Ben LaMar Gay Ensemble

“Rhythm is the only truth that travels great distances and constantly survives the crumbling of the facades”. This is the credo of Ben LaMar Gay who, with his ensemble, will transport the audience into a whirlwind of jazz, blues, R&B and hip hop.

Raised in Alabama, now based in Chicago, the music of this composer, multi-instrumentalist and singer channels a radical range of sounds, colours and spaces through the universal language of folklore. Despite the genius widely attributed to his work, his artistic approach has always been characterised by improvisation, which he calls ‘the only freedom we all have access to’. A mixture of unusual and exciting sounds through which he translates into music the awareness of a moment, of the environment in which one is immersed, of memory and of listening without prejudice. In his latest studio work Open Arms to Open Us, released in 2021, avant-jazz and Brazilian polyrhythmics find their place in an attempt to produce music that is outside the box.