Ben LaMar Gay
Grapes
Now Available
Ben LaMar Gay - Grapes
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 IARCGR17: Ben LaMar Gay - Grapes
Released November 1, 2018
Available digitally via our Bandcamp page
Grapes is a brilliantly eclectic collection of beats, soundscapes, home recordings & field recordings composed & produced by Gay across 2013 & 2014 in Chicago. Of all Gay's back catalogue nuggets, Grapes may be the best overall showcase for his ability to crank out alluring & artful bangers (a la Shabazz Palaces, or Organized Noise outtakes that were too avant-garde to make Outkast albums in the mid-90s). But it's not strictly a low-end exercise.. Among his lyrical endeavors, Grapes is most unique in its vivid sensory depictions of Gay's home zone. Folded inside the context of iPhone voice memos, short snippets from everyday music-making and everyday life with family & friends, are gorgeous cinematic sonic portraits of Bronzeville (the historic Black cultural & intellectual hub of Chicago's Southside). With this in mind it's no surprise to learn that he was highly inspired by the narrative paintings of Kerry James Marshall (the album's last track is a direct homage to his "7am Sunday Morning" canvas). And that Gay's intention was to make music that "sounds like the murals of Bronzeville coming to life." More on intentions, in Gay's own words: “Grapes is a love letter to creative movements, works, artists (past, present, future) in Chicago such as the Black Arts Movement of 60's and 70's, Africobra, the AACM, the Southside Community Art Center, Gwendolyn Brooks, Margaret Burroughs, Charles White, Kerry James Marshall... It's an accumulation of emotions and reflections... created by observing the local happenings through a global lens that was developed as a self-defense mechanism... a global lens dispersing light on the many connections between different folks of different locales thus creating cultural clusters that may resemble a bunch of grapes hanging from a vine pointed towards the earth. If there were a color to describe the music, it would be a deep rich purple like the color of Concord grapes.”
Notes
Composed & Recorded by Ben LaMar Gay
Voices by Gira Dahnee & Hanna Brock on "Muhal," “The Glorification of Small Victories,” and “Tears”
Woodwinds by Rob Frye on "Muhal"
Sax by JayVe Montgomery on "Me, JayVe & The Big Bee"
Vocals by Zuzu Fe on “Mr Zuzu”
Voice by Nina Adams on “Nina”
Strings by Hanna Brock on “Uvas”
All other instruments & vocals by Ben LaMar Gay
Mixed by Stephen Ptacek & Ben LaMar Gay
Mastered by David Allen
Album Artwork by Maren Celest
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