Benny Green plays solo piano at Settlement Music School on Saturday, September 19, 2026, presented by the Heart of Jazz Foundation and Imani Records. The show runs 6 to 9 p.m. at the Germantown campus, with New Philly Sound, the foundation’s collective of young local musicians, opening before Green takes the stage.

Benny Green’s Path From Teenage Prodigy to Jazz Messenger

Green started on piano at 7 and had his first paid gig by 12. Three years later he was on stage at the Monterey Jazz Festival with the MJF High School All-Stars, and by 16 he’d been discovered by vocalist Faye Carol, gigging regularly around the Bay Area alongside NEA Jazz Master Dr. Eddie Henderson.

That kind of early momentum, professional gigs before high school even ended, is rare enough on its own before factoring in where it eventually led.

At 17, Green joined Betty Carter’s band and spent four years touring internationally with her, playing on her Grammy-winning Verve album Look What I Got before moving on to two and a half years with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. He’d go on to work with the Freddie Hubbard Quintet and the Ray Brown Trio, and later played the duet on Diana Krall’s own Grammy-winning album, All For You.

Benny Green’s Recording Career and Return to Philadelphia

Benny Green has led his own trio since 1991, recording for Blue Note, Telarc, and Criss Cross Jazz before moving to Sunnyside Records in 2014, where he’s released five albums with a sixth due out this fall. That combination of sideman pedigree and decades of leading his own group makes his solo piano format at Settlement a genuinely rare booking.

The mentorship piece is what sets this show apart from a standard concert listing. The day after his Settlement performance, Green will lead a master class with New Philly Sound’s members, offering direct critique to the same young musicians who open for him the night before.

“This will be a tremendous opportunity for the kids to learn from a master jazz musician,” said Heart of Jazz founder Joe Monaghan. “We’re tremendously honored to have Mr. Green here.”

The pairing continues a pattern for the foundation, which has already brought master classes to Philadelphia and hosted fundraisers like Jazz for Good at Chris’ Jazz Café, all built around the same three-part mission: scholarships, community jazz awareness, and performance opportunities for musicians at every stage. Settlement Music School sits at 6128 Germantown Avenue, and tickets are available now through Eventbrite.

A packed résumé like Benny Green’s could easily headline a show and leave it at that. Instead, the same weekend built around hearing him play is built just as deliberately around watching him teach, which says as much about what Heart of Jazz is trying to build in Philadelphia as anything on the bill itself.

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Allan Lane

Philadelphia born and bred, Allan Lane is the Publisher and Editor in Chief of digital magazines. He launched his first publication, SportBikes Inc Magazine in 2010, followed by dosage MAGAZINE in 2019. Recently, Allan launched his third online publication, Club For Man. As a journalist, Allan covers fashion, lifestyle, culture, art, and motorcycles.

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