TONE Ftival / Badge Époque Ensemble, Ben LaMar Gay’s “Certa Reveri”, Masahiro Takahashi, TONE at Neteen Seventy Eight, Toronto ON, Mic

BEN LAMAR GAY

Composer, sger, and stmental polymath Ben LaMar Gay releas his new album, Open Arms to Open Us, November 19 on Internatnal Anthem / Nonuch Rerds. The first offerg om the Southsi Chigo native’s newt project is a pulsg melodic bellow featurg OHMME sgers Sima Cunngham and Macie Stewart, tled "Sometim I Fet How Summer Looks on You." 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." You n watch the vio for here: 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.” It was 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. Featured artists on the album clu: OHMME sgers Sima Cunngham and Macie Stewart, bassist/volist/arranger Ayanna Woods, multi-disciplary Rwandan artist Dorothée Munyaneza, poet A.Martez, cellist Tomeka Reid, and volists Onye Ozuzu, Gira Dahnee, and Angel Bat Dawid. 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.” He also says, “Open Arms to Open Us als wh rhythm as an herance of rmatn – sort of like DNA or RNA. Copg wh the prent-day bombardment of data and recycled iologi om sourc sentially fed by the creed ‘Dtroy Them. Own the Earth,’ often leav me wh only one thg to look forward to: Rhythm.” 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. It was herald by Pchfork, NPR, and the Guardian, the last of which lled , “a rerd of endls pth and unpredictabily.” But Gay’s work is not limed to album releas. He has posed for dance troup (cludg the Ruth Page Civic Ballet) and archectural featur (cludg a 2019 duet wh the DuSable Bridge downtown Chigo), and also has done extensive film sre work (cludg the 2018 Tribe Film Ftival award-wng documentary The Good Fight). In 2019 he buted ‘Hecky Naw! Angels!’ at the Mm of Contemporary Art Chigo, g vio art and choreography to explore the shap and sounds of Chigo’s Black social danc. * ben lamar gay ensemble *

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.

BEN LAMAR GAY

Jill DeGroot asked 5 qutns to Ben LaMar Gay about the Rebuild Foundatn Mellon Archival Innovatn Program and his new album. * ben lamar gay ensemble *

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. 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 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. 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.

5 QUTNS TO BEN LAMAR GAY (POSER, RIST)

* ben lamar gay ensemble *

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.

TORONTO'S TONE FTIVAL GETS THE SUN RA ARKTRA, BEN LAMAR GAY, BADGE ÉPOQUE ENSEMBLE FOR 2023 EDN

Ben LaMar Gay, a poser and rist om Chigo’s South Si, sculpts electro-atic llag out of sound, lor, space, and time. Wieldg an extensive disgraphy and ld by Aopunk as “strkgly origal, ” LaMar Gay’s eclectic body of work explor storytellg, “Amerina, ” and folklore while meldg elements of hip-hop, jazz, funk, and more. As an gural Rebuild Foundatn Mellon Archival Innovatn Program fellow, LaMar Gay will take a ep dive to the foundatn’s archival llectns at the Stony Island Arts Bank and birth new work over the next two years.

Ben LaMar Gay–Photo by Chelsea Ross.

Runng om June 2 to 28, TONE 2023 ntu to highlight Toronto as a mic cy that embodi and embolns genre-fyg creatn and improvisatn, wh programmg that clus performanc by the Sun Ra Arktra, Ben Lamar Gay, Badge Époque Ensemble and many more across venu cludg the Great Hall, the Rex, the Tranzac, Array Space and others. From the latter, rtist and poser Ben Lamar Gay will showse the stmental prows that has ma him a favoure llaborator of Makaya McCraven, the late jaimie branch and more.

BEN LAMAR GAY

Prologue by 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. 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.