A Life Inside Music
Leo Green has spent more than three decades working across almost every side of the music business — as a saxophonist, broadcaster, concert promoter, festival founder, business executive and creator of live entertainment.
He began his professional career as a musician, joining Jerry Lee Lewis's band at 19, before going on to perform and record with artists including Van Morrison, Paul Weller, Jools Holland, Jeff Beck and Ronnie Wood.
But performing became only one part of the story.
Alongside his career on stage came more than 250 hours of broadcasting for BBC Radio 2, an association with Jazz FM dating from its 2008 relaunch, the creation of BluesFest, eleven years at Live Nation, and a succession of independently created entertainment businesses and formats.
Today those different strands come together in a new chapter: creating, developing and owning entertainment intellectual property — while preserving and extending the extraordinary cultural inheritance left by Leo's father, writer and broadcaster Benny Green.
MUSICIAN
Four decades on stage.
From joining Jerry Lee Lewis at 19, to hundreds of performances and recordings with Van morrison, Leo's life as a saxophonist has taken him from jazz clubs to theatres, festivals and arena stages all over the world.
His current work includes The Van Morrison Alumni Band and The Secret Sax Party.
BROADCASTER
Music - and the stories behind it.
Leo has scripted and presented more than 250 hours for BBC Radio 2; he joined Jazz FM at its 2008 relaunch and today writes, programmes and presents The Leo Green Show every Sunday evening from 7pm to 9pm.
In 2021 he created www.lgradio.online, an independently produced home for long-form authored music programming and documentary series.
Leo's shows have included in depth interviews with numerous artists, along with hundreds of hours of broadcasting covering The Great American Songbook, the music and artists of the 1950s and Jazz.
ENTREPRENEUR
Building businesses around live music and iconic songs.
From Artistic Director of Ronnie Scott's Club, through AEG Live and The 02, to co-founding Full Circle Live, creating BluesFest, its acquisition by Live Nation, and more than a decade spent as Live Nation UK's Director of Live Events.
Today Leo is CEO and Founder of The Showtime Group, developing and scaling owned live entertainment formats and intellectual properties.
CULTURAL INHERITANCE
Benny Green. 1927 - 1998
Leo's father was musician, writer and broadcaster Benny Green, one of Britain's distinctive interpreters of jazz, popular song and twentieth-century cultural life.
Leo grew up surrounded by the records, books, musicians, writers and conversations that informed Benny's work.
What began as inheritance has become stewardship.
BUILDING WHAT COMES NEXT
Experience becomes intellectual property.
The current chapter brings together everything that came before.
The Showtime Group
Icons Orchestral
The Van Morrison Alumni Band
The Secret Sax Party
LG Radio
The Benny Green Institute
Different ideas, sharing one underlying principle: creating entertainment with an identity that can live beyond a single performance.
In The Room
Some careers can be told through the people encountered along the way.
Jerry Lee Lewis
Leo was 19 when he joined Jerry Lee Lewis's band.
Van Morrison
A letter written in 1993 began a musical relationship that would span hundreds of performances and recordings.
Quincy Jones
At The 02, Leo performed Quincy Jones's Soul Bossa Nova with Jules Buckley & The Heritage Orchestra - part of the historical evening celebrating Quicy's extraordinary career and 80th birthday.
Frank Sinatra
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In 1989, sixteen-year old Leo accompanied his father backstage at The RoyalAlbert Hall and met Frank Sinatra
Selected Career Numbers
FOUR DECADES IN MUSIC
250 plus
hours scripted and presented for BBC Radio 2
300,000
tickets annually across Live Nation outdoor events at peak operation
200 plus
performances of original conception BBC Sounds of the 60s Live with
250,000 plus
tickets sold for the format since 2019
250 plus
concert appearances with Van Morrison
500,000 plus
attendees of BluesFest London
Current Projects
The Showtime Group
Investment-backed live entertainment IP and global touring ventures.
Icons Orchestral
Iconic song catalogues, the greatest singers and most exciting and explosive orchestra around - where the audience choose the running order in real time.
The Van Morrison Alumni Band
A legendary group of musicians who have collectively accompanied Van Morrison more than 3000 times in concert and hundreds of studio recordings
The Secret Sax Party
An original show from Leo Green featuring his powerhouse Sax drenched arrangements of some of the biggest hits of the last 30 years, performed by the very best singers and musicians around.
The Benny Green Institute
Launching around Benny Green's centenary in 2027.
BENNY GREEN
AN EXTRAORDINARY INHERITANCE
Benny Green left behind more than memories.
Books. Broadcasts. Journalism. Interviews. Scripts. Correspondence. Photographs. Research.
An estimated 15 million words of written and transcribed material documenting a lifetime spent thinking about and taking part in music and twentieth century culture.
Now Leo is bringing it together.
