Leo Green (30 August 1972) is a British saxophonist, who has played for man… Read Full Bio ↴Leo Green (30 August 1972) is a British saxophonist, who has played for many bands and artists and spent 10 years in Van Morrison's band, 2 years in Jerry Lee Lewis's band, and has also worked with other artists including Tom Jones, Paul Weller and Jools Holland, and also as a producer for artists including Robbie Williams. He has contributed, by playing saxophone and arranging for albums released by artists like Van Morrison, Jools Holland and Jeff Beck. Green now plays saxophone and sings for his own band: The Leo Green Experience. He is now "one of the top saxophone players in the world".
Green was musical director and conductor for Burt Bacharach and Hal David for their show at the Royal Albert Hall which was filmed for DVD release.
He was appointed Artistic Director of Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in 2005, prior to a huge refurbishment. Following the completion of the refurb, Green completely over hauled the clubs timings as well as introducing 2 houses a night on Fridays & Saturdays, which made it possible to afford a level of acts not seen at the club for decades. Under his stewardship, the club saw an incredible roster of acts appear, the like of which hadn't been seen since the 1970s, and which haven't been seen since his departure in December 2007. Green managed to persuade the likes of Tony Bennett, Van Morrison,Wynton Marsalis, Chick Corea, David Sanborn, Ramsey Lewis, Ron Carter, Branford Marsalis, Keely Smith, Macy Gray, Jose Felliciano, Chris Botti, Little Jimmy Scott, The Stylistics, Joan Armatrading, Marlena Shaw, Roy Hargrove and many others, to appear at the intimate 220 seat club. Green was responsible for managing to convince guitarist Jeff Beck to perform at the venue for a series of shows in November 2007, which were filmed for a worldwide DVD release under the title of "Performing This Week...Live At Ronnie Scott's". These shows, which also included appearances by Eric Clapton and Joss Stone, were hailed as some of the most remarkable shows in the club's history and have been aired several times on BBC4. Whilst at Ronnie Scott's, Green established "The Ronnie Scott's Jazz Awards", and was responsible for delivering a line-up which gained the club worldwide press coverage - by booking a line-up of artists on the night which included amongst others, Jamie Cullum, Van Morrison, Mica Paris, Robert Elms,Scott Hamilton and Jools Holland, Green had insured the event would be covered by media all over the world. The awards on the night included a Lifetime Achievement Award for Tony Bennett, along with other awards for the likes of Van Morrison, Jamie Cullum and Courtney Pine. The first awardAmy Winehouse received for her multi million selling album Back to Black, was a Ronnie Scott's Jazz Award. On the night of the awards, Green also wrote the script, presented the evening, as well as performing with Jeff Beck and Van Morrison. Since his departure in 2007, the Ronnie Scott's Jazz Awards have never happened again.
Green was musical director, arranger and conductor for Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller for their show at the Hammersmith Apollo which was filmed for DVD release. He is also a radio broadcaster, and has presented on Smooth FM, and now presents his own show Leo Green and Friends on Jazz FMevery Sunday. He is the son of the late BBC Radio 2 broadcaster, writer and musician Benny Green and actress Toni Kanal, and is the brother of the writer and musician Dominic Green.