if I'm not getting too technical, the way that he went about this was anyone who was somewhat proficient at playing their instrument, just somewhat at nine years old, was allowed to be in the Longfellow Elementary School jazz band.

And he gave us a sheet of paper that had a quarter note bass line for B flat blues written out like, Oh Oh Something like that.

And then he wrote out a scale, which was a blues scale.

And he labeled it solo notes.

And he told us that we could choose any notes from within that scale, any combination of intervals, and any rhythm that we wanted.

And that if we chose one of those notes in that scale, it wouldn't sound dissonant in the context of that blues.

and he also encouraged we didn't have to keep our choices strictly to the notes that he prescribed but if we were unsure of ourselves it was sort of like a musical set of training wheels alan so that uh we wouldn't sound stupid if we played any one of those notes on the b flat blues and so you can just imagine perhaps you put yourself in my shoes as a little child you know if you're able to read that bass line and read those notes and play them on your instrument, it made us feel like, hey, I can play, I can say something.

And that really laid the foundation for everything that came since for me.