An Evening of Live Jazz with Benno Marmur & His All-Star Quintet
New York-based jazz guitarist, composer and bandleader Benno Marmur leads a special ensemble at Cinema Village in collaboration with VAEFF Extended. The performance highlights original music and selections from Marmur’s forthcoming Cellar Live recording, bringing together an acclaimed group of New York jazz musicians for an evening of modern jazz.
Live Jazz Concert + Wine & Cheese Reception
Thursday, November 19, 2026
Cinema Village, New York City
7:30 PM | Doors Open
8:00–9:15 PM | Live Jazz Concert with Benno Marmur & His All-Star Quintet
9:15–11:00 PM | Wine & Cheese Reception
Benno Marmur
GUITAR
Benno Marmur is a highly sought-after guitarist based in New York City. He has performed at Smalls,
Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, The Iridium, Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem, Nublu,
Ornithology, The Velvet Note (Alpharetta, Georgia), Westport Jazz, Dock Street Jazz Club (Ireland),
Jazz on Main, and St. Peter’s Church, among other venues.
Marmur has performed with Grant Stewart, Vincent Herring, Jimmy Madison, Warren Chiasson, Clovis
Nicolas, Erena Terakubo, Mark Whitfield, Fukushi Tainaka, Grant Green Jr., Eric Wheeler, Marcus
McLaurine, the New York Voices, Chris Potter, and Bill Charlap with the WPUNJ Big Band, among
others.
Benno Marmur is signed to Cellar Live.
Ulysses Owens Jr.
DRUMS
Ulysses Owens Jr. is a three-time GRAMMY Award-winning jazz drummer, bandleader, producer, educator, author, and composer. He leads Generation Y and The People’s Big Band, heads UOJ Productions, teaches at The Juilliard School and The New School, and serves as Drumeo’s inaugural Jazz Drum Instructor and Founding Artistic Director of Jacksonville nonprofit Don’t Miss a Beat. Through UOJ Productions, he has produced more than 70 albums in over 15 years.
The New York Times has called Owens “a drummer who takes a back seat to no one.” He has performed or recorded with Christian McBride, Kurt Elling, Wynton Marsalis, Mulgrew Miller, Renée Fleming, and Dianne Schuur, and has appeared on GRAMMY-winning albums by Elling, the Christian McBride Big Band, and the Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra.
His big band earned DownBeat’s Rising Star Large Ensemble honor in 2022; Modern Drummer readers named him Jazz Drummer of the Year in 2024; and Generation Y’s A New Beat spent eight consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the JazzWeek Radio Chart.
Sam Dillon
TENOR SAXOPHONE
Native New Yorker, saxophonist, recording artist, composer, and educator Sam Dillon has established himself as one of the most in-demand musicians of his generation. His work as a soloist and sideman includes more than 50 studio recordings, performances around the world, and international recognition as a distinctive tenor saxophone voice.
Dillon’s album Trade Off, co-led with Andrew Gould, marks their ensemble’s second album together and the first collaboration between Pinch Records and LaReserve. His quartet album My Ideal was released on Cellar Live Records in July 2025.
His recent sideman recordings include The Birdland Big Band (2025), The Mingus Big Band (2024), Mark Sherman’s With Freedom on Miles High Records (2023), and Chris Hajian’s A Portrait in Melancholy (2023). His previous albums as a leader include Two Part Solution with Frank Basile on Cellar Live (2020), Force Field on Posi-Tone (2019), and Out in the Open on Cellar Live (2018). His full discography is available on his website.
In addition to his work as a leader, Dillon has toured, recorded, and performed extensively with large ensembles including the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Jimmy Heath Big Band, Mingus Big Band, Slide Hampton Octet, The 8-Bit Big Band, Steven Feifke Big Band, and Birdland Big Band.
In 2022, Dillon received a GRAMMY certificate for his participation in The 8-Bit Big Band’s “Meta Knight’s Revenge (From Kirby Super Star).” In 2016, he earned an Artist Diploma from The Juilliard School, following bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music performance from SUNY Purchase College. In 2013, he was selected as one of 13 semifinalists in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition.
April Varner
VOCALS
April Varner has immersed herself deeply in the jazz tradition and has performed or studied with celebrated artists including Tierney Sutton, Russell Malone, Sachal Vasandani, Jane Monheit, Kurt Elling, and Walter Smith III.
She has appeared at notable venues including Chris’s Jazz Café (Philadelphia), Blues Alley (Washington, D.C.), Con Alma (Pittsburgh), 54 Below (New York City), Birdland Jazz Club (sold-out debut), and Mezzrow Jazz Club (sold-out debut). In May 2024, she made her international debut headlining the Longjumeau Jazz Festival in France in celebration of Ella Fitzgerald, followed by two performances at Sunset Sunside in Paris.
Varner was invited as a featured artist at the Jazz for All Ages Festival in Hilton Head, South Carolina, alongside Kurt Elling, Catherine Russell, John Pizzarelli, and Emmet Cohen. Most recently, she toured across North America for the summer with Postmodern Jukebox.
Ahmed McLemore
BASS
Ahmed McLemore is a New York-based jazz bassist whose playing is rooted in the bebop and hard bop traditions. Born in Detroit, he grew up in a musical household, sang in church, and took up classical upright bass at age eleven before moving from R&B production and singing into jazz.
He earned a degree in jazz performance from the Oberlin Conservatory, where he studied with bassist Gerald Cannon, and went on to graduate study at The Juilliard School. He has shared the bandstand with musicians including Mark Whitfield, Terrell Stafford, Eric Alexander, and Pasquale Grasso, and anchors trios throughout the New York club scene.
