Ben Black

Seattle-based composer and vocalist Ben Black grew up in a military family filled with a number of musicians. During a five year stay in Europe as a child, he had the opportunity to cultivate an appreciation for a wide array of music from the cultures he came in contact with. His parents exposed him to stellar jazz vocalists and instrumentalists of the times, including Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Nina Simone, Sergio Mendes and Brazil ’66, and many of the great Broadway musicals of the 20th century.  Ben began performing as a vocalist on the Seattle jazz scene in 1985, while studying in the fertile environment of Cornish College of the Arts. He studied jazz improvisation with the pioneering jazz vocalist, Jay Clayton. His career also spans new opera-theatre, cabaret and African drumming and dance. Ben’s debut album, “In a Mellow Tone”, was released in 1996 on MNOP Records, with the follow-up, “Remembered Faces/Private Places”, released in 2001 on Origin Records. He was also a featured guest soloist on The Fisher Ensemble's award-winning album,“Psyche,” in 2011.
“Breathtakingly beautiful! Ben Black may be the most androgynous voice you will ever hear… He joins the great singer Caetano Veloso in being willing to risk using his full vocal range without filtering it through gender-appropriate sounds. Ben shows that the heart, the soul, and the kundalini energy have no sexual orientation and no gender identity; he has a vocal sound that authentically reverberates in all ears without a definition of either/or.”  - Jim Fouratt, “Listen Up”  Ben is also dedicated to the study and practice of Tibetan and Zen Buddhism, and volunteerism in the LGBTQ+ community.