Arts + Public Life | Ben Lamar Gay

Contents:

• JAZZFT BERL 2022: SHORT INTERVIEW WH BEN LAMAR GAY
• BEN LAMAR GAY EU TOUR DAT ANNOUNCED // CERTA REVERI + OPEN ARMS TO OPEN US STOCKED & READY TO SHIP
• BEN LAMAR GAY
• BEN LAMAR GAY
• BEN LAMAR GAY
• BEN LAMAR GAY
• BEN LAMAR GAY
• BEN LAMAR GAY OPEN ARMS TO OPEN US
• BEN LAMAR GAY’S OPEN ARMS TO OPEN US EMBRAC ALL—CLUDG
• BLU, JAZZ, ELECTRONI. IT ALL FLOWS THROUGH BEN LAMAR GAY.
• BEN LAMAR GAY
• BEN LAMAR GAY
• BEN LAMAR GAY
• BEN LAMAR GAY
• 5 QUTNS TO BEN LAMAR GAY (POSER, RIST)

JAZZFT BERL 2022: SHORT INTERVIEW WH BEN LAMAR GAY

One of the performg artists is Ben LaMarGay. *ALSO AVAILABLE* Ben LaMar GayOpen Arms To Open Us Available on LP, CD & DigalHighlighted the New York Tim’s Fall 2021 preview, Open Arms to Open Us is a dispatch om “postmorn folklorist” Gay’s current place space, filled wh imagative arrangements and his “wise and nfidg barone.

”Produced and rerd at Internatnal Anthem Studs Chigo between March and June of 2021, across sixteen tracks Gay fluently terweav jazz, blu, ballads, R&B, raga, new mic, nursery rhyme, tropilia, two-step, hip-hop and beyond a beamg exprsn of his signature omni-genre “Pan-Amerina” brew. Alongsi his own sizable toolk of stments (r, keyboards, synthizers, flut, percsns), Gay surrounds himself wh steady bandmat (cludg Tommaso Moretti on dms, Matthew Davis on tuba, and Rob Frye on woodwds), while also shg the spotlight on female artists om his st of regular llaborators (cludg OHMME sgers Sima Cunngham and Macie Stewart, bassist/volist/arranger Ayanna Woods, multi-disciplary Rwandan artist Dorothée Munyaneza, poet A. Ben LaMar Gay is a poser, multi-stmentalist, sger, poet, and patently eclectic polymath who Aopunk has lled “strikgly origal, ” Pchfork has lled “untegorizable, ” and Jeff Parker has lled “hands down, one of my favore micians on the pla today.

BEN LAMAR GAY EU TOUR DAT ANNOUNCED // CERTA REVERI + OPEN ARMS TO OPEN US STOCKED & READY TO SHIP

Ben LaMar Gay is performg at this year Jazzft Berl. In this article:Ben LaMar Gay, JazzFt, Jazzft 2022, Jazzft Berl. Suffic to say, Ben LaMar Gay is nearly omniprent the current zegeist of progrsive jazz sounds sproutg om More.

BEN LAMAR GAY

Ben LaMar Gay is a poser and rist who mov sound, lor, and space through folkloric filters to produce electro-atic llag. Open Arms to Open Us liv up to NPR's claim that "there is no one universe for Ben LaMar Gay, he jt sonic booms om one sound to another. " On the album, rerd at Internatnal Anthem studs Chigo, Gay terweav jazz, blu, ballads, R&B, raga, new mic, nursery rhyme, Tropicália, two-step, hip-hop, and beyond his most lorful and munible work yet, an exprsn of his signature omni-genre, "Pan-Amerina" brew.

Composer, sger, and stmental polymath Ben LaMar Gay releas his new album, Open Arms to Open Us, November 19 on Internatnal Anthem / Nonuch Rerds. " Acrdg to Gay, the song is “spired by the preparatn one mak for another when ’s time for them to enter or ex an embrace, a memory or a life. Highlighted the New York Tim’s Fall 2021 preview, Open Arms to Open Us is a dispatch om “postmorn folklorist” Gay’s current place space, filled wh imagative arrangements and his “wise and nfidg barone.

Across sixteen tracks Gay fluently terweav jazz, blu, ballads, R&B, raga, new mic, nursery rhyme, tropilia, two-step, hip-hop and beyond a beamg exprsn of his signature omni-genre “Pan-Amerina” brew. Alongsi his own sizable toolk of stments (r, keyboards, synthizers, flut, percsns), Gay surrounds himself wh steady bandmat (cludg Tommaso Moretti on dms, Matthew Davis on tuba, and Rob Frye on woodwds), while also shg the spotlight on female artists om his st of regular llaborators. Reflectg on the meang of the mic a prologue he wrote for Open Arms to Open Us, Gay says the album’s tle is “a suggtn of a body movement that is ed many spirual practic and is also a gture that reprents a type of unrstandg that leads to touch or a hug.

