The Bayou this week

Thursday Apr 29th we are performing at the Bayou downtown, we performed there on Fox 13 live for "Fat Tuesday" and are excited to play there again.

Music starts at 9pm and goes until last call. The Bayou boasts great food late into the night. 21+

Hayley Kirkland will be performing with me, along with Bart Olson on drums. Check out Hayley and I performing live here:

New Group Featuring Jenna Jackman

I have been collaborating for some time with up-and-coming artist Jenna Jackman, and we are going to begin performing now. Bart Olson and I have been performing together for the past 15 years on and off, and he will be joining us on drums.

We are going for a downtempo, electronica, and trip-hop mixed with Jenna's melodic sensibilities.

Listen to some of our samples here:
http://robbennion.com/jennajackman.html

A way to tell if you're doing well during a show LOL

Restaurant performance at Christopher's Seafood and Steakhouse

I played this weekend at Christopher's downtown. It was a lot of fun, they were extremely busy and the tables were full all night with a line at the door.
I played 3 sets, performing a mix of standards and my own compositions, as well as some fun pop songs and other covers.
At the end of the night I got some of the best food I've had in a long time. Anyone interested in great food and and a high-class atmosphere should check out Christopher's.

Writeup about our performance in the Tribune

I contacted the David Burger, the Trib's Entertainment Reporter, and he made a writeup about our gig tomorrow: http://blogs.sltrib.com/burger/index.php?p=8355&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

DJ + SAX + FLUTE = GREAT MUSIC

A few weeks ago I performed a set with a dj down at the Hotel/club elevate for a VIP red-carpet party on a Saturday night. It was a lot of fun and people were very receptive to the sax and flute mixed with downtempo, electronica, and trip-hop.
Since then I've been composing some downtempo songs of my own, and have aquired equipment to be able to dj while performing on the sax and flute. It's a lot of fun for me and a way to create an accessible style of music while maintaining the improvisational quality of a live musician.
Adding a live drummer, the energy goes up even more. I run the "turntables" (digital turntables that is) while performing on the flute or sax with my effects pedals including delays, harmonization, octave dropper, etc; while the drummer keeps the beat going.
Jazz music as a genre has always been about innovation and incorporating new elements. If anyone has heard any of the Verve Remixes, that is the type of sound we are going for. The mix of the organic acoustic instruments (sax, flute, live drums) with the elecronic and pre-recorded sounds sets a very cool ambiance.

By Popular Demand: New Music for a new generation

Over the past year I have performed and DJ'd many events and wedding receptions, and have had many clients request current hip-hop and R&B songs during the dance portion of the event. There is a real demand for a band that can play the current chart-toppers, a band that could do hip-hop and R&B songs which MTV is currently playing.

I wanted to tell you about a new addition to my band . . . rapper 2uce Betta from Indianapolis. Together with LA native Hayley Singley, my band does what no other Salt Lake city band can do: we play popular R&B and hip-hop music, from classics like Michael Jackson's "Billy Jean", "Rapper's Delight" and the Beastie Boys to current chart-toppers like Beyonce and Jay-Z, Estelle and Kanye West, and the Black Eyed Peas.

Generation Xers are now CEOs, CFOs, and getting married by the droves. This party band, the only one of its kind, can really push the boundaries of live music. Keeping in mind that we are still well-versed in the classics from the Jazz/Blues/Pop songbooks such as the Beatles, Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, and many others. We can really keep the dance floor packed. Click here for demos and info about the group: http://www.robbennion.com/theband.html

New songs are a hit!

We played a wedding on Thursday performing the new songs in our repertoire. It was a lot of fun to see the look on people's faces when we started our dance set. We'd been playing fun jazz, latin, and bossa-nova songs up to the first dance and daddy0daughter dances. Then when we played "Hey Ya" by Outkast, people started dancing and coming over to check out what was going on. We had a bunch of people rush up and start requesting songs, when we played "American Boy" by Estelle I heard a girl say, "I Love this song!" to her friends.

I look forward to playing many more events which ask us to play current and modern songs.