Bernard "Benny" Green (9 December 1927 – 22 June 1998) was a British jazz saxophonist who was also known for his radio shows and books.

Early life

His parents were David and Fanny Green. David was a tailor and saxophonist. They met while David was playing with a band in Leeds. They married in London in 1926 and initially lived with David's father, an immigrant

Russian-Jewish The history of the Jews in Russia and areas historically connected with it goes back at least 1,500 years. Jews in Russia have historically constituted a large religious and ethnic diaspora; the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest pop ...

tailor, at 1

Greenwell Street Greenwell Street, formerly Buckingham Street, is located in the Fitzrovia district of the City of Westminster in London. It was built in the late eighteenth century and runs between Bolsover Street in the east and Cleveland Street, London, Clev ...

, London. Benny Green was born in

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

because his mother wanted to be near her own family for the birth, but they soon returned to London, to a basement flat in Cleveland Street. Here he became a musician, writer and broadcaster. He was educated at Clipstone Street Junior Mixed School and

St Marylebone Grammar School St Marylebone Grammar School (SMGS) was a grammar school located in the London borough of the City of Westminster, from 1792 to 1981. History Philological School Founded as the Philological Society by Thomas Collingwood, under the patronage of ...

Career

As a saxophonist, he worked in the bands of

Ralph Sharon Ralph Simon Sharon (September 17, 1923 – March 31, 2015) was a British-American jazz pianist and arranger. He is best known for working with Tony Bennett as his pianist on numerous recordings and live performances. Biography Ralph Sharon was bo ...

(1952),

Ronnie Scott Ronnie may refer to: *Ronnie (name), a unisex pet name and given name * "Ronnie" (Four Seasons song), a song by Bob Gaudio and Bob Crewe *"Ronnie," a song from the Metallica album '' Load'' *Ronnie Brunswijkstadion, an association football stadium ...

(1952),

Stan Kenton Stanley Newcomb Kenton (December 15, 1911 – August 25, 1979) was an American popular music and jazz artist. As a pianist, composer, arranger and band leader, he led an innovative and influential jazz orchestra for almost four decades. Though K ...

(February 1956) and

Dizzy Reece Alphonso Son "Dizzy" Reece (born 5 January 1931) is a Jamaican-born hard bop jazz trumpeter. Reece is among a group of jazz musicians born in Jamaica which includes Bertie King, Joe Harriott, Roland Alphonso, Wilton Gaynair, Sonny Bradshaw, ...

(1957). In 1955 he began writing a weekly column for the

New Musical Express ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

. In 1958, he appeared in the UK singles chart as a member of

Lord Rockingham's XI Lord Rockingham's XI was a group of British session musicians, led by Harry Robinson (1932–1996), who had a No. 1 hit on the UK Singles Chart in 1958 with "Hoots Mon". The group was created to perform as the resident band on the pop TV pr ...

, the house band on

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

's rock 'n' roll show '' Oh Boy!'' The novelty jazz/rock release "

Hoots Mon "Hoots Mon" is a song written by Harry Robinson, and performed by Lord Rockingham's XI. It was a number-one hit single for three weeks in 1958 on the UK Singles Chart. It is based on the old Scottish folk song " A Hundred Pipers". It was also o ...

", complete with spoken interjections in a broad mock- Scots accent, reached number 1 for three weeks in November and December. Benny later joked that wearing dark glasses whilst playing (to counteract the strong studio lights) generated a fan letter addressed to "the blind sax-player". His

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 15 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the station broadcasts a wide range of content. ...

Sunday afternoon record show ran for many years until his death. He had a huge knowledge of music he liked, by classic "

Great American Songbook The Great American Songbook is the loosely defined canon of significant early-20th-century American jazz standards, popular songs, and show tunes. Definition According to the Great American Songbook Foundation: The "Great American Songbook" is ...

" composers like

Kern KERN (1180 AM broadcasting, AM) is a commercial radio, commercial radio station city of license, licensed to Wasco, California, Wasco-Greenacres, California, and serving the Bakersfield metropolitan area. The station is owned by American General ...

and

Cole Porter Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter. Many of his songs became standards noted for their witty, urbane lyrics, and many of his scores found success on Broadway and in film. Born to ...

and jazz, and would introduce most records with details about the artist(s). He also chaired a radio comedy panel game broadcast regularly on Radio 2 and the

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...

for 20 years; ''Jazz Score''. Many jazz artists appeared on this show, stopping the contest to tell their own anecdotes about their career and other jazz musicians. He first worked for the BBC in 1955 and worked regularly for it from then on. In the 1960s, he often appeared with, among others,

Alan Brien Alan Brien (12 March 1925 – 23 May 2008) was an English journalist best known for his novel ''Lenin''. This took the form of a fictional diary charting Vladimir Lenin's life from the death of his father to shortly before his own demise in 1924. ...

Dee Wells Alberta Constance Wells, also known as Alberta Chapman, Dee Wells, Alberta Constance Ayer, Lady Ayer (19 March 1925 – 24 June 2003), was an American journalist, novelist, and broadcaster. Life Alberta Constance Chapman was born in Providence ...

and Robert Pitman, on ''Three After Six'',

Associated Rediffusion Associated-Rediffusion, later Rediffusion London, was the United Kingdom, British ITV (TV network), ITV franchise holder for Greater London, London and parts of Home counties, the surrounding counties, on weekdays between 22 September 1955 an ...

