Casey Benjamin, who introduced colourful, expansive saxophone thrives to the Grammy-winning Robert Glasper Experiment and added wealthy layers of texture to recordings by Solange, A Tribe Known as Quest and lots of others, died March 30 in Maryland. He was 45 years outdated.
The trigger was pulmonary thromboembolism, stated his brother, Kevin Benjamin. He didn’t say the place in Maryland Mr. Benjamin died.
Identified for his willingness to experiment, his exuberant stage persona and his signature swirl of hair, usually streaked with teal or purple, Benjamin was a founding member of the combo of pianist Robert Glasper, who, critic Nate Chinen wrote in The New York Instances in 2012, “makes a speciality of deep, enveloping groovesnourished as a lot by hip-hop and R&B as by any recognized species of jazz.”
“Black Radio,” the band’s fourth album on the venerable Blue Observe label, featured visitor appearances from neo-soul singer Erykah Badu, rappers Lupe Fiasco and Yasiin Bey (ex-Mos Def) and others. Received the 2012 Grammy Award for greatest R&B album and rose to #15 on the Billboard album chart. Mr. Benjamin shared another Grammy with the band in 2015, when “Jesus Kids,” a Stevie Marvel cowl, received greatest conventional R&B efficiency.
Whether or not collaborating with Glasper or critically acclaimed vibraphonist Stefon Harris within the band Blackout, Benjamin has showcased his distinctive voice on his main instrument, the alto saxophone. In an obituary, jazz bible DownBeat wrote that he “possessed a fluid and round sound on the alto saxophone and a singular sense of phrasing.”
However he by no means allowed himself to be restricted by style, type and even instrument; he created a rainbow of sounds utilizing not solely picks and wind devices, but in addition a vocal synthesizer manipulated with a keytar (a keyboard instrument worn with a neck strap), together with different synthesizers and results pedals.
“Every thing is principally about textures,” he stated in a video interview in 2012. “My love for synthesizers, I attempt to translate that into all the things I do. Even with a wind instrument, I attempt to imitate a synthesizeror some form of analog keyboard or synthesizer.”
As Derrick Hodge, the bassist and composer who labored with Benjamin in Experiment and Blackout, stated in an interview: “Earlier than Casey performed a observe, you noticed him, and one thing in his power exuded freedom — ‘Hey, let’s get into one thing. that simply speaks to us, that feels actual.’”
Mr. Benjamin’s many collaborations have included appearances on “We take it from here… Thank you for your service,” A Tribe Known as Quest’s 2016 comeback album and Solange’s chart-topping album “A seat at the table” that very same 12 months.
Together with Mr. Glasper, Mr. Hodge and lots of others, Mr. “Love will find a way” (2019), the primary solo album in almost 20 years from Earth, Wind & Hearth frontman Philip Bailey.
Earlier that decade, he toured with Patrick Stump, lead singer of the band Fall Out Boy, to assist his 2011 solo album, “Soul Punk.” Throughout a current Fall Out Boy live performance in Milwaukee, Mr. Stump paused to pay tribute. moving tribute to Mr. Benjamin:
“I don’t say this evenly. He was most likely essentially the most proficient musician I’ve ever met.”
Even when he performed to assist different artists, Benjamin noticed himself much less as an accompanist than as a companion on a musical journey.
“Ninety-nine % of my profession I used to be employed to be myself,” he stated in an interview with the web site in 2018. HighBreed Music. “’I would like Casey Benjamin; simply let him do what he does. As a result of I created this monitor for myself, I created this type of factor that solely I can do.”
Casey Bryon Benjamin was born on October 10, 1978, in Brooklyn, the youngest of three youngsters of Light Benjamin, a tv video producer from Grenada, and Julieta (McAlmon) Benjamin, an assistant nurse from Panama.
Casey already confirmed an curiosity in jazz on the age of 4 and at 8 he was studying to play the piano, with the saxophone quickly after. Rising up in South Jamaica, Queens, he was additionally surrounded by the sounds of the Caribbean in his neighborhood. “With Caribbean and Latin tradition, the partisan aspect it’s all the time deeply rooted within the music,” he informed HighBreedMusic.
After graduating from the Fiorello H. LaGuardia Excessive College of Music and Artwork and Performing Arts in Manhattan in 1996, he studied music on the New College for Social Analysis in Greenwich Village, the place he met Mr. Outline his profession.
Lately, he has toured along with his personal band, with a solo album set to be launched later this 12 months.
Along with his dad and mom and brother, Mr. Benjamin is survived by his sisters, Nicole Benjamin and Cristina King, and his associate, Whitley Davis.
Addressing the viewers at Fall Out Boy’s current live performance, Stump recalled his brooding onstage persona within the band’s early years and stated Benjamin helped change that. “His authority for pleasure was pervasive,” he stated. “And being in his presence was understanding that music needs to be pleasure. We must always share this collectively.
Put extra merely, Mr. Stump stated, “He taught me learn how to smile on stage.”
