Emmy-nominated trumpet player, singer and bandleader Benny Benack III grew up around music. His grandfather was also a trumpet player, best known for the Pittsburgh Pirates’ 1960 theme song “Beat ‘Em Bucs” and appearances on “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” Benack’s father was a saxophone player and clarinetist.
New York-based Benack will return to Tucson for the Tucson Jazz Festival. On Sunday, Jan. 14, he will host and play in a late-night jam session with his quartet at the Century Room in Hotel Congress. On Monday, Jan. 15, he and his quartet will join the Century Room Jazz Orchestra, a 17-piece ensemble, at the Century Room.
Benack performed during the Tucson Jazz Festival last year and is a Century Room veteran. He went to school with drummer and Century Room director Arthur Vint at the Manhattan School of Music in New York.
Benack has performed internationally as the emcee/host for Postmodern Jukebox. He went virtual, gaining millions of views for his work with the Grammy Award-winning 8-Bit Big Band, a group known for doing video game music.
He has appeared alongside Josh Groban, Ben Folds, fashion icon and singer Isaac Mizrahi and Ann Hampton Callaway. He also sometimes performs with the house band on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
Benack released his most recent album “Third Time’s the Charm” in June. For this collection, he collaborated with several notable jazz musicians, including guitarist Peter Bernstein, saxophone player Chad Lefkowitz-Brown, pianist Emmet Cohen and trumpet player and vocalist Bria Skonberg.
Cohen will also be at the festival, performing in the same show as drummer Lewis Nash and the Soul Jazz All Stars on Sunday, Jan. 14.
Benack said that for the album, he wanted to create a jazz jam feel.
“I had a lot of special guests on the album. That was by design. I wanted it to feel like you are in New York City in a club in Greenwich Village, and all of these new people start walking through the door and hopping up and playing,” Benack said.
The album features original music and covers. Benack said audiences have been responding to the rendition of the Duke Ellington song “In a Mellow Tone,” the tune “Gary, Indiana” from “The Music Man” and the original song “Thank You for the Heartbreak.”
Sometimes, he will go out as a trio with a bass player, drummer and himself on piano.
Benack started on the piano and sang in church at a young age before he turned to the trumpet at around 8 years old in second grade.
Although he liked piano, he found that the trumpet really spoke to him.
“The trumpet really stuck with me. Of course, now that I’m older, I wish that I had been paying attention more in my piano lessons when I was little, but it worked out,” Benack said.
Benack said while his parents encouraged him to take an interest in music, they didn’t pressure him.
“They were always very supportive, but if I wanted to play on the baseball team instead of doing the after-school music program, they would let me play baseball. If I wanted to run around with my friends after school and play tag instead of some after-school orchestra, they let me,” Benack said.
“I fell in love with the music on my own terms, which benefited me as I became an adult. I think a lot of times when you have some people who start so young in music and start so young as performers, by the time they get to be 18, 19, 20 years old, they are burnt out.
“For me, my parents let me develop that love and addiction to practicing and wanting to become better at my craft on my own. So, as I became an adult, I never felt like I was burnt out or needed a break.”
The venues in which Benack has performed is a testament to his versatility.
“It’s a very different role to lead a band yourself, putting the music together and talking to the audience, versus playing on Stephen Colbert’s show,” he said.
“That’s a very different job. You’re there, and they say in your earpiece, ‘We’re going to commercial in 10 seconds. We need something by Stevie Wonder. One, two, three, go.’ You might be on camera for three seconds, but you’re there to keep the energy up in the studio. You’re more a part of a team.”
Benack said that, within his music, he has always tried to explore different genres and sounds.
“People that listen to my album will notice there’s a lot of different styles,” he said.
“There’s a song that is 1920s rent party piano throwback. But then another song that is more contemporary R&B/hip-hop/funk/jazz… I love these different styles. I really do try to be a chameleon of sorts. This song we’re trying to do a New Orleans Mardi Gras/ Louis Armstrong thing, and I’m going to transform into that. Oh, and then on this song, we’re doing a Frank Sinatra/ Las Vegas Rat Pack song. I’m going to transform into that. I think even within that, there’s a consistent thread as an artist. I’m the consistent narrator.”
Benack said that his mentors always emphasized being adaptable and knowing different styles.
“You want to be able to play classical music for a church service on Sunday and play in a salsa/Afro-Cuban band on Monday. And then on Tuesday, you have to be able to play with a Broadway singer and play songs by Gershwin. Then on Wednesday, you might have to play all of Thelonious Monk’s and Miles Davis’ music. The next night, you might be playing in a horn section behind Bruno Mars or Taylor Swift. It’s just being musically well-versed in these different styles so that as a freelance artist, there’s no gig that you can’t be called for,” Benack said.
He said that gigging at a jazz festival is a completely different experience as he has the chance to play and interact with other musicians.
“The fun part of what I got to do last year and what my show will be on that Sunday at the Century Room, being a jam session, you never know who’s going to show up,” he said.
“When we did that last year, there was the big concert with Kurt Elling and his band in the theater down the street. Then, everyone finished that concert, and people had adrenaline and were still hanging out. They ended up coming by the Century Room. You have a bunch of other artists and people sitting in and playing together. You really get this sense of community and musical family.”
Benack has found that jazz musicians around the world have a similar repertoire and can play together without rehearsal.
“If I’m at a jam session in Tokyo, Buenos Aires or anywhere else in the world, and we don’t speak a lick of the same language as each other, everybody seems to know these same 100 or 250 or so songs,” he said.
“I could be in the middle of Japan, and if somebody starts playing ‘Moanin’’ by Art Blakey, I know to join in because I know that song.”
Benack described jam sessions as being like a church service, communion, social gathering and water cooler experience all in one.
Benack found that performing from a young age growing up in Pittsburgh helped to prepare him for New York.
“Pittsburgh has this rich jazz scene and community. I had been performing with my dad since I was a teenager. I already had professional experience,” Benack said.
He fondly remembers doing jazz sessions growing up.
“I was the little kid waiting in the back of the room with my trumpet in my case, hoping these guys would invite me to play with them,” Benack explained.
“That was really good experience playing with older musicians, playing with professionals, because that way when I got to New York City, it wasn’t like I was a fish out of water.”
Century Room Late Night Jam w/ Benny Benack III Quartet
WHEN: 11 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 14
WHERE: DThe Century Room at Hotel Congress, 311 E. Congress Street, Tucson
COST: $10
INFO: www.tucsonjazzfestival.org
Century Room Jazz Orchestra Feat. Benny Benack III Quartet
WHEN: 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Monday, Jan. 15
WHERE: The Century Room at Hotel Congress, 311 E. Congress Street, Tucson
COST: $25 general admission
INFO: www.tucsonjazzfestival.org
This article appears in Jan 4-11, 2024.