EGN NEWS DESK
Casey Benjamin, who introduced colorfully expansive saxophone prospers to the Grammy-winning Robert Glasper Experiment and added wealthy layers of texture to recordings by Solange, A Tribe Called Quest and lots of others, died on March 30 in Maryland. He was 45.
The trigger was pulmonary thromboembolism, his brother, Kevin Benjamin, stated. He didn’t say the place in Maryland Mr. Benjamin died.
Known for his willingness to experiment, his exuberant stage persona and his trademark swirl of locs, usually streaked with teal or pink, Mr. Benjamin was a founding member of the pianist Robert Glasper’s combo, which, the critic Nate Chinen wrote in The New York Times in 2012, “focuses on deep, immersive grooves, nourished as a lot by hip-hop and R&B as any recognized species of jazz.”
“Black Radio,” the band’s fourth album on the venerable Blue Note label, featured visitor appearances by the neo-soul singer Erykah Badu, the rappers Lupe Fiasco and Yasiin Bey (previously Mos Def) and others. It received the 2012 Grammy Award for greatest R&B album and rose to No. 15 on the Billboard album chart. Mr. Benjamin shared one other Grammy with the band in 2015 when “Jesus Children,” a Stevie Wonder cowl, received for greatest conventional R&B efficiency.
Whether collaborating with Mr. Glasper or the critically acclaimed vibraphonist Stefon Harris within the band Blackout, Mr. Benjamin confirmed off his distinctive voice on his main instrument, alto saxophone. In an obituary, the jazz bible DownBeat wrote that he “possessed a fluid, spherical sound on the alto saxophone and a novel sense of phrasing.”
But he by no means let himself be restricted by style, type and even instrument; he created a rainbow of sounds utilizing not solely reeds and woodwinds but additionally a vocal synthesizer manipulated with a keytar (a keyboard instrument worn with a strap across the neck), together with different synthesizers and results pedals.
“Everything is principally about textures,” he stated in a 2012 video interview. “My love for synths, I attempt to translate it into the whole lot I’m doing. Even with a woodwind instrument, I attempt to emulate a Moog, or some form of keyboard or analog synthesizer.”
As Derrick Hodge, the bassist and composer who labored with Mr. Benjamin in each the Experiment and Blackout, put it in an interview, “Before Casey would ever play a observe, you’d see him, and one thing about his vitality simply exuded freedom — ‘Hey, let’s get into one thing that simply speaks to us, that feels actual.’”
Mr. Benjamin’s many collaborations included appearances on “We Got It From Here … Thank You 4 Your Service,” the 2016 comeback album by A Tribe Called Quest, and on Solange’s chart-topping album “A Seat on the Table” that very same 12 months.
Along with Mr. Glasper, Mr. Hodge and lots of others, Mr. Benjamin performed on “Love Will Find a Way” (2019), the primary solo album in practically 20 years by the Earth, Wind & Fire vocalist Philip Bailey.
Earlier that decade he had toured with Patrick Stump, the lead singer of the band Fall Out Boy, in help of his 2011 solo album, “Soul Punk.” During a current Fall Out Boy live performance in Milwaukee, Mr. Stump paused to pay an emotional tribute to Mr. Benjamin:
“I don’t say this calmly. He was in all probability essentially the most gifted musician I’ve ever met wherever.”
Even when taking part in in help of different artists, Mr. Benjamin seen himself much less as a sideman than as a fellow musical voyager.
“Ninety-nine p.c of my profession I’ve been employed to be myself,” he stated in a 2018 interview with the web site HighBreedMusic. “‘I need Casey Benjamin; simply let him do what he does.’ Because I’ve created this lane for myself, I created this form of factor that solely I can do.”
Casey Bryon Benjamin was born on Oct. 10, 1978, in Brooklyn, the youngest of three kids of Gentle Benjamin, a tv video producer from Grenada, and Julieta (McAlmon) Benjamin, a nurse assistant from Panama.
Casey was already displaying an curiosity in jazz by the point he was 4, and by 8 he was studying to play piano, with saxophone quickly to observe. Growing up in South Jamaica, Queens, he was additionally surrounded by the sounds of the Caribbean that had been percolating in his neighborhood. “With Caribbean and Latin tradition, the party facet is at all times deeply ingrained within the music,” he informed HighBreedMusic.
After graduating from the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in Manhattan in 1996, he studied music on the New School for Social Research in Greenwich Village, the place he met Mr. Glasper, setting in movement collaborations that might assist outline his profession.
In current years, he toured along with his personal band, with a solo album scheduled to be launched later this 12 months.
In addition to his dad and mom and his brother, Mr. Benjamin is survived by his sisters, Nicole Benjamin and Cristina King, and his companion, Whitley Davis.
Addressing the viewers on the current Fall Out Boy live performance, Mr. Stump recalled his taciturn stage persona within the band’s early years, and stated that Mr. Benjamin had helped change that. “His authority for pleasure was pervasive,” he stated. “And to be in his presence was to know that music is meant to be pleasure. We’re presupposed to share this collectively.”
Putting it extra merely, Mr. Stump stated, “He taught me to smile onstage.”
