Jimmy Greene – Biography

A native of Connecticut, Jimmy Greene is one of the most respected saxophonists of his generation. His most recent recording, As We Are Now, was released on July 25, 2025. His 2014 release, Beautiful Life (Mack Avenue), garnered two Grammy® Award nominations: one for Best Jazz Instrumental Album and one for Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals for Greene’s song “When I Come Home.”

Greene has performed selections from the album on CBS This Morning, NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and the nationally syndicated Meredith Vieira Show.

His other releases as a leader — While Looking Up (Mack Avenue), Flowers: Beautiful Life, Vol. 2 (Mack Avenue), Live at Smalls (SmallsLive), Mission Statement (RazDaz/Sunnyside), The Overcomers Suite (NuJazz), Gifts and Givers (Criss Cross), True Life Stories (Criss Cross), Forever (Criss Cross), Brand New World (RCA Victor), Live at Birdland (RCA Victor), and Introducing Jimmy Greene (Criss Cross) — were also met with much critical acclaim.

Tony Hall of Jazzwise Magazine (UK) calls Greene:

“...without doubt one of the most striking young tenors of recent years.”

The Jimmy Greene Quartet/Quintet performs in concert venues, festivals, and clubs worldwide, including the Village Vanguard, Smoke, and Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola in New York; Alexanderplatz Jazz Club (Rome, Italy); Sunside Jazz Club (Paris, France); Newport Jazz Festival (USA); Detroit International Jazz Festival (USA); Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival (USA); Red Sea Jazz Festival (Israel); Lapataia Jazz Festival (Uruguay); and Amazonas Jazz Festival (Brazil).

In one such appearance, Jim Macnie of the Village Voice said:

“[Greene] is good for a couple of body chills every time you see him. He’s got a big barrelhouse sound, and a way of negotiating changes that make academic moves seem natural.”

In addition to his recordings and appearances as a leader, Greene appears on over 100 albums as a sideman and is a member of legendary bassist Ron Carter’s Foursight Quartet. He has toured and/or recorded with Horace Silver, Tom Harrell, Freddie Hubbard, Harry Connick, Jr., Avishai Cohen, Kenny Barron, Lewis Nash, Steve Turre, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, among many others.

As a member of Harrell’s quintet, Greene was featured on CBS’s 60 Minutes. As a member of Harry Connick Jr.’s Big Band, Greene is a featured soloist on two DVD releases — Harry for the Holidays and Only You — and was featured as a soloist on Connick’s 2003 holiday special aired on NBC, in addition to NBC’s Today Show and BBC’s Parkinson Show.

As a composer, Greene was awarded the prestigious 2005 ASCAP / IAJE Commission in honor of Ornette Coleman.

He is the 2013 recipient of the State of Connecticut Governor’s Arts Award in Music, as well as the 2012 recipient of the City of Hartford’s Innovator Award in Music. Greene was twice named a winner of Chamber Music America’s New Works: Creation and Presentation grant for jazz composition (in 2004 and 2023), was awarded a 2005 Artist Fellowship in Music Composition by the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism, and a 2009 Individual Artist Grant by the Greater Hartford Arts Council.

Seventy of Greene’s original compositions and arrangements have been recorded on the Mack Avenue, RCA Victor, SmallsLive, Criss Cross, NuJazz, and RazDaz/Sunnyside labels. Greene’s performance of his composition “Mr. McLean” was aired throughout the US and Canada on ABC-TV during a NASCAR pre-race broadcast in September 2007.

DownBeat Magazine named Greene the Winner of the Rising Star – Soprano Saxophone category in its 66th Annual Critics' Poll.