's early evening television discussion programme on current affairs. His film ''Girls Wanted – Istanbul'', for Granada TV, was nominated for the1970 BAFTA awards. Green presented a short documentary report for Thames Television titled "London – Not Quite the Place it Was" first broadcast in September 1975.
''1970s London , Living in London , Life before television'' In the 1980s, he contributed occasionally to '' Stop The Week'', Robert Robinson's Saturday discussion programme on Radio 4. Green also wrote and/or narrated many radio documentaries about stage and film musical stars and Hollywood, his other main interest apart from jazz and sport. He also wrote for magazines, including as film critic for ''

Punch Punch commonly refers to: * Punch (combat), a strike made using the hand closed into a fist * Punch (drink), a wide assortment of drinks, non-alcoholic or alcoholic, generally containing fruit or fruit juice Punch may also refer to: Places * Pun ...

'' between 1972 and 1979, and regularly for newspapers; for 19 years he was jazz critic at ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

''. He was a big fan of writer

P. G. Wodehouse Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, ( ; 15 October 188114 February 1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeeve ...

, about whom he wrote a

literary biography When studying literature, biography and its relationship to literature is often a subject of literary criticism, and is treated in several different forms. Two scholarly approaches use biography or biographical approaches to the past as a tool for i ...

(1981). Away from jazz he is notable for publishing the Wisden Anthologies, a summary of the famous cricketing annual, between 1979 and 1983. The four volumes covered the highlights from ''

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...

'' from its inception in 1864 until 1982 and stand as a major milestone in cricketing literature. Benny Green married Antoinette Kanal in 1962, and had three sons and one daughter. One son, Dominic Green, is a guitarist who has published a book about his father; ''Benny Green Words and Music'' (2003). Another,

Leo Green Leo Green (born 30 August 1972) is a British musician and broadcaster. Saxophonist and orchestra leader Green played with Van Morrison's band. Green plays saxophone and sings in his own band. In 2010 guitarist Jeff Beck said, "Leo Green has ...

, has followed in his father's footsteps as a highly regarded saxophonist and, more recently, Radio 2 broadcaster. Green died at the age of 70 of cancer in the

Royal Marsden Hospital The Royal Marsden Hospital (RM) is a specialist cancer treatment hospital in London based in Kensington and Chelsea, next to the Royal Brompton Hospital, in Fulham Road with a second site in Belmont, close to Sutton Hospital, High Down and D ...

in Brompton, London.

Bibliography

Works by Benny Green include: *''The Reluctant Art: The Growth of Jazz'' (1963) *''Blame It on My Youth'' (1967) *''Jazz Decade: London'' (1969) *''Fifty-Eight Minutes to London'' (1969) *''Girls Wanted – Istanbul'' (1969) *''Drums in My Ears'' (1973) *''Swingtime in Tottenham'' (1976) *''I've Lost My Little Willie!: A Celebration of Comic Postcards'' (1976) *''The Cricket Addict's Archive'' (1977) (edited) *'' Shaw's Champions: The Noble Art from Cashel Byron to

Gene Tunney James Joseph Tunney (May 25, 1897 – November 7, 1978) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1915 to 1928. He held the world heavyweight title from 1926 to 1928, and the American light heavyweight title twice between 1922 and 1923 ...

'' (1978) *''Wisden Anthology 1864–1900'' (1979) (edited) *''

Fred Astaire Fred Astaire (born Frederick Austerlitz; May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987) was an American dancer, choreographer, actor, and singer. He is often called the greatest dancer in Hollywood film history. Astaire's career in stage, film, and tele ...

'' (1980) *''Wisden Anthology 1900–1940'' (1980) (edited) *''

: A Literary Biography'' (1981) *''Wisden Anthology 1940–1963'' (1982) (edited) *''Streets of London'' (1983) *''Wisden Anthology 1963–1982'' (1983) (edited) *''London: A City of Many Dreams'' (1984) *''Benny Green's Cricket Archive'' (1985) *''The Last Empires: Documentary Anthology of Writing About the Music Hall'' (1986) *''The Wisden Book of Obituaries: Obituaries from Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'' (1986) (edited) *''The Lord's Companion'' (1987) (edited) *''A Hymn to Him: The Lyrics of

Alan Jay Lerner Alan Jay Lerner (August 31, 1918 – June 14, 1986) was an American lyricist and librettist. In collaboration with Frederick Loewe, and later Burton Lane, he created some of the world's most popular and enduring works of musical theatre bot ...

'' (1987) *''A History of Cricket'' (1988) *''Let's Face the Music: The Golden Age of Popular Song'' (1990) *''The Reluctant Art'' (1991) *''Britain at War'' (1996) *''Such Sweet Thunder: Benny Green on Jazz'' (2002)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Green, Benny 1927 births 1998 deaths English people of Russian-Jewish descent English radio DJs English jazz saxophonists British male saxophonists BBC Radio 2 presenters People educated at St Marylebone Grammar School 20th-century English musicians 20th-century saxophonists Cricket historians and writers Jazz writers Musicians from Leeds Musicians from London 20th-century British male musicians British male jazz musicians Deaths from cancer Lord Rockingham's XI members