Brass, Voice & Vision: Bria Skonberg & Benny Benack III in Conversation

Bria Skonberg has a confession: she's releasing two albums this year, one all-trumpet and one all-vocal, partly because she still hasn't figured out how to make the two coexist. "I'm always trying to find or write material that highlights them both in their best light," she says in this wide-ranging conversation with fellow trumpeter-vocalist Benny Benack III, recorded live aboard The Jazz Cruise.

The two have toured together, finished each other's sentences, and find themselves facing versions of the same creative questions: how do you balance two voices, build a discography with intention, and keep making music that matters?

Recorded on The Jazz Cruise 2026, the conversation covers the pair's prolific recording approaches (and the producer who keeps Bria from releasing six albums a year), the particular challenge of the trumpet as a lifelong pursuit, and what happens when the audience always wants more of whichever thing you just did less of. The episode also opens into a genuine conversation about jazz education and arts advocacy, sparked by audience questions, with both artists speaking from real experience in classrooms and clinics, not talking points.

A candid, energetic hour with two of the most compelling younger voices in jazz today.

• Listen to more episodes of Jazz Cruises Conversations on Spotify, iTunes, or wherever you get your podcasts. The back catalog contains more than a hundred interviews from past sailings.
• Theme Music: Provided by Marcus Miller from his song "High Life" on his album Afrodeezia on Blue Note.

Transcript

[Lee Mergner]

Hi, welcome to Jazz Cruises Conversations. I'm your host, Lee Mergner. We're back now in our seventh season.

This week's episode continues the thread of a one-to-one conversation between two close friends and colleagues. Last week, it was old pals John Pizzarelli and Jeff Hamilton. This week, we hear from a younger generation.

Oh, sorry, my old friends Piz and Hammer. I do resemble that remark. In this session recorded on the Jazz Cruise earlier this year, Benny Benack III served as a moderator for an interview with Bria Skonberg.

The two share so much history already in their young lives. How about that they're both trumpeters and vocalists, and that they've toured together in a show called Sing and Swing. I can tell you one thing for sure, our guests on the Jazz Cruise and other sailings have embraced the two charismatic and emerging stars.

I hope you enjoy this conversation with Benny and Bria.

[Benny Benack III]

The last thing at night and then the first thing of the morning, directly, I know, right?

[Bria Skonberg]

Also, how many of you were here an hour early today?

[Benny Benack III]

Oh my gosh, yeah. Yeah.

[Bria Skonberg]

I think they do that on purpose.

[Benny Benack III]

Yeah.

[Bria Skonberg]

Like, just to make sure you're going to be there.

[Benny Benack III]

Well, these are always really fun. Bria and I got to do one with James Morrison, I think, the last Jazz Cruise. And now Bria and I, in the last few years, we've become thick as thieves because we've toured together.

And after knowing about each other, sort of circling each other's orbits for many years in New York, but you get a couple trumpet players together and we could just sit up here and just hold court the whole time. But in case any of you have any undying questions or queries or you want to know what the best place to get food in Chilliwack, Canada is...

[Bria Skonberg]

Please keep them to yourselves.

[Benny Benack III]

Well, I thought, only because I saw recently that Bria has an upcoming album coming out and I went and just took a look and in your discography, it seemed like there was a period pre-COVID where you put out a bunch of music, a bunch of albums, maybe not quite one a year, but it was like, you know, the mid-teens into 2020, it was like, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And then COVID happened and naturally there was a bit of a little respite. And now it seems like you're back on that pace, which I find very inspiring because for me, just to even get one album going feels like it's this gargantuan task.

And here you had your What It Means, the record sort of in tribute to New Orleans music, right? And then the Christmas album just came out and then you've got another record coming out this year, right? So I don't know, maybe two records.

So I need to know, this isn't for them, this is for me. It's just how do you do it? What is that output like and which is the next one coming out?

[Bria Skonberg]

Maybe a bigger part of that conversation is, do albums still matter? Why do we do albums? Do you need to do them constantly?

And not for everybody. I think I work best under deadlines and also I have a lot of ideas. I think one of the things I love most about making music is making unique arrangements on songs and concepts.

I understand that now. And so it's only a matter of weeks before a new idea comes and so I need to just keep getting those out. Yes, but even before I moved to New York, I had two jazz bands I was leading and managing and we would put out albums every year because we would play a lot of the same festivals every year as well and you wanted to have new things to share, new things to sell.

And then since performing under my own name, it's been maybe eight or so albums or something. And they're all a little different. They all tell different stories and it's been more interesting to kind of look back on them and analyze the similarities between them all.

So maybe one of the reasons, another thing I like to do albums is obviously documentation, both because when I'm in the creative process, I don't really know. I need to kind of put it out and then look at it from the outside to see what it is that I do. I think for many years, especially my first solo albums, the word I got a lot was eclectic.

Oh, it's a very eclectic album. She's over here and she's over there and she's over there. She likes to do this.

She wants to do that. And that was seen as a bad thing, I think, for some of the reviews. But now after having put out eight albums, you can kind of classify.

It's almost like a four disc set within them of the similarities between each one. Interestingly. All right, more coffee.

