Award-Winning Trumpeter Eric “Benny” Bloom Talks Wine, Comedy and Country Music: [Interview]
Eric “Benny” Bloom, is a man of big appetites. While music fans know him best as the acclaimed, award-winning trumpet virtuoso for Grammy-nominated funk juggernaut Lettuce, few know that he is an ardent supporter and practitioner of music’s many expressions, including his latest independent project Benny & Taylor’s Honky Tonk Express, a country band founded with roots rocker, guitarist, and singer/songwriter Taylor Scott. Fewer still know that he is an entrepreneur and passionate connoisseur of fine wine who is co-owner of Benny & Zoid Selections (formerly Sauvage Selections), a Denver-based natural wine distribution company founded in 2019 with Lettuce bandmate and saxophonist Ryan Zoidis. Sprinkle in a quirky sense of humor that channels the golden era of Borscht Belt comedy, and a multi-faceted musician, entertainer, oenophile and businessman emerges.
In a free-ranging phone conversation with MusicFestNews, Bloom peeled back some of the the layers that make him one of the most distinctive and engaging characters in entertainment today, covering musical directions past and present.
Bloom, 42, laid the groundwork for who he would become in Bristol, RI, his hometown, where he was introduced first to the trombone and then the trumpet through the the city’s public school band program. “My arms were too short for the trombone, and a lot of my friends were playing trumpet,” Bloom recalled of his early years with the instrument that would make him one of the most sought-after trumpeters in the nation. Private lessons in middle school nurtured Bloom’s budding talent that would lead him to be named to Rhode Island Music Education Association’s all-state jazz band and classical orchestra.
Later Bloom would study music at William Paterson University, The New England Conservatory of Music, and City College of New York, none of which led to a degree. “Over the years, it’s common for certain musicians to do two or three [schools],” he explained. “But I just kept moving and quitting for multiple reasons and doing other gigs. And so, I’d always come back, and I felt like I really wanted a degree, but I ended up not needing it.”
Even though Bloom chose to forgo a formal education, he continued to learn and grow as a musician, making a name for himself playing in Rhode Island and the region, even catching the attention of former Providence Mayor Vincent A. “Buddy” Cianci Jr., who claimed Bloom as his favorite musician. His reputation as an accomplished trumpeter continued to grow and in 2011 when Bloom’s friend, Boston-based trombonist Brian Thomas, extended a fateful invitation to join Lettuce for a gig in Vermont, where the band was in need of a sub on trumpet. “I did so well, they asked me to join the band that night,” Bloom recalled of the experience.
At the same time, award-winning guitar hero, producer, and former Lettuce guitarist Eric Krasno asked Bloom to join Soulive, Krasno’s longstanding funk and soul outfit. “So, I played with Lettuce, and then I got both gigs within, like, a week,” he said. “So, it was quite surreal.” Just two years later, his skilled trumpet playing reached the ears of Derek Vincent Smith (a.k.a. Pretty Lights) who asked Bloom to join Analog Future Band, Smith’s live electronic ensemble.
With Bloom’s reputation and talent growing, Rhode Island’s music scene proved too small to contain him. By 2014, Bloom found himself drawn to the rich music culture of New Orleans, where he made his home and played and recorded with many of the city’s acclaimed artists including Dr. John, The Meters, Stanton Moore Trio, The Nigel Hall Band, Jon Cleary & The Absolute Monster Gentlemen, Aaron Neville, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Galactic, and more. Fans could also catch Bloom frequently performing around town with his own bands – Sonic Bloom and Eric Benny Bloom & The Melodies.
Over the years, countless collaborations followed, including with a diverse cast of world-class musicians such as Questlove, Mickey Hart, Citizen Cope, Meshell Ndegeocello. Tedeschi Trucks Band, Phil Lesh, Maceo Parker, Ledisi, Chaka Kahn, Skrillex, Bob Weir, Gary Clark Jr., Christian McBride, Diane Birch, Wu-Tang Clan, Kool & The Gang, Ben Folds, Taj Mahal, Warren Haynes, and a host of others. Bloom’s star continued to climb when, in 2016, he earned a Grammy for his work on Jon Cleary’s Go Go Juice, which won for Best Regional Roots Music album. Bloom was up for a second Grammy in 2020 for his contributions on Lettuce’s critically acclaimed album Elevate, which was nominated for Instrumental Album of the Year.
