Benny Benack III has just moved from Pittsburgh to Manhattan, and he's having the syncopated time of his life. Where else would a talented young jazz trumpeter and singer rather be than at the epicenter of the music?

He started classes at the Manhattan School of Music on the Upper West Side last week, but he's been in town a few weeks now, reveling in the city's live jazz scene.

"My favorite thing to do, that I've done already seven or eight times since I've been out here, is go hear music. It's like every night there's a different monster you can hear.

"I went to see Chris Potter, a great tenor player with a trio, and I heard Hank Jones and Terell Stafford at Birdland last week, and I'm going to go to the Village Vanguard to see Joe Lovano on Sunday. And I've seen Donny McCaslin, a great tenor sax player, at the 55 Bar. I mean you name it, there's a ton of guys out here and a ton of places to hear the music."

This weekend, though, Benny III will return to Pittsburgh to perform with the big band led by his father, saxophonist Benny Benack II, at Jazz Day in the Park, a noon-to-night cornucopia of local musicians at Schenley Plaza in Oakland on Sunday. Benny and his dad will take the stage about 6 p.m. During the set, Benny III will receive a $5,000 scholarship from the Pittsburgh Jazz Society and BNY Mellon.

The Benack musical brand dates back to the honoree's grandfather, the late trumpeter Benny Benack. He played Dixieland and swing with the Riverboat Six -- also called the Iron City Six -- whose "Beat 'em Bucs" provided the theme song for the Pirates' 1960 championship season. He went on to teach high school music in his hometown of Clairton. In the early '80s, he formed an 11-piece big band with original arrangements by Joe Campus that his son, Benny II, leads to this day. Benny II's ex-wife, Claudia Benack, is a classical pianist and professor of voice in the Carnegie Mellon University drama department.

Now 18, Benny III remembers first taking the stage with his dad when he was about 8.

"The first thing I ever did was with his big band at this big concert outdoors, and I sang 'Gary, Indiana.' My mom came on stage and played piano, because that was the only way I would be able to perform it, if my mom played piano exactly the way the little part we had rehearsed at home went."

Benny had started taking classical piano when he was 5 or 6. He and his sister Laura, whom he describes as an excellent pianist, singer and sight-reader, were immersed in the music of the household. Benny began studying trumpet in the second grade on an instrument that had belonged to his grandfather.

Later, he sang the lead roles in musicals at Upper St. Clair High School -- Nathan Detroit in "Guys and Dolls," the Narrator in "Into the Woods" and Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly's character) in "Singin' in the Rain." He also performed frequently with his dad.

Benny's talent began to attract attention outside Pittsburgh. He was picked for a spot in the Monterey Jazz Festival's Next Generation Jazz Orchestra and toured the country this summer with a band of his peers. He was also selected twice for the Grammy Jazz Ensembles, another group of promising high school musicians. It has taken him to Los Angeles the past two Februaries. The first year he performed with pianist McCoy Tyner. Last year it was Herbie Hancock, with Benny soloing on Hancock's "Maiden Voyage."

"That moment was definitely the apex, the highlight of my career. I have to say, it was probably one of the more nervous performances that I've ever done. But Herbie Hancock, being the incredible musician that he is, it's kind of hard not to sound great with him comping [accompanying] behind you."

Like any teen, he capitalizes on digital media. He has 1,748 friends (more by the time you read this) on Facebookand posts YouTube videos of his music. His Facebook motto reads: "Some people live 100 years without ever really living a minute."

"For me, that is kind of the hardest part about being an artist and being a young jazz musician now. With the de-emphasis on large record labels, it's become this business, especially in jazz, where you're a product in and of yourself. You're your own manager and business person and you're managing yourself, basically, and promoting yourself.

"I kind of wish that you could just go out and play and you'll keep getting opportunities that way, but that's just not the case. You have to really, really network your butt off. You have to have Facebook. And you have to have music out on the Internet. You have to have some videos of you playing. You're on your own. You're putting together your own press kit, basically."

Sean Jones, the Duquesne University professor and member of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra who was Benny's trumpet teacher for the past three years, has only praise for his protege.

"Benny is a rare combination," he says. "He has a lot of natural ability, musicianship that has been passed down from his family, and he also has a tremendous work ethic. So with those two things, he's destined for success. And it's really been a joy calling him student for the past couple of years, in that everything I throw at him, he consumes it. He works very hard. I've thrown some challenges at him, and he's risen to the challenge each time."

Benny's father also stresses his son's hard work. "I'll tell you what -- whenever people are saying Benny must be as good as he is because he gets it from me or he gets it from his mom, I say, 'No you know what the truth is -- Benny comes by it honestly because he works his tail off. He got up at six in the morning to practice his horn before he went to school, he practiced his horn for a couple of hours every night before he went to bed.' "

Another thing you'll notice on Benny III's Facebook page are all the shout-outs from Pittsburgh musicians wishing him well. Sean Jones, Benny notes, "is a huge advocate of promoting the Pittsburgh jazz scene. He's starting up this Pittsburgh Jazz Orchestra now, and he's always great about getting out to jam sessions in Pittsburgh and promoting the scene."

Benny says he owes a debt to "all these great musicians from Pittsburgh. I feel like it's my duty, if I can accomplish anything, to end up back in Pittsburgh and help promote that scene."