Pleasure Island Seafood Blues and Jazz Festival 2017

Last October, Hurricane Matthew blew out plans for the 23rd annual Pleasure Island Seafood, Blues & Jazz Festival, so the event was re-scheduled for Sunday, April 23.

Two stages will operate simultaneously, one for blues and the other for jazz. Headlining the jazz stage at 7:30 p.m. is Wilmington's incredible saxophone son, Benny Hill, a graduate of New Hanover High School and the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

"My father played the piano and he had friends that would come over to the house and jam," Hill said on how he got started. "One of them played the saxophone. I became interested in learning to play, so my parents got me one for Christmas."

And learn he did. Hill received a music performance degree from UNCW and, after a 10-year hiatus, went to Northern Illinois University for his masters in jazz studies.

The Benny Hill Trio performing at the Seafood, Blues & Jazz Festival includes Taylor Lee on bass, who Hill has known since he was a teenager.

"Everyone was saying, 'You have to hear this child prodigy on the bass,'" Hill said. "We have played together off and on for a number of years."

He's also been working with Morey Jenkins Jr. on drums for four or five years now, gigging at places like the Duck and Dive and the Sweet and Savory Pub.

Hill said jazz fans can expect a different kind of set from his trio at the festival.

"We play a mixture of popular tunes done in a different way. We include songs from Michael Jackson, Prince, James Brown, Herbie Hancock, Roy Hargrove, Stevie Wonder, to name a few. It will be a change from the music I normally play at the festival."

Growing up, Hill listened to "music that was on the radio," he said. "Rap, hip-hop, rock, hair bands of the '80s. Once I got into jazz in the '90s I was listening to Sonny Stitt, Charlie Parker, Jackie McLean, Dexter Gordon, John Coltrane and Miles Davis."

He's still listening to many of the same artists he listened to in the '90s because "I feel I still have so much to learn from them. I mix in a few current players as well. Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Kenny Garrett, Roy Hargrove, Joshua Redman and Brian Blade, to name a few. I listen to them because their play is filled with tradition and without that, it can sound like a bunch of notes to me."

Born and raised in Wilmington, Hill started band in the fifth grade at the former Tileston Elementary School (now a complex owned by the Basilica Shrine of St. Mary), then played in bands at Lake Forest Junior High (now Lake Forest Academy) and New Hanover High School.

As to how he views the current jazz scene in Wilmington, Hill said "it's growing. Thanks to venues like Burnt Mill Creek, the Platypus and Gnome and the Rusty Nail, people can go and hear jazz on a regular basis."

Contact StarNews arts and entertainment at 910-343-2343.

Want to go?

What: Pleasure Island Seafood, Blues & Jazz Festival

When: 11 a.m. gates, Sunday, April 23

Where: Fort Fisher Air Force Recreation Area, 118 Riverfront Drive, Kure Beach

Details: Tickets are $50, free for children 12 and under

Info: 910-458-8434 or PleasureIslandNC.org

SCHEDULE

Blues stage

11:30 a.m.Snake Malone & The Black Cat Bone -- Wilmington seven-piece plays what it terms "big-city blues with a down-home feel."

1:10 p.m. Luxuriant Sedans -- Piedmont band of musical vets plays a mix of blues, rock and soul.

2:50 p.m. David Gerald -- This Detroit-based, Mississippi-born guitarist has a smooth, groovy style that's sure to get the crowd moving.

4:30 p.m. Kara Grainger -- Australian singer and guitarist has a top-notch voice and delivers a mix of blues and folk rock.

6:30 p.m. Samatha Fish -- A hard-rocking blues guitarist with trancy, gritty originals, Fish takes an old-school soul turn with new album "Chills & Fever."

9 p.m. Jonny Lang -- Lang plays gospel- and rock-infused blues. He came to notice in the mid-'90s with the album "Lie to Me," which he recorded at age 15, and later won a Grammy for 2006's "Turn Around."

Jazz stage

Noon: Lynne & The Wave -- Carolina Beach party-rock band plays a mix of originals and covers.

1:30 p.m. Nelson & the Rock-a-Fellas -- Wilmington band runs with a unique instrumentation: piano, upright bass, drums and harmonica.

3 p.m. Nita B & Her Soiree -- Charlotte singer performs upbeat jazz and blues.

4:30 p.m. Max Levy & the Hawaiian Shirts -- This mostly instrumental Wilmington band plays jazz, blues and funk with the occasional rock cover.

6 p.m. Nina Repeta -- A former Azalea Festival queen, Repeta lends her strong voice to jazz standards and classics.

7:30 p.m. Benny Hill Trio -- Saxophonist Hill is a longtime Wilmington favorite, thanks to his heartfelt, flawless renditions of jazz standards and obscurities, as well as his own compositions.

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Source: https://www.starnewsonline.com/story/entertainment/local/2017/04/18/benny-hill-trio-to-jazz-up-unexpected-tunes-at-pleasure-island-seafood-blues-amp-jazz-fest/21353416007/

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