All of Jake’s music is available to stream!
Check out Jake Benjamin on Spotify!
Check out Jake’s upcoming shows!
Find out where Jake is playing next!
In life, sometimes where you begin is where you belong. A few years ago, singer-songwriter Jake Benjamin made a left turn from his core self of being a musician that sent him on a winding, self-reflective odyssey through states and states of mind. Today, he announces his return to music with his aptly-titled debut EP, Finally Back Home, an exquisite collection of jazz-tinged pop.
Jake is one of those rare gifted artists that early on could sing better than they could speak. Yet, when it came time to go to college, Jake decided to pursue a career as a music business professional, and chose not to fine tune his prodigious talents. However, while in college, Jake became reacquainted with songwriting and discovered the beauty of jazz. “I fell in love with the fact that music could be an exchange of energies between two people,” Jake shares.
The New York-based artist earned his bachelor’s degree from University of Miami’s Frost School of Music’s Music Business and Studio Music & Jazz programs, and earned his master’s degree from Indiana University’s prestigious Jacobs School of Music where he studied voice. Because of this formal training, core to Jake’s aesthetic is his sophisticated harmonic compositional vocabulary. During his studies, Jake has been fortunate to share the stage with renowned artists like Tierney Sutton, Darmon Meader, James Newton Howard, Kate McGarry, Cyrille Aimée, and many more.
Jake tempers this studied musicality with adventurous artistic explorations via a loop station. His innovative approach with this technology treats the loop station as a compositional tool through which he explores the possibilities of vocal layering, beatboxing, and body percussion. “I write original music for the millennial wallflower, and I reimagine jazz repertoire to make tunes my own. The stories in my songs are about me, or somebody I know. I don’t like to make up stories of things I didn’t go through,” Jake says.
These days, Jake is in New York music making within a community of musicians and friends. His next release, however, will showcase his solo artistry with a collection of songs themed around Vincent van Gogh. These recordings will highlight concepts of the psyche, the human condition, and they will showcase Jake’s innovative use of his looper station.