Ben Black has been a performer on the Seattle jazz scene since 1985, and spent two years as a music student at Cornish College. His career also spans new opera-theatre, cabaret and African drumming and dance. He studied jazz improvisation for a number of years with pioneer jazz vocalist, Jay Clayton.

Ben is proud of his multicultural background which includes ancestors from Armenia, Slovenia, Germany, Scotland and Ireland. He grew up in a military family in which there were a number of musicians. During a five year stay in Europe as a child, he had the opportunity to cultivate an appreciation for the music of different cultures. As he was growing up, 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.