BEN LAMAR GAY

This latt project is the follow up to Gay’s 2018 crilly-acclaimed, but album Downtown Castl Can Never Block the Sun, which was a pilatn of prevly-unreleased material posed and produced by Gay over seven years. ” But Gay’s work is not limed to album releas. WNYC's New Sounds dit s latt episo to "some of the excg new mic g out of Chigo, " cludg three albums released through partnership between the Chigo-born label Internatnal Anthem and Nonuch Rerds: Jeff Parker's Sue for Max Brown and Forfolks and Ben LaMar Gay's Open Arms to Open Us.

BEN LAMAR GAY

Ben LaMar Gay is on the latt episo of BBC World Service's Mic Life, jog Angel Bat Dawid nversatn wh Qur'an Shaheed and Dr. About Ben LaMar Gay.

This virtual exhibn featur new works, current projects, and terviews wh one of our artists Ben LaMar Gay. Ben LaMar Gay (he/him) is a poser/rist who mov ponents of sound, lor, and space through folkloric filters to produce brilliant electro‐atic llag.

Embracg ternatnal visn while remag te to his roots, Gay’s creative output aligns wh the hont notn that he only knows how to be a man om the South Si of Chigo. Arts + Public Life curatorial team and Ben LaMar Gay discs his practice, upg projects and what means to be an artist What are some of the recurrg them found your work? Vio by Ben Lamar GayLe Dance Dance, om the Know Them Hands.

BEN LAMAR GAY

Vio by Ben Lamar GayWood, Sk, Strg, om the Know Them Hands. Vio by Ben Lamar Gay.

In an illumatg prologue to his send full-length album, Chigo stmentalist, poser, and volist Ben LaMar Gay wr of his doubts as to what he uld leave behd for “the young people my life” when faced wh “the cmblg of societal fas. It’s a remarkable piece of mil pathfdg, sprawlg s ambn and surprisgly precise s attack, an album where a zher jam (“Nyuzura, ” featurg Brish-Rwandan sger Dorothée Munyaneza) giv way to triangle-assisted drone (“Slightly Before the Dawn”), which then ces the floor to hip-hop tuba bounce (“Drs Me New Love”) Gay’s visn of mil “Pan-Amerina”—reachg beyond the sawdt and sp image of classil Amerina to clu North and South Amerin culture—bds the project together. In addn to rich barone vols, an, balafon, r, zher, and a host of percsn stments, LaMar Gay also ntribut some fantastilly sharp songwrg on Open Arms, such as the geoly gloomy, mor-key dread of “Oh Great Be the Lake” and the grandiloquent “Aunt Lola and the Quail, ” a wealth of ias never g at the expense of all this, Open Arms is very much a llective work.

Ben LaMar Gay is a poser, multi-stmentalist, sger, poet, and patently eclectic polymath who Aopunk has lled “strikgly origal, ” Pchfork has lled “untegorizable, ” and Jeff Parker has lled "hands down, one of my favore micians on the pla today. Dropouts: I Once Carried A BlossomI had the fortune of seeg Ben LaMar Gay at this year's Berl Jazzft so I n't but help noticg the stark difference between the rerdg and the live set. Prologue by Ben LaMar Gay:.

BEN LAMAR GAY

Ben LaMar Gay – r, voice, an, balafon, synths, temple blocks, programmg, manipulatns, percsn, cítara, bass synth, triangle, paniro, beatbox, kick dm, thgs.

BEN LAMAR GAY OPEN ARMS TO OPEN US

All songs posed by Ben LaMar Gay (Tobany G Sound ASCAP), except "Nyuzura" posed by Ben LaMar Gay & Dorothée Munyaneza, and "I Once Carried A Blossom" posed by Ben LaMar Gay & A. Produced by Ben LaMar Gay & Dave Vettrao.

Ben LaMar Gay Cred: Alejandro Ayala. In an say acpanyg Open Arms to Open Us (Internatnal Anthem), poser-rist Ben LaMar Gay says his latt album is part of the extend ath terror many have felt sce the start of the panmic. Open Arms to Open Us sounds more effive than most existential cris, and if we’re talkg legaci, the album is Gay’s most hive artifact to date; his 2018 but album, Downtown Castl Can Never Block the Sun, piled highlights om a whoppg seven unreleased albums.

