Important Information

Ben Tankard (born January 24, 1964) is a former professional basketball player and an American gospel, jazz keyboardist producer, songwriter and author.
Tankard, and his wife Jewel donate their time as non-salary senior pastors of Destiny Center Church of Murfreesboro.
Tankard Is a Reality TV co-star with the show Bravo - Thicker Than Water:The Tankards, which premiered November 10, 2013.On August 21, 2013 Tankard was nominated for three Gospel Music Dove Awards.
These nominations were for Tankard's most recent CD release 'Full Tank" and the categories included : Contemporary Gospel/Urban Song of the Year, Contemporary Gospel/Urban Album of the Year, and Instrumental Album of the Year.BiographyBen Tankard discovered Yolanda Adams, signed her to his independent record label, Tribute Records (Ben-Jamin' Universal Music) and produced several of her earlier works.
Tankard has also recorded a series of well received instrumental solo albums and soundtracks, with music styles ranging from pop to R&B to smooth jazz.
Tankard was the first artist to dedicate complete instrumental albums to a mixture of gospel and jazz, thus the term "GospelJazz".Tankard's musical accomplishments have earned him a total of three Grammy nominations, eleven Dove Award nominations, and twelve Stellar Awards including 2010's "Best Instrumental Album" for his Mercy, Mercy, Mercy CD.
This high charting release featured an instrumental remake of the Chris Tomlin Christian hit song, "How Great Is Our God".
Though many of Tankard's releases have received heavy rotation on gospel and smooth jazz stations, The Weather Channel, XM Satellite Radio and cable TV's Music Choice, Mercy, Mercy, Mercy was the first CD in the history of Billboard Magazine to chart on the gospel, contemporary jazz, and jazz chart all at the same time.With his ability to assemble stellar talent for his recordings, Tankard has been also been called the "Quincy Jones of Gospel", and is the bestselling gospeljazz instrumentalist in the world with 18 solo albums to his credit.
In addition to his extensive work with Yolanda Adams, Tankard has produced and collaborated with several other Grammy Award winning, gold and platinum artists including, Take 6, Fred Hammond, Kelly Price, John P.
Kee, Shirley Murdock, Twinkie Clark and Gerald Albright.
He has earned 15 Gold and 6 Platinum records in his two decades in the music business.Now, based in Murfreesboro, TN (near Nashville), Tankard is an avid aviator and instrument rated pilot.
He flies to most of his concerts on his own fleet of airplanes.
His favorite aircraft is the Pilatus PC-12.
Ben flies the following planes: Cessna Businessliner- 401A / N401BT and Cessna Skyrocket 337C / N2469S.
He also has FAA registration N number reserved for the Pilatus PC12: N192PC.
He makes over 100 special appearances and concerts each year including, Jazz Festivals, Gospel Explosions, and corporations.
He shares the joy of flight with young children through his Urban Eagles outreach program.
Since 2012 he has worked with the NBA on special projects as a musician and speaker.
He provides support for the NY based NBA League office player development division and his role allows him to share his success stories and show the players "how to have a life outside of basketball".
In his motivational sessions with the younger D-League players, Ben often plays a smoothjazz mini-concert from the piano as the players write out their goals and plans.Tankard married Jewel LaGreen on January 27, 2000.
They have a blended family five children (Marcus, Brooklyn, Britney, Benji, and Cyrene), two daughter-in-laws (Latisha and Shanira) and one grandchild (Diamond).
Having both been survivors of divorce, the Tankards often speak on TV and at national conferences on marriage and the blended family.
In 2002, The Tankard's launched Destiny Center Church in Murfreesboro, TN which is also the national headquarters for Tribute Records/Ben-Jamin'.
Destiny Center is one of the fastest growing churches in the Mid-State.On July 16, 2011 Tankard was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award for Musical Excellence as an artist, producer, and songwriter by The Atlanta Gospel-fest.
Ben Tankard is also a noted speaker and has spoken at major venues and events for the National Basketball Association, Joel Osteen, and Bishop T.D.
Jakes amongst others.Tankard's eighteenth studio album, the highly anticipated " Ben Tankard / Full Tank " was released on June 5, 2012 on his revamped Tribute Records (Ben-Jamin' Universal Music & Film) label.
It features music from legendary producer-songwriters, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, and special guest appearances by Mark Kibble / Take 6, & Gerald Albright.
The lead single from this release, " Sunday Vibes " featuring Tim Bowman on guitar, was released on May 20 and quickly became the #1 most played song on Watercolors (Sirius XM).
The CD debuted its first week on the Billboard and Amazon.com top sellers charts in three categories: Jazz, Gospel and Southern Gospel, a first for Tankard in that genre.In September of 2012, Ben Tankard / Full Tank was nominated by the Soul Train Music Awards for Best Contemporary Jazz Artist and the Stellar Awards for Best Urban Contemporary Performance.In October of 2012, Ben Tankard / Full Tank appeared on the Grammy Award ballot for Six (6) Grammy Awards.
They included: Pop Instrumental Album, Improvised Jazz Solo, Instrumental Composition, Instrumental Arrangement, and Instrumental Arrangement for vocal and Engineered Album.This was also a "first" for Tankard and a major accomplishment for his independent record label to have so many appearances on the Grammy ballot at one time.
On March 1, 2013, Ben's new single (title cut) " Full Tank " hit the top five Smoothjazz charts and Billboard harts.
He was also nominated for a " BlueMic " award and won it for Best Instrumental Artist on July 12, 2013 at the Gospel BlueMic Awards in Chesapeake,VA.On April 3, 2013, Bravo cable network announced that Ben Tankard and family had been cast for Thicker Than Water: The Tankards, a new reality show that showcases Tankard's family life, music career, business ventures, passion for aviation, and his role as a motivational speaker with the National Basketball Association (NBA) and his true passion : ministry.
When asked about he reality show, Ben responds: " With a wonderful blended family this big, there is sure to be much excitement going on all the time at the Tankard Palace.
I call it a comedic cross between Bill Cosby and the Brady Bunch with a twist......Watch What Happens ".
The International Black Film Festival presented a screening of the first episode " Family Ties " to a standing room only crowd on November 2, 2013 at Nashville's Country Music Hall Of Fame.
The response was tremendous.
The show's rookie season premiered on November 10, 2013 with over 1.5 million viewers and the finale episode aired on January 5, 2014 with over 2.2 million viewers making it one of Bravo / NBC Universal's highest rated freshmen reality shows.On November 5, 2013 Tankard released an instrumental jazz single called "Thicker Than Water (the church picnic)" from his forth coming new CD "Full Tank Volume 2".
The song rode the smoothjazz.com and Billboard contemporary jazz charts Nov.
2013-March 2014.
Tankard is currently on his Full Tank Music Tour and the full CD will be released late 2014 as well as his Full Tank Big & Tall Clothing Line, and a new self help motivational book entitled "The Full Tank Life."