Is this Benny Benjamin?

Larry

"Uncle Larry"
There's a guy who doesn't have much footage of him playing at all.

I was looking at a Hammond organ doc and saw this.

Is this Benny?

Keep watching after they cut away, because they come back with a good shot.

https://youtu.be/iBjp2ZDA8A0?t=652
 
sure does look like him

any idea what year that footage is from ?

I'm gonna guess late 50's, but I don't know for sure. This could be the only video I ever saw of him...if it's actually Benny. Like you said, it sure looks like him.
 
Cool find. Jimmy Smith's drummers were mainly Don Bailey and Otis Finch (neither of whom look like that) but that does really look like Benny. Judging from the kit this would be early 60s' Ludwig Blue Sparkle? Benny was active with earliest Motown by then, whereas Blue Note folks were all NYC? I don't know, I suppose anybody could be playing with anybody then. Just surmising.
Does your new band have Hammond organ? Nothing like it.
 
Grady Tate also comes to mind as far as Jimmy drummers, but that looks more like Benny from the pics Ive seen in the past. The touch on the drums looked pretty special too.

Was that Uriel Jones??
 
Cool find. Jimmy Smith's drummers were mainly Don Bailey and Otis Finch (neither of whom look like that) but that does really look like Benny. Judging from the kit this would be early 60s' Ludwig Blue Sparkle? Benny was active with earliest Motown by then, whereas Blue Note folks were all NYC? I don't know, I suppose anybody could be playing with anybody then. Just surmising.
Does your new band have Hammond organ? Nothing like it.

don't forget Grady Tate who was a big influence on me drumming.
 
check this page for a young Grady Tate who somewhat resembles the guy in the video from Larry
http://www.drummerworld.com/drummers/Grady_Tate.html

It appears to me Tate is shorter than the guy in the video, whereas Benny fits him to a tee if you Google many images of him, especially the eyes and moustache.
I think Larry un-earthed the only known video of Benny Benjamin. I've never seen him in film even on old Tamla Motown film.
 
Wasn't there plenty of video of him in the movie Standing in the Shadows of Motown? nicknamed Papa Zita, in the funk Brothers
 
Wasn't there plenty of video of him in the movie Standing in the Shadows of Motown? nicknamed Papa Zita, in the funk Brothers

Lots of still shots of him, I don't recall any 'action' footage. The other 2 drummers (Jones and Allen) were still alive and interviewed.
 
Wasn't there plenty of video of him in the movie Standing in the Shadows of Motown? nicknamed Papa Zita, in the funk Brothers

I think there could have been like a 2 second clip of him in that movie. In black and white. But this is the only other live footage I've seen of him, and I tried looking for some. Too bad. I would have like to known a lot more about him. He's a bit of a mystery.

I'm pretty sure that's Benny. I can tell by his mouth. I'd bet money.
 
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