Martez, Gay remas a globe-spng polyglot on Open Arms to Open Us. He has so many referenc at play that ’s hard to name every one—they clu samba, New Orleans funeral-band dirg, schoolyard stomp-chants, and the Igbo alphabet, to barely scratch the surface—and all of them mh exhilaratgly wh Gay’s jazz-ntoured imagatn and pliant voice. On “We Gon W, ” Gay lays down an unerrg looped bass-synth melody, over which he flows on r a quartet wh trombonist Matthew Davis, flutist Rob Frye, and dmmer Tommaso Moretti.

BEN LAMAR GAY’S OPEN ARMS TO OPEN US EMBRAC ALL—CLUDG

Open Arms to Open Us ends there, but Gay’s msage to the future ronat: we lived, and how. Ben LaMar Gay’s Open Arms to Open Us drops 11/19 and is available through Bandmp.

BLU, JAZZ, ELECTRONI. IT ALL FLOWS THROUGH BEN LAMAR GAY.

Ben LaMar Gay’s mil lov range far and wi. Ftgly, also featur Gay’s own versn of an alphabet song, sung Igbo by performg artist, choreographer, admistrator and tor Onye Ozuzu.

)Gay creds his mil magpie approach to his father’s rerd llectn and lovg that mic. ”Gay, like many mic-fiendg kids of his generatn, got to beatmakg first, before pivotg to tmpet high school. At a certa pot, Gay beme disenchanted wh life Chigo and mped to Brazil, whose mic had always served as “the first portal to the world, to the real world, outsi of the bubble Uned Stat.

It’s Gay’s name on “Open Arms to Open Us, ” but he’s jt as quick to ce the spotlight to a wi array of voic and stments.

BEN LAMAR GAY

Gee Lewis, the legendary avant-gar jazz trombonist and tirels electronics novator and tor, recently ught one of Gay’s shows.

”Opener “Sometim I Fet How Summer Looks On You” starts wh a gurgle of synths and quicksilver dm rolls, Gay’s voice purrg agast the teemg backdrop, as nonchalant as a murmured bossa nova. But Gay is quick to add that he’s actually drawg on Chigo’s own blu tradn, always pullg and phg agast the rhythm. ”Gay says that song is about a fay member (“a low-key ditn”) and most of the other songs on the album serve as portras put to sound.

BEN LAMAR GAY

” Gay rov om the “jungle” cri of De Ellgton tmpeter Cootie Williams to avant shrieks of the AACM to the stomp of an HBCU marchg band, as he and backg volists nt the origal tent for the album was to feature a live band, though the panmic quickly dashed that ia, leavg him to build up each song layer by layer, sometim wh a full band, sometim wh iends sendg their Brish-Rwandan sger, actrs, dancer and choreographer Dorothée Munyaneza first met Gay 2018 when both were ved to Dance Gatherg Lagos, Nigeria. ”When Gay reached out to her to ntribute vols to the album, Munyaneza set up a makhift stud her bathroom and rerd the vols for “Nyuzura. “You’re hearg some real ep Rwandan culture there, ” Gay says enthiastilly.

” Ftgly, the plucked strgs unrpng the track e om a cara Gay bought while travelg through the not that acpany the album rollout, Gay mentns a trip back to Alabama to vis his extend fay, a great nt notg while they walked across farmland that she uld still hear the hammerg of her late father out there, even s on.

BEN LAMAR GAY

That phantasmal sound, that sublimal beat, untethered to time but bound to the Earth, rmed Gay’s approach to the album. The embedd snatch of Igbo, Kyarwanda, the spoken word terlus and overheard nversatns, held together by the voicelike ton Gay elics on his muted r, all speak to an as-yet unnamed future: “When they get olr and they bee between 35 and 40 and they put this rerd on like, ‘Oh, that’s Uncle Benji sayg this to me.

Ben LaMar Gay, “Open Arms to Open Us”. Filg Ben Lamar Gay unr “jazz” has always been more a nvenient scriptn—he plays r, he improvis, he works the Chigo mic scene—than an accurate one. ” Elsewhere is the field-holler-like “In Tongu and Drov, ” an teractn between Gay, trombonist Matthew Davis, and cellist Tomeka Reid.

BEN LAMAR GAY

It even has an terlu which micians Gira Dahnee and (equent Gay llaborator) Angel Bat Dawid perform what sounds like a step route on “S’phistited Lady” (no relatn to Ellgton’s song). The pot, Gay says, is to engage wh day-to-day route and rmatn overload as rhythmic ncepts.

This mak sound like Gay’s mic should be refiled unr “self-help”…but he’s on to somethg.

5 QUTNS TO BEN LAMAR GAY (POSER, RIST)

Ben LaMar Gay.

Chigo rist Ben Lamar Gay is one of the cy's most adventuro and boundary-phg performers wh sound that touch upon avant-gar jazz, hip-hop, die rock, Brazilian tradns, and experimental electronic posn.