Go ahead. Well, and you have done, I mean, many albums, but you have the guts to do a live album. Your recent one was live.

That's on my list, but I feel like I got to be really ready for that.

[Benny Benack III]

Yeah, I feel like that was something that kind of like you said, I think every artist, you want to sort of zoom out and look at the whole discography and see the story there. And I felt like my first album was in 2016 and was recorded in 2025. So I didn't actually record my own album as a leader until I was 25.

And I think most of that for me probably was just feeling like I wasn't ready yet as a trumpet player, because the trumpet, as you will possibly see in our Tower of Trumpets show this afternoon, when all eight of us are on stage at the same time, the trumpet is a wild beast that it takes a long time to tame. And I don't think I was ready to put out an album when I was 21 years old or 22 years old or 23 years old. I felt like I just had so much practicing to do and I still do to this day.

But once I sort of got on track and put out my first album, I realized after a few, I had kind of checked that off the list. Okay, take a small group, a quartet, a quintet, a couple special guests. Bria came in right before we had our tour in 2024.

And we did the duet that we played last night at the jam session on a mellow tone. Yeah, that was so fun. So fun.

But I realized like, oh, yeah, all my favorite artists, you know, Sinatra at the Sands. I mean, the Night of the Cookers with Freddie Hubbard and Lee Morgan. I love live albums so much.

And so I wanted to make sure that in my discography, I had sort of checked that off the list. But the problem for me now is it's like, okay, now I did that. So like, what's next?

What's the next thing to cross off the list? Strings. That is a logical resolution to come to.

That's on the table, I think, actually. It's a very expensive option, but it's nice. I think we had a question here.

Gentleman had a hand. Oh, well, he said, would love an opportunity for us to hear me do Sinatra. And I think all of the great crooners on this ship at some point or another have done that.

You know, I know John Pizzarelli has had his show that I saw the other night in tribute to Tony Bennett, which is amazing. But he's done Sinatra over the years. I know Curt Elling.

I mean, it's kind of like inescapable if you're a crooner. And as a matter of fact, when I get off the ship, I immediately fly to Irvine, California, and embark on a 10-week tour called Crooners, where we will be doing some Frank Sinatra, as well as...

[Bria Skonberg]

It'll probably come to your hometown.

[Benny Benack III]

Yeah. All the other various crooners. So at least for my part, I will definitely be singing enough Frank Sinatra for the next 10 weeks to...

Who else is on that tour? That tour is co-headlined with Chanel Johns, who's another amazing... She's my age.

We kind of got to New York at the same time. But it's through Jazz at Lincoln Center. So the same powers that be that had the wisdom to put Bria and I together a couple years ago put this show together.

Chanel just sang with the holiday tour with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. There's a great pianist named Robbie Lee, who also sings. Our guitarist, Jocelyn Gould, who toured with Bria and I, Juno Award winner, she also sings.

Our saxophonist, Michael Stephenson, he also sings. So it's pretty much... It's going to be a team effort.

It's going to be fun.

[Mic Holder]

Another question right here. Sure.

[Audience Member 1]

I'm wondering, over the years, how you've evolved in your connection to the production process of albums, either writing, choosing the material, in the booth, all those levels. How has that evolved, and where do you want to go with that?

[Bria Skonberg]

I have recorded... My first recordings with my band in Chilliwack were made in my parents' living room. I've done everything from that to major label, massive, massive budgets.

It's always different. I love the studio. I really do.

I feel like... I'm always so excited when you get it on record, and you're like, that exists now. These ideas are there.

My biggest collaborator in the recording process is my producer, Matt Pearson. So Matt and I met about 2012, I think. I was playing at the Jazz Standard in New York.

He is somebody who used to be A&R for Verve Records, and he's produced a ton of wonderful, wonderful albums. He and I just got to talking, having coffee, and he's like, I want to work together. I have ideas for your instrument.

He has been just a game changer, because I keep using the word ideas. I have a lot of ideas, and what those ideas need sometimes is an editor. Like, you can do a lot of things.

Maybe just do this one right now, and this one. So I've got the next album is going to be this, and the next thing is going to be that. And he's like, no, you actually have to tour for a minute.

Think more in projects. That's where, I guess, I'm thinking more in projects, themes, and moods. But I think the best way, and you probably agree with this, you come to realize, is to get a unit, get a group.

You can do a couple different ways. You can either have a group that you tour with and play with a lot, or you can invite in bigger names to interpret the music. I think probably the best way for your music is to have a band that's touring.

The Christmas stuff I just put out, we had just played four or five concerts, a weekend of clubs, and I said, I'm going to find some money somewhere. Let's record this right now. Two days in the studio, and then it just sat in the can, we say, for ten months, and then was able to have that ready.

Same thing, the albums I have coming out this year, it was like, okay, let's set it up in July. I'm going to play a weekend at Birdland and then bring this group in over there and layer it that way. So the way that you can just feel comfortable with the music and actually not have to make too many decisions on the spot other than the ones that you would just be improvising in the moment.

[Mic Holder]

Question over here.

