David Benoit Christmas Show
SHOW DATES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE
For four decades, the GRAMMY®-nominated pianist/composer/ arranger David Benoit has reigned supreme as one the founding fathers of Contemporary Jazz.
When he was coming up, Benoit worked with singers Patti Austin, Connie Stevens, Ann-Margaret, and Lainie Kazan as her musical director/conductor. In 1976, Benoit released albums on the AVI label from 1977 to 1984. He later released several chart-topping recordings for GRP, including Freedom at Midnight (1987), Waiting for Spring (1989) and Shadows (1991), which both topped Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz Charts at #5, #1, and #2, respectively.
His other noteworthy recordings include Letter to Evan (1992), his tribute to another piano influence, Bill Evans, and Here’s to You, Charlie Brown: Fifty Great Years (2000). Benoit also recorded with Russ Freeman on their album The Benoit/Freeman Project (1994), and on their follow-up collaboration, 2 (2004), which was released on Peak Records. His other recordings for the label include American Landscape (1997) and Orchestral Stories (2005), which featured his first piano concerto, “The Centaur and the Sphinx,” and a symphonic work, “Kobe”.
He has received three GRAMMY® nominations in the categories of Best Contemporary Jazz Performance for “Every Step of the Way” (1989), Best Large Ensemble Performance for GRP All-Star Big Band (1996), and Best Instrumental Composition for “Dad’s Room,” the latter from the album Professional Dreamer (2000). He has also worked with an impressive potpourri of musicians including the Rippingtons, Emily Remler, the late Alphonse Mouzon, Dave Koz, Faith Hill, David Sanborn, CeCe Winans, Keiko Matsui, Hiroshima, and Brian McKnight.
David’s career as a contemporary jazz pianist began in 1977 and includes 41 solo recordings over the past 40 years. Many of these, including his 1987 GRP Records debut “Freedom at Midnight” and its Grammy nominated 1988 follow-up “Every Step Of The Way”, are considered influential classics in the genre. Among his other Grammy nominations are those for Best Instrumental Composition (for “Dad’s Room” and 1999’s Professional Dreamer), Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance (GRP All-Star Big Band) and voted “Keyboardist of the Year” in 2000 and 2001 by the Oasis Contemporary Jazz Awards, and on Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz Chart. David’s latest release,Timeless (2024), is his first all big band recording featuring the London based Spice Fusion big band.
For three decades, the GRAMMY®-nominated pianist/composer/ arranger David Benoit has reigned supreme as one the founding fathers of contemporary jazz. Born in Bakersfield, California, he grew up in Los Angeles and was bitten by the jazz bug after watching a Charlie Brown special on television and listening to the music of Vince Guaraldi in 1965. “I was already a fan of the comic strip,” he says, “but when I heard that jazz piano trio, that was the defining moment when I decided that I wanted to play like Vince Guaraldi.” At the age of thirteen, Benoit studied privately with pianist Marya Cressy Wright and continued his training with Abraham Fraser, who was the pianist for famed conductor Arturo Toscanini. He also studied music theory and composition, and later studied orchestration with Donald Nelligan at El Camino Junior College and film scoring from Donald Ray at UCLA. He studied conducting from Heiichiro Ohyama, assistant conductor of the L.A. Philharmonic, and furthered his musical education with Jan Robertson, head of the conducting department at UCLA, and UC Santa Barbara symphony orchestra music director Jeffrey Schindler. After working with Lainie Kazan as her musical director/conductor in 1976, Benoit released albums on the AVI label from 1977 to 1984. He later released several chart-topping recordings for GRP, including Freedom at Midnight (1987), Waiting for Spring (1989) and Shadows (1991), which both topped Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz Charts at #5, #1, and #2, respectively. His other noteworthy recordings include Letter to Evan (1992), his tribute to another piano influence, Bill Evans, and Here’s to You, Charlie Brown: Fifty Great Years (2000). Benoit also recorded with Russ Freeman on their album The Benoit/Freeman Project (1994), and on their follow-up collaboration, 2 (2004), which was released on Peak Records. His other recordings for the label include American Landscape (1997) and Orchestral Stories (2005), which featured his first piano concerto, “The Centaur and the Sphinx,” and a symphonic work, “Kobe.”