ben LaMar Gay
East of the Ryan
Now Available
Ben LaMar Gay - East of the Ryan
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.”
“…a record of endless depth and unpredictability.”
“…varied, raw, polychromatic, and addictive.”
– Lee Rice Epstein, The Free Jazz Collective
“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 IARCER17: Ben LaMar Gay - East of the Ryan
Released August 29, 2019
Available digitally via our Bandcamp page
Ben LaMar Gay's sonic recreation of his youthful imagination about what kind of music might be happening inside East of the Ryan - a hotel ballroom near his childhood home on the Southside of Chicago that hosted Steppin' nights and the occasional Player's Ball.
Notes
Composed by Ben LaMar Gay.
Recorded one night in 2014 in the garage of Ruben's Palace by Tommaso Moretti, JayVe Montgomery, Ed Bornstein, and Ben LaMar Gay. "There was so much gear and so many instruments set up I don't even know where to begin with who played what."
Mastered by David Allen.
Cover Photo & Design by Jesse Ponkamo.
Released August 29, 2019
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