[Audience Member 2]

Good morning, both of you. You're both blessed and gifted with singing and trumpeting. How do you find the balance and the love for both to do?

When you're singing, do you want to play the trumpet? When you're trumpeting, do you want to sing?

[Benny Benack III]

Well, in my case, I always joke, it really does seem to work out this way to a perfect balance that after a concert, when you're signing merch, you're at the table or something, you're meeting folks. It's pretty much a one-to-one ratio. Someone comes up to me and says, you know, I really wish that you played more trumpet on that show.

You really were singing a lot, and I thought you were a trumpet player. And then the person right behind them in line comes up and says, why didn't you sing more? You were playing so much trumpet.

So, I mean, you can't really, you can't please everyone. Yeah, well, I mean, I feel like, because that's a question that I'm sure every interview that either of us have ever done, at some point they're like, so are you a trumpet player who sings or a singer who plays trumpet? And as far as chicken and the egg goes, I really feel like, for me, trumpet was where I put my 10,000 hours into the craft.

I was a trumpet major at the Manhattan School of Music, so both my degrees are in trumpet performance, and I did a little bit of the vocal choir in Manhattan School for fun. And I was always singing for fun, but I think what happens somewhere along the way, I'm sure Bria can speak to her experience, but it's like you could play all the trumpet in the world, you know, virtuosic, incredible, you know, death-defying stunts on the trumpet, and then you sing like Fly Me to the Moon at the end of the gig, and the only thing that anybody wants to talk about after the show is the song that you sang.

And so I was pretty young in that process when I said, huh, I see, I see how this works. Maybe I should keep the singing thing rather, you know, an equal seat at the table. And so, you know, on my shows, I certainly do a lot of both, and on my recordings, I do a lot of both, but as a seg into Bria's answer, your upcoming album specifically highlights one and gives it that focus, so what was the thought process behind that?

Was that another, like, Matt Pearson coffee talk, and you guys kind of came together, or was it your idea?

[Bria Skonberg]

I'll say just in terms of the process of the two, you know, I loved singing as a young girl, but believe it or not, I was too shy to do it openly, so by playing trumpet and getting into the school band, it kind of created this community and performance opportunity so that I would start to sing a little more, and then I've been trying since then, decades, to figure out where the two voices synthesize and to find or write, create material that will highlight them both in their best light, and so now, this was my idea, it wasn't Matt's, but I have two albums coming out this year, and I decided to separate them, finally, and I have one album that's all trumpet material, it's got, I think, four original tunes, some covers, and then the other is vocal, like, every track is vocal, and we've used an interesting, on a few, a number of the tunes, there's some strings, some alto flutes, some clarinets, pads, and that, I don't know, I think, yeah, it was more, not more, it was challenging, it was a good challenge, and I need that, I like to, like, sharpen the saw every step of the way, and to focus on each instrument individually, just up my standards for what I needed to be able to do, you know, that being said, I think, I said this the other day, but, you know, they're pretty similar, one vibrates here, and one vibrates here, otherwise, you have to just put the air, like, you know, your vocal chords go there, and with trumpet, you're, this thing right here, so, but I think it's the most important tool that we have for any instrumentalist, how many of you play an instrument, how many of you like to sing, how many of you like to sing when nobody's listening, how many of you don't like to raise your hand, we have to sing, we have the gifts, and it feels good, and it's the best thing you can have for air support, ear training, and just to, all the things that you were talking about, communicate with audiences, Benny and I are communicators.

[Mic Holder]

Did you have a question right here, sir? No? There's a question, right over here.

[Audience Member 3]

If you are doing two albums, one singing and one trumpet playing, have you made any predictions as to which one will sell the most?

[Bria Skonberg]

Well, if I, I did, if, so I hadn't thought about that, but, I mean, probably the vocal one, that's just how it goes, you know, I make certain choices with recording versus live performance, I think oftentimes I would lead with vocal on a, maybe on a recording, and then in live, I'd come out the gate blasting with the trumpet, it changes, depending on what element of surprise I want people to feel, I mean, I think that's one of the things I crack up about, is when people don't expect things, like to manipulate surprises in the room, but we'll see, we'll see.

[Mic Holder]

Question over here.

[Audience Member 4]

Hi, good morning. Morning. So, I am a retired educator from New York City, and, I was not a music teacher or anything, but I love music, and unfortunately in New York City, and I don't know about in other cities, they have taken away a lot of funding from the arts, and I heard you say you went to Manhattan School of Music, which is in New York City, so that means you possibly are based there, and I know there are a lot of other musicians there, and I know Jazz at Lincoln Center is there, and they have an education program, and my question is, we have a new chancellor, right, he's in charge of the entire school system, right, had you thought about possibly getting a group of musicians to go and have a meeting with the chancellor, and talk about how to revive or enrich the music programs in the New York City schools, because we are missing out on so much potential talent, and the jazz community, I mean, I look around at us, and the young people, for the most part, are not here, so the jazz is missing, you know, the jazz bands, and so I'm just wondering if that could be something you could think about, right, because, you know, new people are open to new things, you know, because they want to leave a legacy.

