Sep 22, 2026 12:26 PM
Hyde Park Jazz Fest on Chicago’s South Side to Present 20th Edition
The Hyde Park Jazz Festival will take place for the 20th time on the final weekend of September 2026. Beginning half…
Singer and trumpeter Benny Benack III is one of the few male vocalists of his generation who’s mining the elements of traditional jazz.
(Photo: Rayon Richards)Almost everything about Benny Benack III, the 29-year-old trumpeter and vocalist, suggests that he arrived from a different era. There’s his name, of course, along with his smooth, polished voice, which brings to mind a number of old-school singers, including Mel Tormé, an uncommon reference point among today’s cohort of young jazz musicians.
As the emcee for Postmodern Jukebox, a music collective that recasts top-40 hits through a swing prism, Benack also channels a long-gone period when jazz functioned as dance music. And on top of all that, he sometimes peppers his performances with vocalese.
But even if he seems like something of a throwback, his music is uniquely modern. Benack’s second leader date, A Lot Of Livin’ To Do, stands out as a distinct statement in the jazz world. For one, there aren’t many musicians at the moment who both play a horn and sing. But what’s more, Benack is one of the few male vocalists younger than 30 who’s mining the elements of traditional jazz.
“There’s really not that many of us,” Benack, who’s based in Harlem, observed during a recent telephone interview.
Benack is no slouch on the trumpet, either—his bright tone recalling Clifford Brown—and on his new album, he sings and plays in about equal measure.
“With this new record, Benny is carving his own way and sound, and influencing a whole new generation of emerging jazz singers,” said drummer/producer Ulysses Owens Jr., who’s contributed to both of the bandleader’s albums
But when he settled in New York, Benack decided not to market himself as a singer; he wanted his peers to take him seriously as a trumpeter. It wasn’t until he began touring with Owens that Benack started singing again. The drummer had heard an audition tape, and encouraged him to sing live.
Benack doesn’t make a distinction between his singing voice and his trumpet, though. “To me, it’s really kind of one voice,” he said. Perhaps that’s why vocalese appeals to him. Benack doesn’t borrow from past solos, working out the lyrics, melody and phrasing on his own. And one of the highlights on A Lot Of Livin’ is the bandleader and Veronica Swift engaging in some adventurous vocalese and scatting on the standard “Social Call.”
As Benack plots his next move, he has his eye on recording an album of duets, à la Tony Bennett, though he imagines that such a project is at least a few years off. “I need to still get my music out there and hit the pavement with a few records before I start wistfully looking back and making duet albums.”
Benack knows his strengths, and wistfully looking back, it seems, is what he was made to do. DB
A solo concert by saxophonist Joshua Redman will close the first night of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival on Sept. 26.
Sep 22, 2026 12:26 PM
The Hyde Park Jazz Festival will take place for the 20th time on the final weekend of September 2026. Beginning half…
“It was just that suddenly … I could hear it,” Ravi Coltrane said of an epiphany he experienced during his late teens regarding his father’s music. “And it was almost like a calling, like something saying, ‘Hey, man, come on. It’s time to get serious.’ And the first time you really tune in and dial in and focus like that, it can be very life-changing.”
Sep 22, 2026 1:39 PM
Editor’s Note: Tomorrow, Sept. 23, is the 100th anniversary of John Coltrane’s birth. In honor of the tenor and…
Camille Thurman took to the stage alongside bassist Kenny Davis and drummer Tommy Campbell for a rendition of Johnny Mercer’s “I’m An Old Cowhand” that recalled Rollins’ epochal 1957 trio outing Way Out West.
Oct 6, 2026 1:33 PM
As emcee Mark Ruffin noted at the commencement of an epic tribute to saxophonist Sonny Rollins at the Cathedral of Saint…
Kurt Elling, Katherine Russell and Emmet Cohen (host on the 2027 Jazz Cruise) share a laugh at sea.
Sep 8, 2026 11:52 AM
It began in 2001. A travel agent named Anita E. Berry had been booking clients on “partial” jazz cruises that took…
Sep 17, 2026 11:00 AM
The 2027 DownBeat College Guide is an invaluable resource for music students, especially jazz students, to find a school…