A 2019 move to Denver (where Lettuce bandmates drummer Adam Deitch and guitarist Adam “Shmeeans” Smirnoff live) opened up doors for Bloom on numerous fronts. A dynamic music scene afforded Bloom many opportunities to explore his burgeoning musical repertoire while the city’s panorama of libations and culinary delights fed his affinity for natural wines. Wanting to share his passion for fine organic wines, Bloom teamed up with fellow wine aficionado Ryan Zoidis to start Sauvage Selections (since renamed Benny & Zoid Selections), which currently only distributes wines in Colorado.
“I’ve been drinking wine for over twenty years,” said Bloom explaining how he developed a love for the grape. “Because you travel the world, a lot of us music fans and musicians wanna drink better options. You don’t wanna just drink whiskey all day and beers and things like that. I like the feeling of wine versus, like, vodka, or whiskey all night, or nine beers. Wine can be a lighter – more airy. It’s a better thing.
“So natural wine, organic wines, natural in particular, they have a lot less sulfites, additives and sugar – the whole thing. In a normal conventional wine, they can put in all these things that they don’t have to tell you about. They don’t make you feel good and is the reason why a lot of us in the last 20 years or so aren’t drinking wine all the time. They’ve added so much shit to it that you don’t feel good the next day.
“Wine doesn’t have to be this very expensive, crazy kind of thing. It can be a great way to experience local things. So, that’s why I enjoy making wine available that’s local. It’s a very artisanal thing. Making wine that’s local, with grapes that are local to where winemaker lives and has a lot of history and has been in a region for a long time, I wanna experience that. It helps you know the land and the region better and it’s just a fun thing to get into. If I’m gonna drink, I’d rather do the best version of that and be least taxing on my body. Wine seems to be that for me. ”
Traveling the world, Bloom keeps his mind and his palate open to new wines choosing to offer them for distribution if they meet certain criteria. “I pick just based on great wine makers and their history,” he said. “And is the wine available? Does someone else already have it in the state of Colorado where I live? If someone is already selling it, then I can’t sell it. But if no one’s selling it, I can.
“Because I travel, and I, say, had this wine in California or in Italy, and no one’s selling it here in Colorado and it’s a very popular, dope, organic natural wine, then I contact the winemaker or the importer to say, ‘Hey. I’d love to sell your wine here.”
When not pursuing his love of wine, most of Bloom’s waking hours are filled with making music. Bloom not only tours worldwide with Lettuce but also participates in a number of side projects including BTTRFLY Quintet (a supergroup made up of Bloom, Lettuce drummer Adam Deitch, producer and Break Science keyboardist Borahm Lee, Break Science bassist Hunter Roberts and Big Gigantic producer and saxophonist Dominic Lalli); The Adam Deitch Quartet (made up of Deitch, Bloom, Ryan Zoidis and organist and multi-instrumentalist Will Blades); The Shady Horns (Bloom and Zoidis); Eric “Benny Bloom & The Late Bloomers and Benny & Taylor’s Honky Tonk Express, his latest project and the culmination of a fascination with country going back years.
Bloom’s interest in country music dates back to the early 2000s when he was touring with Diane Birch Band. “Two of the guys in the band were from Iowa,” Bloom recalled. They were brothers and they loved country music. And they went to jazz college right after me, the same college, so they can play every style.
‘We were playing the Ryman Theater in Nashville, and I said, “You teach me. Tell me what records to get.” I got a couple and, you know – Merle Haggard and George Jones and Willie (Nelson). That’s just good music – storytelling.”
For Bloom, the leap from funk to country is a short one but with a long history. “It all comes from Black music,” he explained. “It’s storytelling – from Africa to Cuba, Jamaica, The Dominican Republic, Haiti. And then it comes to America and to New Orleans. It was gospel music and then the blues. That stuff turned into folk music. Folk and blues are very much early country. Jimmie Rodgers (widely regarded as the father of country music) sounds like it. It’s folk music. It’s very, like, traditional and straight.