[Benny Benack III]

Yeah, I mean, I think, Bria and I do both reside in New York City now, but as you said, that's really not just a New York City thing, but really just all around the country, that funding for the arts, you know, it's always like the first thing to go, if it's either, you know, new pads and helmets for the football team, or, you know, new percussion for the marching band, I mean, the football team's going to get it all the time, but to your point, something like that, where a lot of musicians coming together, would be incredible, I think in my experience, it was actually the way that Bria and I met, was through, you mentioned Jazz at Lincoln Center, and one of the things that's very interesting, in addition to the news that Wynton Marsalis is going to be transitioning, and they're looking for a different sort of, you know, overarching figurehead of Jazz at Lincoln Center, they're also going to be looking for a new head of the education department, and the education and outreach at Jazz at Lincoln Center really is one of the biggest branches trying to do that, so the program that Bria and I, I believe that we first kind of were in the same room, was their program called Jazz at Lincoln Center, I mean, called, sorry, very early in the morning, Jazz for Young People, and Bria and I were both band leaders, and specifically, that program is designed to go into schools where they took away the after school band program, or where they didn't have instruments, and what we found was a lot of the schools that we went to, when we came and we brought our instruments, that was the first time a lot of those students had seen live instruments.

Like, they knew about music, but they had never seen a drum set before, they had never seen a trumpet, a trombone, a saxophone, and so, you know, organizations like that, they're doing their part, Bruce Harris, who was playing trumpet on the jam last night, he now works at the Louis Armstrong house, and they are doing more and more programming all the time, I know Bria can speak to that, I also did concerts through the New York Pops, they have an outreach, you know, youth program, so there are some of these institutions that are doing their part, you know, and there are a lot of musicians that live there, that that's a big part of what we do, but I like what you were proposing, because it was just, like, directly, just musicians, you know, banding together, and that's one thing in New York that we struggle with sometimes, is, like, the musicians sort of putting all their heads together and coming together, you know, the musicians union in New York is fighting so many things and AI and, you know, coming up all the time, it's almost, like, overwhelming, what do you sort of try and tackle next, but I know with Bria and a lot of the musicians here, we're really committed to trying to keep that music education going, and specifically jazz education, because I do see a lot of young people that are studying the music, that are at a college somewhere, and I do master classes and workshops with them, and I ask them how they discovered the music, and it's, like, either they're a nepo baby and one of their parents was a musician, like, in my case, but if it's not one of their parents, almost unilaterally, it's always, like, yeah, it was my band director, you know, I was in the band program and they gave me kind of blue, and, you know, I played the electric bass, I wanted to play in a rock band, but my band director said I was going to have to learn upright, and if I wanted to play in the marching band, then I had to play in the jazz band, and that's huge, so, you know, my hat's off to you, I just think educators and music educators are, you know, are saints among us, you know?

[Bria Skonberg]

Yeah, I hear your anguish, and we agree, but we remain hopeful. Actually, I saw a post the other day that the new mayor of New York was at the Louis Armstrong House Museum playing some tambourine with some kids playing trumpets, you know, I think New York's got a lot better than a lot of other places. Yeah, right?

Thank you. We'll see you there.

[Benny Benack III]

There you go.

[Bria Skonberg]

And a shout out to Melissa Walker and Christian McBride's Jazz House Kids, we work for them a lot, too.

[Mic Holder]

Question here.

[Audience Member 5]

All right, I'm going to throw you a curveball, guys, this is a lifestyle question. I'm going to throw a knuckleball thing.

All right, this isn't a music question, this is a jazz musician lifestyle question. How do you guys handle your circadian rhythms? I think the reason I showed up this morning was just to see if you guys could make it after that 2 a.m. jazz session ended last night.

[Bria Skonberg]

What do you think, did we make it?

[Benny Benack III]

Well, I'll just briefly say, because I want to ask Bria that question, too, I don't have a circadian rhythm, my lifestyle is pretty crazy, but I'm also at a station in my life where I don't have anything. I have one snake plant that I think I need to water once a month and just put it by the window and it's okay. But I was actually going to ask Bria at some point, because I turned 35 in November, and a lot of my friends now are starting to have kids.

Bruce Harris has got baby pictures on his phone, the drummer that's on my live album had a kid two weeks apart from Bruce, and I have so many friends that are now experiencing that, and I'm always terrified because I don't even have a dog that I have to worry about. I don't even have to FaceTime my girlfriend after this. I'm just free as a bird.

And then I'm so petrified at the idea of having to balance having a kid and having a home life and then also doing what we do. And you seem to be handling that all fine and dandy, Bria, so reassure me, please, please tell me, how do you do it? What's your secret?

[Bria Skonberg]

How many of you are parents? You know. I'm not teasing you there. I don't know. Is it? I'll take your word for it. Exactly.

No, a supportive partner, for sure. I mean, I would be here if there wasn't somebody at home watching that. That's imperative.

That's the things they don't tell you. Somebody has to be flexible. Somebody has to be available.

And you're going to get sick a lot. You're going to have a cold for about three years, which is tough when you're trying to sing and play. Yeah.

