Ben Riley's Monk Legacy Septet

Genres:	Jazz
Descriptive "tags":	sax • arranger • thinking • monk influenced • monkish • monk music
Decades Active:	1990s • 2000s

Biography

Benjamin Alexander Riley, 17 July 1933, Savannah, Georgia, USA. After playing drums with various bands during his teenage years, Riley began playing with front-rank jazzmen in the mid-50s and over the next dozen years appeared with an impressive roster of leaders. These included Stan Getz, Woody Herman, Eddie ‘Lockjaw’ Davis, Ahmad Jamal and Ray Bryant. In 1964 he joined Thelonious Monk with whom he toured extensively and played on several Columbia Records album sessions, including 1964’s It’s Monk’s Time and 1967’s Underground. Subsequently he played with several more important figures including, through the 70s and into the 80s, Ron Carter, Milt Jackson, the New York Saxophone Quartet, Abdullah Ibrahim and Maria Muldaur. In the early 80s Riley formed the band Sphere, with Charlie Rouse, Kenny Barron and Buster Williams, to pay musical tribute to Monk. A fluent, tasteful and thinking drummer, Riley’s playing is always inventive...

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