BENJAMIN BOONE
Genres: Vocal Jazz, Post Bop, World Fusion, Classic Fusion, 21st Century Modern • United States

Without knowing or planning it, saxophonist/composer Benjamin Boone has spent his life preparing for a collaboration with Philip Levine. Long fascinated by the inherent musicality of the spoken word, Boone crossed paths with the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet as fellow professors at California State University, Fresno, and they ended up working closely together in the three years before Levine’s death in 2015. Boone and Levine’s The Poetry of Jazz captures a genre-expanding partnership unlike anything else in the jazz canon. Produced by piano great Donald Brown, the 14-track project features a stellar cadre of special guest performances, including those by Tom Harrell, Branford Marsalis, Greg Osby, and Chris Potter. A lifelong jazz fan who grew up in Detroit when the city served as a proving ground for a brilliant generation of bebop-inspired improvisers, Levine often wrote about jazz and the musicians he loved in his verse. But Boone, an award-winning educator, composer, read more...