You know, but it's the best because especially as somebody who likes to communicate with people, it just means like I can look in your eyes and be like, I'm in it. My son is five. And yeah, he's a lot of fun.

He's hilarious. He inspires me. He's very creative.

And I think maybe just in terms of time management, it's been helpful, especially when we're talking a lot about albums, I guess, maybe thinking more in terms of projects, you know, like this chunk of time is going to be about this. May, June, July is going to be this. And then I get six weeks off and we're taking the family over there or something.

It's just got to be kind of more, you know, you focus on the big priorities a little bit more. And then I don't get to go out. I mean, I watch the live streams.

I see, you know, I don't go out and hang out at the jams every night in New York City. And so then what does that mean? That means after I wake up, make breakfast, drop them off at school, then I go and shed and try to keep on top of the tunes that we're going to be playing on the ship.

And, you know, it's just a big juggle. I definitely try not to waste. I don't want to waste time.

I don't waste time. Time is our most precious resource. And I am grateful for our time with you this week.

I really am. I'm already in my grieving process of having to disembark tomorrow. But I'm excited to see my kid.

[Benny Benack III]

I think Bria could probably attest to this, having us been on tour together for two months. But I do think my superpower, if I have one, is that I can literally fall asleep standing up at any time for any inordinate amount of time. So it's like we get into the van, we get on the flight.

It's anything. I got my little system. I have my neck pillow and my eye mask.

And it's just like I close my eyes and it's like, boom, deepest cycle of REM sleep immediately. And I'll do the math sometimes where it's like, all right, the flight's at 6, so I've got to wake up at 4 to go to the airport. So I'll sleep an hour and a half in my bed right now because I just finished packing at 2.30. Then I'll get on the plane. It's a two-hour flight. Okay, now I'm up to three and a half hours. Then I'll get there and I'll sleep another hour and a half before soundcheck.

So I'm up to five hours. Okay, five hours. I can do that.

Five hours, we can work with that. And I'm not sure it works that way with your body, but in my mind, that's the math that I employ.

[Bria Skonberg]

I just want to say, too, I mean, we're meeting each other at a very nice regimen part of my life, but I did that, too. Yeah, I know. I did a lot of that, too.

I don't have to regret not doing that.

[Benny Benack III]

You had a question all the way over there at the Yankee hat?

[Mic Holder]

I'll bring the mic over for you so everybody can hear. Thanks. Thank you.

[Benny Benack III]

No baseball questions. I'm a Pirates fan, so I don't want to hear anything from the Yankees.

[Audience Member 6]

As a parent. As a parent.

[Bria Skonberg]

Overboard.

[Audience Member 6]

As a parent, how would you advise parents to cause their children to take a particular instrument? Would you suggest piano as the basis, as initial instrument, as opposed to starting out with an orchestral instrument like trumpet without any piano lessons? How do you become a better jazz player if you don't hear the changes on a solo instrument?

You don't hear the changes. I mean, you do, but you can't play changes because it's harmony that you're playing under or over. If you're advising a parent, what would you do?

Would you start out with piano, or would you go right to an orchestral instrument?

[Bria Skonberg]

I'll start quick, and I want to hear your thoughts on this because it's in your bloodline. But I think that the exploration of sound and creativity and fun just needs to start in a very organic way. Like, have a piano.

How many people still have pianos, real pianos, in their households? You know, and keyboards? I mean, mine, we've just got a little jam space where you can hit stuff and play stuff and get the idea of just making sound and making that a fun experience come together.

And the refinement will happen over time. We can get into that. But I started on piano with that, but we had a drum kit in our house and a guitar and an old bass.

My parents were not musicians necessarily, but we loved music. And so, yes, absolutely, I think just piano for me is one of the best places to start. And because you press it, it sounds good.

Trumpet sounds awful. Violin sounds awful. For about a year.

[Mic Holder]

Question over here.

[Audience Member 7]

Well, it's on. Hi, guys.

Hi. To address this woman's concerns, now, when Brie is coming down to Florida, she's going to see that at the Arts Garage, we have a program called Defend the Arts because we have a governor in Florida who took out $30 million and cut it right out of supporting the arts in the state of Florida. So some of it has to really be up to even, like, the venues.

Like, you guys played at Kravis or the Four Arts. And it's up to some of the venues also to get our programs. And, I mean, I have a picture on my phone of Brie holding a T-shirt that says, Defend the Arts.

And it's not just music. It's theater. It's programming for children, painting.

It's everything. The arts, as Benny said, is really one of the first things to go. And so Kravis has a program, and we've tried to organize a lot of the venues in the area where you guys have played to have a program of defending the arts.

And it seems to be working. We just met with a bunch of the state legislators to talk about defending the arts. And I think that's important.

And everybody sitting here probably could, if you wrote, send a letter to your legislator or something to say, Hey, what about the arts? And so it's up to all of us that are sitting here to go out and defend the arts. Exactly.

[Bria Skonberg]

Yeah, thank you. And, of course, the power of the people, right? It takes a village, and we are a big village.

And I might need something more in my coffee to go deeper into this discussion. But, yeah, the arts are under attack, especially the idea of keeping kids in the creative process so we can all process the times we live in. I mean, that is by design.

