Lauded jazz group to launch new CD at Freeport library

The Freeport Memorial Library will host the musical stylings of the three-member jazz band, the Daniel Bennett Group, on April 14 at 2:30 p.m.

The group is releasing its 10th studio album, called “Mr. Bennett’s Mind,” and will premiere the band’s new CD at the library, with its memorable and bright melodies.

Daniel Bennett, 44, — a saxophone specialist — has been playing music since he was 10 years old.

“My sister took me to a high school band concert when I was a kid,” he said. “And I heard a kid play The Pink Panther on tenor sax, and that was the beginning of it for me.”

A short while later, he was playing sax in the school marching band, the concert band, the jazz ensemble and the wind ensemble.

Bennett also played music with his friends every week every chance he got, eventually branching out, as he entered late adolescence, to flute and clarinet.

“Nowadays, it’s like expected that you just double on all these multiple wind instruments,” he explained.

But the sax remains Bennett’s first love, and classical saxophone is the reason that he attended New England Conservatory in Boston after completing his undergraduate degree at Robert Wesleyan College in Rochester in 2002 — though he happens to compose music from the guitar, strumming chords and singing.

“I’m kind of an oddball,” he said.

It was at that time in Boston that Bennett cut his teeth professionally, playing jazz standards at weddings, dinner cruises and hotel gigs. Since then, Bennett has consistently made his living playing music.

“I tell people, I’m almost like ‘in too deep,’” he said. “I wouldn’t know what else to do, even if I tried to quit… but I don’t want to quit.”

Bennett said his job requires a lot of good old-fashioned hard work.

“My group does close to 100 out-of-town tour dates a year,” he told the Herald. And that does not include the work he does in New York City, where he resides on the Upper East Side, performing theater gigs, playing at his church, or teaching at the New York Jazz Academy in Times Square.

“It’s all I know… so you find a way,” Bennett said.

The Daniel Bennett Group — the current line up of which consists of Bennet himself, percussionist Koko Bermejo and electric bassist Kevin Hailey — was formed in 2004, as Bennett was finishing grad school.

He wanted to make jazz music that spoke to his love of folk music. He grew up listening to his parents’ library of Pete Seeger, Woody and Arlo Guthrie, and Paul Simon — and so the original makeup of the band included a banjo player.

Asked to describe his music, Bennett said he thinks “it’s more fun if the listener interprets.” His songs have been described as anything ranging from prog pop to instrumental avant pop jazz to jazz fusion.

“All of a sudden, we’re busting out Irish Celtic melodies… and the next song is atonal and is avant-garde… so maybe ‘Mr. Bennett’s Mind’ is like my way of saying, ‘look, here I am, pick and choose what’s good and go from there,’” he said.

Bennett explained how he became aware of Freeport as a potential platform to launch his band’s new CD.

“So Freeport, they do a music series,” he said. “And I knew about them for years because I knew some pretty heavy hitters who would come in there, and I was like wow, this is so great. That, right there (in) Freeport, the library is supporting original music.”

The frontman mentioned being struck that the library actually wanted Bennett to share his original music, as many such venues prefer for musicians to stick to tried and true songs with which audiences are already familiar.

“Freeport has a huge amount of (members) who support the library… so for me it was kind of an easy choice,” he said.

“Libraries are cool,” the musician added. “A lot of them have really stepped up to present book readings and art exhibits and music… they’re kind of becoming like a community center, these libraries.”

“April is National Jazz Month,” explained Maryellen Cantanno, in charge of programming at Freeport library. “And people in this area love jazz, from all different backgrounds.”

Going back to the beginning of the library’s weekly Sunday concert series, Cantanno recalled Belle Sylvester, a classical violinist who, in her later years, worked for the library and “really had an ear for the music and appreciated the talent.” Sylvester was also involved with the Long Island Arts Council in Freeport.

After Sylvester died, the library named its classical music series in her honor.

“People enjoy their music here,” Cantanno added.