. In 2012, he released Conversation on Concord’s Heads Up International imprint. His latest and thirty-fifth recording as a leader and his first with a vocalist, 2 In Love, was released in 2015 featuring Jane Monheit, the GRAMMY®- nominated, cool-toned chanteuse from New York, who burst on the scene in 1998 as the first runner-up in the Thelonious Monk International Vocalist Competition. Benoit received three GRAMMY® nominations in the categories of Best Contemporary Jazz Performance for “Every Step of the Way” (1989), Best Large Ensemble Performance for GRP AllStar Big Band (1996), and Best Instrumental Composition for “Dad’s Room,” the latter from the album Professional Dreamer (2000). In 2010, Benoit received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Smooth Jazz Awards, and he’s worked with an impressive potpourri of musicians including the Rippingtons, Emily Remler, Alphonse Mouzon, Dave Koz, Faith Hill, David Sanborn, CeCe Winans and Brian McKnight. Benoit’s film scores include The Stars Fell on Henrietta (1995), produced by Clint Eastwood, and The Christmas Tree, produced by Sally Field, which was voted Best Score of 1996 by Film Score Monthly. He has served as conductor with a wide range of symphonies including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Asia America Symphony Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra. A longtime guest educator with the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation, he received that organization’s Excellence in Music Award in 2001. His musical selections have been featured on The Weather Channel and his version of Vince Guaraldi’s “Cast Your Fate to the Wind” is included on compilation The Weather Channel Presents: Smooth Jazz 11 (2008). Benoit also currently hosts a morning radio show on KKJZ 88.1 FM in Long Beach, CA
Brooke Ramel is one of the most successful independent artists of the last 20 years. She has sold over 50,000 CDs, placed 50+ songs in tv/film, performed thousands of live shows, and produced 6 original albums, including Turn It Around, co-written and produced by renowned hitmaker Mike Busbee.
In addition to performing solo and headlining with her own band, Brooke has opened for many legendary artists and some of her greatest inspirations as well as hall of fame artists, such as Air Supply, Peter Cetera, Petula Clark, Melissa Manchester, Chris Botti, Little River Band, Don MacLea, Shawn Colvin, Marc Cohn, Raul Malo, Colin Hay, David Wilcox, Lisa Loeb, Nancy Griffith, David Gates, Bill Medley, Deana Carter, and countless others. . In 2006, Brooke sang background vocals for Ziggy Marley's album, "Love Is My Religion". That year, she was also a featured performer on an episode of the PBS series, "Branson Jubilee", which aired nationwide.
Brooke’s career grew from the grassroots of the Midwest. After picking up the guitar at the age of 7, she was soon playing “gigs” at local churches and fairs. By age 9, she had already appeared on television and done a one-hour live radio show. A singer/songwriter had blossomed and never wavered from her musical path; from performing with high school theatre troupes and musical choirs to studying at Stanford University to living in Paris and eventually landing in Los Angeles where she has made her living as a professional musician ever since.
Reemerging after a hiatus to be a wife and mother, Brooke teamed up with Grammy Award-winning producer and Windham Hill Records founder Will Ackerman and world-class musicians to record her first album since 2004. Joining Brooke on the album are bassist Tony Levin (Peter Gabriel, James Taylor, John Lennon), guitarist Jeff Pevar (Crosby Stills & Nash, Marc Cohn, Ray Charles), drummer Aaron Sterling (John Mayer), 3-time Grammy Award-winning cellist Eugene Friesen, and The Webb Sisters on background vocals (Leonard Cohen, Sting).
Newly gained perspectives are reflected in Brooke’s strongest, most honest, and acoustic recording to date. For You features ten original songs, half-written with renowned songwriter Ken Hirsch (“Two Less Lonely People in the World,” “Never Been to Me,” “No One in the World,” “If I Could”). Brooke and Ken recently performed together at the beautiful Saban Theater in Beverly Hills, performing a combination of Ken’s hits, their co-written original songs, and beloved cover tunes that are audience favorites.