So thank you for having that initiative, starting that effort, and empowering us and reminding us that everybody has a vote, has to make some action.

[Audience Member 7]

And, by the way, I don't know if you've seen the papers, but they're closing the Kennedy Center.

[Bria Skonberg]

I saw that.

[Audience Member 7]

Yes, for two years to renovate.

[Benny Benack III]

I would say, while there is a lot in this world that we're talking about with arts funding and education that can kind of demoralize you a little bit, I will say, I know Bria does the same thing. I mean, you even ran off in San Juan and snuck in like a master class clinic while you were on dry land for a day, right? I met the trumpet conservatory at San Juan Conservatory.

Yeah, I was just like eating brisket. That's all I did. I will say, they're not necessarily purchasing thousands and thousands of dollars worth of cabins on cruise ships, but there are young people that are excited about the music.

They're like on Instagram, on their phones, or they're hanging out in the clubs past their bedtime when they have to wake up and go to an ear training class the next morning. But there really are a lot of young people that are excited about the music. And I see everywhere I go, students even working with high schools and middle schools that still have a music program, that there are really awesome young musicians that are inspired by the music.

And I've seen the look on young girls' faces to see Bria perform and be able to go up and talk to her after a concert. And that is so important, which is why it's amazing that someone like Bria is around as an ambassador and shows those young girls that the trumpet is not a boy instrument or a girl instrument. Anybody can play any instrument.

And one thing that I actually wish we had more of in the United States is that idea where the band director doesn't immediately just hand the flute to the girl and make the boy play tuba. And I teach at a camp in Japan every year, and Mike Dees, who was playing trombone in the big band, and he played last night on the jam session, he is the head of this camp. And the Seiko Watch Company sponsors it, and it's because the grand president of Seiko played saxophone in his high school jazz band, and he likes jazz, so they sponsor this camp for the entire country of Japan.

And we do the auditions for this group every year, and it's like they take a big band's worth of horn players. That's what they accept. And everyone who gets accepted, it's completely paid for.

So I might have, like, 10 trumpets, 11 trumpets, and every year, if there's 10 trumpets, like, 7 of them are women. And we look at the big band in that camp, and it's like all the trombone players are girls, all of the trumpet players are girls. Like, the band some years is more women than there is men in the band.

And I don't know why that is, but in Japan, there's just no preconceived notion about, like, oh, the girls should play this, the guys should play that. It's just, like, they all play every instrument, and they excel at it. And I'm always like, man, if they can do it in Japan, like, why can't we figure it out here, you know?

[Bria Skonberg]

Maybe the visibility. I expect to see the Benny effect on Japan in the next couple of years. You're going to have all these little Japanese, hey, how's it going?

[Benny Benack III]

There's a couple. There's a couple, I'm telling you. There's a couple.

There's a couple. We've got a question right here.

[Audience Member 1]

It's an extra level of work to advocate for your art while you're doing your art, just acknowledging that as somebody who works in the arts. But I just had a click on Samara Joy's journey in terms of her touching into media and also the cross-pollination across arts because you genre-bend, right? We had Veronica yesterday doing Queen, and music is about making connections, and I'm wondering about the ability to connect with other artists outside of the jazz world and leverage that.

Who do we know? Who knows us? Because there are a lot of hip-hop and rap artists who love and sample jazz.

So I'm just thinking about not to say, you know what you should do because you're already doing a lot. I am thinking about what we should do, whether or not it's like postcards here on the jazz cruise that we all just sign off and say, we had a great time. Where's my music?

So anyways, I'm just wondering who comes to mind of people that you know that we don't know necessarily in the jazz world that's connected to the jazz world, that appreciates and honors the jazz world.

[Benny Benack III]

Well, I know, I just was talking last night after the jam session with Julius Rodriguez, the pianist that has been playing all over the ship and plays with Chris Bode and his band now, but Julius, we were looking over the results of the Grammys, and Julius is one musician who, he was in New York, he grew up in Westchester, and then he moved to L.A. And usually, if you're a jazz musician and you decide to move from New York to L.A., it's because he wants to make inroads in some of these other musical worlds.

It's like the New York people just want to play in clubs in the West Village and play jazz standards. But Julius has been one of those jazz musicians that's like, he's the jazz musician in the band of ASAP Rocky or some of these hip-hop artists where he's the authority on the harmony and the chords and the music and the music director, and he's able to bring people from that world into jazz. And Julius is completely studied and knows everything about this music.

So someone like that that's able to get into those outside worlds, there were names of people winning Grammys last night that I had never even heard of, and Julius was like, oh, I played piano on that record. Oh, yeah, oh, yeah, I went on tour with him. Yeah, oh, yeah, I know her.

She opened for me at the Blue Note in Los Angeles or whatever. So someone like Julius to me is an inspiration because he set that intention. He's like, I'm going out to L.A., and he does everything under the sun. He plays a jazz concert. He plays with Randy Brecker on the ship, and then next week he might be on tour with a hip-hop emcee, and his approach to the music stays the same. So there's a lot of people that do that really well.

