The Benny Green, Martin Wind, Matt Wilson Trio feat. Chris Potter & Marcus Strickland live at JazzBaltica 2010 -UPDATE!

Benny Green, p
Martin Wind, b
Matt Wilson, dr
Marcus Strickland, sax
Chris Potter, sax

recorded live at Konzertscheune Salzau, July 4, 2010

1. Early Morning Blues (Martin Wind)
2. The Last Waltz (Martin Wind)
3. Moment's Notice (John Coltrane)
4. We'll be Together Again (Carl Fisher)
5. Bubbles
6. The Soccerball (Martin Wind)
7. Bessie´s Blues (John Coltrane)

Born in New York in 1963, Benny Green grew up in Berkeley, California, and began classical piano studies at the age of seven. Influenced by his father, a tenor saxophonist, his attention soon turned into Jazz: "I began trying to improvise on the piano, imitating the records I'd been hearing from my father's collection, which included a lot of Monk and Bird… it was a gradual process of teaching myself". Benny played in school bands before hooking up with Jazz singer Fay Carroll: "That was good training for me in terms of accompaniment and learning about the blues, and she also gave me a chance to play trio, opening for her every night". As a teenager he worked with Eddie Henderson, and got some big band experience with a 12-piece group led by Chuck Israels. After his graduation, Benny freelanced around the bay area for a year, and then moved to New York in the spring of 1982. Back in the Big Apple,  he met veteran pianist Walter Bishop Jr.: "I began studying with him and he helped point me in the direction of developing my own sound, and he also encouraged me to check out and study the whole scope of Jazz piano history, so I could get a sense of how I was to fit in".

After a short stint with Bobby Watson, Green worked with Betty Carter between 1983 and 1987, the year he joined Art Blakey's band. He remained a Jazz Messenger through late 1989, at which point he began working with Freddie Hubbard's quintet.

In 1993 Oscar Peterson chose Benny as the first recipient of the City of Toronto's Glen Gould International Protégé Prize in Music. That year, Green replaced Gene Harris in Ray Brown's Trio, working with the veteran bass player until 1997. From 1997 on, Benny resumed his freelance career, led his own trios, and concentrated on his solo piano performances. His latest release is the 2004 duo album "Bluebird" featuring guitarist Russell Malone.

Marcus Strickland Trio live at JazzBaltica 2010

Marcus Strickland - Tenor and Soprano Saxophone
Ben Williams - Bass
E.J. Strickland - Drums
recorded live at Jazzbaltica Salzau, July 3, 2010

1. Scatterheart/Set Free (Björk/ Marcus Strickland)
2. Portrait of Tracy (Jaco Pastorius)
3. She's Alive (Outcast)
4. Prime (Marcus Strickland)
5. Surreal (Marcus Strickland)

Here is a 4 star review of Idiosyncrasies, the latest album by the Marcus Strickland Trio:

"There have been countless saxophone trio recordings since Sonny Rollins essentially pioneered the form on Way Out West. But upon slipping Marcus Strickland's latest take into the deck, the listener can't help but leapfrog over half a century's worth of refinements back to the 1957 original.

The two sessions share not only instrumentation but a similar sense of purpose: the lack of a chordal instrument means that the saxophonist is more firmly a strange freedom in this seeming limitation. Like Newk before him, Strickland has assembled a set of tunes with strong, direct melodis that inspire boundless reveries.

And though he doesn't don spurs and a 10-gallon hat to explore the terrain of country music, Strickland wanders just as far afield to find his material. The songs by Stevie Wonder and Outkast may not be particularly surprising given Strickland's recent funk-leaning experiments, but he also culls pieces by Malian singer Oumou Sangare, Argentinean-Swedish singer-songwriter José González and a Björk song from her role in Lars von Trier's film Dancer In The Dark.

Strickland's versions are in a sense more pop-oriented than the originals - in the best sense, of making a direct emotional connection. On Björk's "Scatterheart," in particular, he strips away the dramatics and the Icelandic singer's penchant for labyrinthine melodic filigrees and uncovers the soulful desperation buried within.

Strikingly, the leader's own originals are just as memorable, and tailor-made for his tightly attuned trio. That communication is so empathic between Strickland and his drummer, identical twin E.J., is a hardly surprising, but bassist Ben Williams is consitently an equal partner without the benefit of genetics. Throughout the album, the trio maintains a sound both sparse and rich, with a relaxed ease that allows for experimentation but without airiness ever feeling empty.

The threesome's effortless teamwork is embodied on "Rebirth," the leader's plangent ballad. Marcus' tenor is both keening and steely, E.J.'s brushwork a hushed whisper, while Williams provides am insistent but unintrusive throb. The combined effect is one of tenderness charged with an undercurrent of urgent passion, the blood pulsing in one's temple at a moment of quiet intimacy." - by Shaun Brady, DownbeatMagazine.