In the early '50s, California seemed to enjoy a growth in the jazz scene, namely based on a series of recording sessions known as "West Coast Jazz." But Ben, who grew to love New York, was influenced tremendously by its "nasty energy," as he would say, and general gritty feel. He didn't care what was going on in California or the rest of the world; as a matter of fact, he was becoming one of the big cats on the scene in New York.
Born in Alton, Illinois, in the late '20s, Ben moved to New York to study at Juilliard in the '40s. It was there that he met Miles Davis. Once friendly, they soon discovered they grew up five blocks away from each other but went to different schools.
They became pretty tight in school, and a lot of what is considered the "cool" sound, which Davis had later become famous for, started with his association with Ben. After all-night jams with Parker, Roach, Carter, or whomever happened to drop in that night at any of the small clubs on 52nd street, Ben and Miles would dive deeper into what they termed simply as "juice," which meant any sort of mind-altering aide that caused the music experience to intensify.
During one of these "sessions," Ben tentatively suggested Miles take the aggressive qualities of bebop, which was the popular jazz force at the time, and lighten it up, both rhythmically and tonally, and see where he was at with that. Well, as we all know, Miles took that concept and bore a new sound, which he took on tour with his Capitol band.
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HumorMusician Sam Greene will play the piano at any dingy Chicago establishment that will hire him. At the end of many evenings, he can count on his longtime mentor, jazz great Ben Webster (the piano player, not the sax player,) to join him for a few num...