[Bria Skonberg]

I like to tap into kind of like the world music scene or stuff like Balkan brass bands and like maybe a little bit more of the downtown New York free jazz scene, just that it's more open and gritty. I can't think of anybody here that does a lot of that, but, you know, music is music, and I think musicians are always open to the different styles. Obviously, I love...

Have you seen a Notz Quartet yet? That's one of the most satisfying musical experiences for my ears. I can't recommend her enough, just for all those influences, you know, the Brazilian stuff, but she can rock too.

[Mic Holder]

We got a question right here.

[Audience Member 8]

This is for Bria. Bria, love your cornet chop suey. Love that song.

[Bria Skonberg]

It's not mine. Thank you.

[Audience Member 8]

Is there a particular song that you have recorded that's something you're really proud of from a technical virtuosity perspective that comes to your mind that you say, wow, I really had to work on that one to record? Oh, boy.

[Bria Skonberg]

Work in process. The cornet chop suey, I've played for probably 30 years now, and I still keep trying because it continues to challenge me. That's Louis Armstrong's 1925 hit.

And that being said, I've done some things with it that challenge me. Yes. Oh, well, it's funny.

I just talked about it. I saw her big birthday party at the Appel Room last year, and the next week I wrote a song that was kind of in a Brazilian choro style because I think that that is like... Very straight-A, kind of technical.

They're etudes, basically. But I need an etude that has either a backbeat or a clave. You know, that's just...

Okay, you understand. So there are some things... Yeah, I think...

So that song, I guess, is on the album. It's coming out next, and that one's kind of fun to get under the fingers. I've been, yeah, otherwise just kind of pushing, trying to get a little bit more flexibility in my range.

I think that is showing up, at least on recorded material. That's all that comes to mind right now. But, I mean, Benny's like...

When I'm listening to Benny these days, it's beautiful. It feels like he's like... The trumpet is just a mechanical thing, you know, buttons and stuff.

But when you find the people that can really find their way through the technical parts of the instruments, like the glossing through notes, or make it sound easy, that's just a beautiful thing to hear. You have to come to the trumpet set today. Although I think a lot of you are filtering in for the guitar mania.

I'll say that, technical stuff. I mean, I used to practice like... Like Guns N' Roses licks.

That's hard, that's fun. Those are some of the technical things that I'll do to challenge myself.

[Mic Holder]

Our next question is over here.

[Audience Member 9]

Hi, guys. Thanks for everything you guys do. Just to speak to the Kennedy Center a little bit.

I'm from Washington, D.C. I've known Chuck Redd for about 40 years. He's the first guy I ever played on stage with. And although he started the movement, the entire D.C. arts community is fully behind Chuck and fully behind the Kennedy Center. And the funding and all of the things that were happening through the Kennedy Center have largely been transferred through either to local governments or to private sources. But the D.C. arts community is still very strong and very much with the Kennedy Center. And we're all waiting for it to open up in two years again.

So I just want to let you guys know that.

[Bria Skonberg]

Thank you. I think one of my favorite parts about the cruise now, it's like, yes, I get to corner my favorite musicians in the world, but I get to hear your stories. And you are all so very interesting, you know, that we found on the ship.

So thanks for sharing that. If we haven't gotten a chance to one-on-one yet this trip, let's make that happen today.

[Mic Holder]

Who has a question right here?

[Benny Benack III]

We got like another few minutes, I think, right, before...

[Audience Member 10]

Yeah, I want to get back to the trumpet vocalist split. Bria said you're doing two albums this year. Was it hard to figure out what songs go on one album versus the other?

Was there a particular song that you couldn't decide which album to put it on?

[Bria Skonberg]

There's one song that's on both albums. Actually, there are two songs. One's an original, and one is Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, which kind of I thought is my own inside joke to myself because the meaning of that phrase is that you're stuck between two equally unpleasant decisions.

So, but, yeah, even just the treatment that I put on them was a little bit different. I think, you know, with the creative process, I just, I throw a lot of spaghetti at the wall. You know, I get out a whole bunch of like 30 songs that I want to do or that I think about, and then you find the through lines and whittle it down from there.

You know, this, clearly the trumpet has this more like sort of fiery or like puzzly gadgety part of my brain with the arrangements, time signature type stuff. Maybe some, you know, emotional things that I can't quite put into words. And then the vocal one is a little more like just, I don't know, humanity in it, connection, storytelling, yeah, emotion.

My voice is changing as I talk about it. It's interesting to notice these things. I don't even know until I like take a look at it afterwards.

I love the flugelhorn. I just can't travel with two instruments in an overhead. I have a lot of mutes.

I love, you know, I mess around with a lot of different kinds of mutes. I messed around with pedals for a little while too. But that's basically it.

I own a flugelhorn. If I ever get to play in a big band section, I'll bring it out. Or if I play in New York City for a couple nights, a little flugie will come on stage.

But yeah, maybe you have the same experience.

[Benny Benack III]

Yeah, I actually got the opportunity to record in LA with a big band. It was actually sort of like a little fun added thing at the end of a session for this vocalist that was doing his stuff. He had an arrangement for a big band of Feel So Good for Chuck Mangione.

