"Ben LaMar Gay" Ensemble [Chicago/Intl. Anthem] · Trafo · Jena

Produzent, Arrangeur, Komponist, Erzähler und Dichter, Ben LaMar Gay ist ein unerschöpflicher Vulkan musikalischer Ideen. Seine kreativen Fresken entstehen in der anregenden Umgebung der South Side von Chicago, einer Metropole, die sich einmal mehr als brodelnde Quelle von Talenten charakterisiert, die über alle Kategorien hinausgehen.
Obwohl LaMar Gay Mitglied des AACM ist, besitzt er eine ganz eigene musikalische Vision, eine Hybridisierung von Stilen, die sich aus seinen zahlreichen Projekten ableitet. Obwohl mit der Welt des Jazz verbunden, begreift Ben LaMar Gay Musik als ein Feld, das allen sprachlichen Möglichkeiten offen steht. Nicht nur die Fähigkeit zur Improvisation ist ihm wichtig, sondern auch der visionäre und surreale Song, der in gewisser Weise dem brasilianischen Tropicália sowie elektronischer Einflüsse und Hip-Hop-Kultur verpflichtet ist.
Ben Lamar Gay veröffentlicht beim Kultlabel International Anthem aus Chicago (Mike Reed, Rob Mazurek, Gil Scott Heron, Jaimie Branch etc.). Sein Album „Open Arms to open us“ gehört zu einer der spannendsten Veröffentlichungen der letzten Jahre und zeigt seine radikale Vielschichtigkeit, Verletzlichkeit und die unbedingte Verpflichtung neue musikalische Pfade zu gehen.
Besetzung
Ben LaMar Gay – cornet, synth, voc
Matt Davis – sousaphon, voc
Will Faber – git, voc
Tommaso Moretti – dr

Ben LaMar Gay is a genuine original. An imbued composer, conjurer, channeler of cosmopolitan Blues and patently eclectic artist who Jeff Parker calls „hands down, one of my favorite musicians on the planet today.“ Gay is a Southside Chicago native who was raised in the tutelage of the legendary AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians). With his first instrument, the cornet, and an intuitive sense of self-production, in youth he traversed the diversity of the city’s music scenes (jazz, hip hop, house, electronic, rock, avant garde, salsa, latin jazz, et al) before embarking on a several-year residential relocation ...Mehr anzeigen to Brazil. Beloved by listeners and collaborators alike for his ability to absorb and poetically refract the sound of any context he’s immersed in, Gay’s return home to Chicago in the early 2010s marked the beginning of a compositional output that has since been referred to by WIRE Magazine as „Pan-Americana.“ As elusive as he is prolific, across seven under-the-radar years of work Gay diligently composed, produced and recorded seven collections of original music before compiling and issuing his unreleased ‚greatest hits‘ as a debut album – Downtown Castles Can Never Block The Sun – for International Anthem in 2018. Also in 2018 Gay composed an original score for the Tribeca award-winning short doc The Good Fight. In 2019, he composed an original score for the Brazilian underground carnival profile This Is Bate Bola, and debuted new music commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Also in 2019, he composed and performed a duet with the DuSable Bridge while it was raised over the Chicago River. For Time:Spans Festival 2021, at DiMenna Center for Classical Music in New York City, Gay debuted a new composition – „Known Better. Still Lit“ – that was commissioned and performed by Wet Ink Ensemble. Later in 2021, Gay released the critically-acclaimed album Open Arms to Open Us via International Anthem & Nonesuch Records. In 2022 he released Certain Reveries, an album of duo compositions on International Anthem, and an accompanying film – “Balogun,” in tribute to the late Eddie Harris – which he staged, directed, filmed, and scored entirely himself. In 2023, Gay was a Mellon Foundation Archives Innovation Fellow with Theaster Gates’s Rebuild Foundation in Chicago. As composer in residence with The National Theater of France in 2024, Gay wrote original music for Dorothee Munyaneza’s “Inconditionelles.” In June 2025, Gay releases Yowzers via International Anthem.
“…achingly beautiful…” – Ammar Kalia, The Observer
“A gift of an album…” – Stewart Smith, The Wire
“…sublimely ephemeral…” – Antonio Poscic, The Quietus
“Listening to Yowzers, it’s hard to deny that Ben LaMar Gay is both up there with the modern greats and out there on his own, flipping traditions as he forges his own path.” – Louis Pattison, UNCUT
The Chicago musician’s third album is a tighter, more intimate affair than its predecessor, framing soul-baring lyrics in disarmingly simple melodies inspired by blues, gospel, and folk.” – Pitchfork
https://www.intlanthem.com/artists/ben-lamar-gay
Einlass 19 Uhr // Beginn 20 Uhr
Vorverkauf 28 Euro // Abendkasse 35 Euro
Hardtickets - Jenaer Bücherstube am Johannistor [Demnächst.]
Online-Tickets - http://www.TixforGigs.com/
Photo: Joe JonesWeniger anzeigen