“It’s just a different feeling as the music got a little bit further in its development. That’s when things started to break off. But it really all comes from the same thing. It’s just blues, really, and I love blues. I’ve played a lot of blues all over my life and with blues artists.
“Obviously I get paid to play music, and I enjoy all music. I could find something enjoyable about all music. Country is fun. You get to tell a story. It’s not about playing a million chord changes. It’s not about how technically amazing you are. It’s about playing from the heart, which you can in other styles of music, of course.”
Bloom was encouraged to take a deeper dive into country music and western culture by his close friends Mary Allison Wright and McLain Hedges, owners of one of Denver’s most beloved eclectic bars, Yacht Club. The pair took Bloom to a local rodeo where a country cover band was playing, inspiring him to start an ensemble of his own. In 2022, Bloom decided to enlist the talents of friend, singer/songwriter/guitarist and fellow country music lover Taylor Scott to form Benny & Taylor’s Honky Tonk Express. The duo recruited local jazz and funk players including Braxton Khan and Hunter Roberts from BTTRFLY Quintet to play covers of old country classics at venues around Denver.
Together they developed and innovative sound that blends jazz and funk influences with classic honky-tonk country. The genre rarely employs horns except for background but Bloom wields his like a fiddle reaching for influences ranging from jazz to funk to the sounds of New Orleans. To keep things fresh, his players are given free rein to roam musically as they see fit. Bloom, whose secret weapon is a wonderful singing voice, also gets to stretch his vocal chops alongside Taylor Scott, a powerful singer in his own right.
“Yeah, it’s different,” he said. “But I feel that I’m a great, I’m a good soloist, and it doesn’t really matter what instrument it is. If they’re killing, they’re killing. We have pedal steel and a ripping guitar and a great bass player. We have a piano player playing organ and Clavinet and other stuff. So we can really do a bunch of different things. We’re playing a traditional kind of style of country songs, but we’re adding some other influences in because, you know, nothing can stay the same.”
It wasn’t long before they were packing the Yacht Club and decided to record an EP, tapping pedal steel guitarist and engineer Ben Waligoske of Clubhouse Recorders to capture their debut effort. Released in January, Benny & Taylor’s Honky Tonk Express features six tracks including four singles, two written by Scott (“Light One Up” and “Wyoming Summer”), one written by Bloom (“Two For The Table”), and a cover of Hank Williams’ “Tear In My Beer.” The album is available across all digital platforms.
Above all else, Bloom does what he does because he’s having big fun both as a musician and as an entertainer. His prodigious musical talent belies a quirky sense of humor that makes him a fan favorite. Whether he’s goofing on stage with Lettuce, doing his comedy schtick on Jam Cruise, or inhabiting his cowboy alter ego decked out in a killer collection of cowboy hats and bolo ties, it’s all in good fun.
“I got my Stetson (hat) and my snake skin boots, and we’re having a good, good time,” he noted of his time spent onstage with Benny & Taylor’s Honky Tonk Express. “Don’t forget, I got my little man, macho man, Randy Savage situation going and a really hip collection of bolos.”
Bloom shares a congenial rapport with his fans who are sometimes the object of his good-natured ribbing. It’s a skill he learned during a short stint playing music on cruise ships and watching comedians banter with audiences.
Describing his comedic style, Bloom explained, “I’m more conversational – like slapstick, doing funny faces. I just make fun of my thing. I’m kind of like Don Rickles or Rodney Dangerfield making fun of people with one-liners and vibe just like that.
“I wish I could actually be a comedian, like a real professional comedian, but it’s so much work. I’m still trying to be a good musician. But it’s just fun to combine it and just be funny on gigs. I find I have a pretty good balance in my slightly older age – maybe be a little less funny and let the music shine through and be serious for a little bit. So, I’m finding the balance. But it’s a really fun thing. And I think I wanna continue getting honed in, and I’d love to get better at it for sure.”
Bloom still has his day job with Lettuce and is currently on tour with the band. To keep up with Bloom’s latest projects including his many side gigs and Benny & Zoid Selections, click on the links below.
Eric “Benny” Bloom
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Benny & Zoid Selections
Website
Lettuce
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