And we did this maybe like two years ago. And we never did anything with that. And then, of course, when Chuck Mangione passed away last year, it was like immediately they ran and like mixed the whole thing and put it out as a single like the next day.

And the reason that that was notable was because the guitar player on that track, Grant Geisman, is the original guitarist that played with Chuck for many years. So we got to do that, which was obviously super cool for me to be playing flugelhorn on Feel So Good and trading with the guitar player that did it with Chuck Mangione. And we had such a fun time in the studio that Grant asked me and I want to say in October for the Catalina Island Jazz Festival in California, they're going to do a Chuck Mangione tribute.

And he asked me if I wanted to play the part of Chuck Mangione. So I'm going to do that, which is super awesome. But he did ask me in the email, he was like, do you own a flugelhorn?

Because when we did the session in LA, it's the same thing Bria said. Like I was like, I'll record this. But I left my flugelhorn at home.

I don't have a double case. So I had to borrow one from a guy in the studio. So before I could get the gig playing with Chuck Mangione's tribute band, he had to make sure that I actually owned a flugelhorn.

So I'll have to bring my double case and probably check it under the plane, which is always a nightmare. I don't know if they did, but my favorite place in Buffalo for Wings is Duff's. I went to Duff's.

They were the originators? Well, Duff's is pretty good, right? Anchor Bar, that's the other one?

Yeah. Don't get me started. Maybe, what do we got?

Like one more, maybe we got to wrap it up.

[Mic Holder]

Who wants a question? Anybody have a question? Right here.

[Audience Member 11]

Well, actually, Benny asked most of my questions.

[Benny Benack III]

Well, good. That's what it's about.

[Audience Member 11]

So I'm satisfied on that score. Excited to see that you're doing a vocal album. I think you are a tremendous vocalist.

I'm not going to say you should do more or less of anything because that's your thing. My wife and I saw you at Queens College, and you did a mind-blowing version of Mood Indigo. It really, I think, showcased a different aspect of your singing where you're not normally going for that powerful kind of sound.

And I'm wondering if you can reveal, is that going to make the vocal album?

[Bria Skonberg]

Yes. Tone down a little bit for radio frequency, but yes.

[Benny Benack III]

As Bria mentioned, I echo that statement that I'm almost late to everything that I have on the ship because I get intercepted like seven times on the way there. And then you just want to sit and talk and hang out with everybody. But we have our trumpet show this afternoon.

I think I'm going to be on this stage doing one of the all-star shows towards the end of the night. But I know Bria is the same way. So if you didn't get a chance to ask a question today or you haven't caught us in the coffee line yet and get to tell us where you're from and hang out, hunt us down and find us today.

And hopefully most of the people on the ship, I know Bria stays busy, but I love being like, where are you from? And then I'm like, oh, I'm playing there on October 7th. So we get around.

And hopefully if we didn't get a chance to say hello and talk a little bit with the next day and a half before we all head home, we get a chance to.

[Bria Skonberg]

Thank you so much, everybody. Benny Burnack III. Bria Skonberg.

The first.

[Lee Mergner]

Well, I said it about Piz and the Hammer last week, and I'll say it again this week about Benny and Bria. What a pair those two are. Well, we're all so excited to hear the great music they'll produce in the coming years.

Both are already busy creating and performing new music. Bria just released an album called Brass, featuring her exclusively on trumpet. And Benny is touring all the time.

We don't know how he manages to pack all those suits, much less keep them unwrinkled. Huh, maybe Pizzarelli gave him some packing lessons. Well, in any case, both Benny and Bria will sail on the Jazz Cruise in January, along with about 100 jazz greats.

Learn more about that program at theJazzCruise.com. We also wanted to let you know that Benny will be joining fellow trumpeter Chris Bodie on Bodie at Sea in the fall later this year. Bodie at Sea 3 is a West Coast cruise.

It leaves from L.A. on September 18th, and then sails to San Francisco, where we'll be in that port, there in port for two days, and then on to Victoria British Cumbria before ending in Vancouver. Benny will join an incredible lineup of greats, starting with Chris and his many special guests in his group. Carolyn Campbell, Si Smith, and John Splitoff.

And how about headliners like Elvis Costello, Boss Skaggs, Melody Gardeau, Peebo Bryson, and Regina Bell? And we've got outstanding performers like Emmett Cohen, Candice Springs, Candy Dulfer, Morgan James, Veronica Swift, Harold Lopez-Nussa, and many others. And of course, with our comedian-in-residence Alonzo Bowden aboard to hilariously comment on the artists and the experience, and yeah, even the guests, so spoiler alert, sit in the front row at your peril.

Learn that from experience. Additional benefits of Boaty at Sea on the West Coast are the amazing excursions in both San Francisco and Victoria, and you can learn more about those at boatyatsea.com. Our theme music is by Marcus Miller from his song High Life on his album Aphrodisia.

That's on Blue Note. We hope you'll go back and dig into the archive of more than 100 past episodes featuring in-depth conversations with so many jazz greats. Look for another talk next week.

Thanks for listening.