Ben LaMar Gay
Benjamim e Edinho
Now Available
Ben LaMar Gay - Benjamim e Edinho
What people Are Saying
“…An Album That Is Less About Fusing Jazz, Funk, And Other Genres Than It Is About Elevating The Diverse Sounds Of Earth To The Heavens.”
“There’s a palpable sense that Downtown Castles is true Americana, encompassing South and Central America as much as the US. In Gay’s music, the fluidity between the esoteric and catchy, the exotic and the familiar, is paramount.”
“Ben LaMar Gay’s music is full of wonder. It takes in the endearing glow of the natural world, plus the endless variety of man-made refractions, and then processes those beams and flickers into something strikingly original.”
“In Essence, This Jam-Packed Album Stirs Up The Vibrancy Of Life Itself. Downtown Castles Is A Bright Parade Of Humanity, Led By Gay As Its Dazzling Grand Marshal.”
“…A Compelling Series Of Vignettes, A Survey Of The Depth And Vitality Of Chicago’s Jazz And Improvisational Music Scenes…”
– Marty Garner, Aquarium Drunkard
“It Moves From Fuzz-Caked Weirdo-Psych To Mutant Synth-Funk To Giddy Electronics To Progressive Jazz At A Seamless, Whiplash-Free Warp Speed.”
Announcing IARCBE17: Ben LaMar Gay - Benjamim e Edinho
Released December 7, 2018
Available digitally via our Bandcamp page
Benjamim e Edinho is a joint production of Ben LaMar Gay and Brazilian guitar master Edinho Gerber. The two musicians shared friendship & stories across a co-residence in Chicago and time spent in Rio de Janeiro (where Gerber is from, and Gay lived for some time). This album is the product of that friendship and the leisurely music-making that defined their time together between the years of 2011 and 2013. In the diverse spectrum of Gay’s catalogue, Benjamim e Edinho is where he displays his admiration for the experimental folk/R&B arrangements of Chicago Soul originator Charles Stepney, 1970s Quincy Jones, the work of Moacir Santos and all the storied innovators of Brazilian experimental music. Possibly the most polished of all the (formerly) unreleased recordings in Ben LaMar Gay’s back catalogue, Benjamim e Edinho is a nugget of Pan-Americana that rebirths the revolutionary, psychedelic & sexy sound of classic Tropicalia through a Chicagoan lens. The digital release of Benjamim e Edinho features original artwork by Crystal Zapata.
Notes
All instruments by Ben LaMar Gay & Edinho Gerber...
...except drums on “Ye Ye” by Marcus Evans, drums on “Swim Swim” by Tommaso Moretti, background vocals on “Empregada” by Bia e Camila, tenor saxophone on “Ye Ye” by Rob Frye, and voices on “Totem” by Equitativa Community Choir conducted by Edu Lopes.
Recorded by Ben LaMar Gay & Edinho Gerber.
Mixed by Alex Inglizian.
Mastered by David Allen.
Album Art by Crystal Zapata.
All rights reserved
About Ben LaMar Gay
Chicago cornetist Ben Lamar Gay is one of the city's most adventurous and boundary-pushing performers with sound that touches upon avant-garde jazz, hip-hop, indie rock, Brazilian traditions, and experimental electronic composition. A member of the AACM, Gay (who also spent time traveling and living in Brazil) emerged in the 2000s singing and playing a variety of instruments. Most often, he works in the studio, layering his songs with overdubbed parts, as he did on his own Juba Dance album Orange. Over the years, he has proven himself to be an unpredictable artist with a wide-ranging stylistic ear.
Raised on Chicago's South Side, Gay developed his cornet skills as a member of the respected AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians). As a solo artist, he released the album Orange under the Juba Dance moniker. From there, he appeared on albums by a diverse range of artists from hip-hop performer Polyphonic the Verbose and jazz drummer Makaya McCraven to alternative R&B artist Coultrain. He has also collaborated with Jaimie Branch, Theo Parrish, Celso Fonseca, and others. In 2018, Gay collected a handful of his own unreleased tracks for his debut album, Downtown Castles Can Never Block the Sun, on International Anthem. ~ Matt Collar