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Ben Monder

A musician in the New York City area for over 30 years, Ben Monder has performed with a wide variety of artists, including Jack McDuff, Marc Johnson, Lee Konitz, Billy Childs, Andrew Cyrille, George Garzone, Paul Motian, Maria Schneider, and Marshall Crenshaw. He also contributed guitar parts to the last David Bowie album, "Blackstar". Ben conducts clinics and workshops around the world, and has served on the faculties of the New England Conservatory, NYU and the New School. He was the recipient of a Doris Duke Impact Award in 2014, and a Shifting Foundation grant in 2013. Ben continues to perform original music internationally in solo and trio settings, and in a long standing duo project with vocalist Theo Bleckmann. He has appeared on over 200 CDs as a sideman, and has released 6 as a leader: Amorphae (ECM, 2015), Hydra (Sunnyside, 2013), Oceana (Sunnyside, 2005), Excavation (Arabesque, 2000), Dust (Arabesque, 1997), and Flux (Songlines,1995).

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Album Review

George Winstone: Odysseus

Read "Odysseus" reviewed by Neil Duggan


Surprisingly, George Winstone's album Odysseus has no connection with Greek Mythology, the Trojan War or Homer's epic poem. For Winstone, the title just seemed to fit. Indeed, it does seem apt; the soundscapes and moods that Winstone, together with guitarist Ben Monder, create would be suitable for the arc of many a journey narrative. London-born saxophonist Winstone released his first EP in 2018. The following year, to move his career forward, he relocated to New York City. Monder ...

3
Album Review

Benjamin Boone: Caught in the Rhythm

Read "Caught in the Rhythm" reviewed by Paul Rauch


The connection between poetry and jazz music is a delicate one. It has been documented so infrequently, in performance and recordings, that one still conjures the flicker of an image of Jack Kerouac reading in some dark Greenwich Village cafe with Steve Allen or Zoot Sims, surrounded by beret-wearing, cappuccino-sipping beatniks. The work of Fresno-based saxophonist Benjamin Boone has assisted in widening that view through four albums recorded for the Origin Records label, including the fourth, Caught in the Rhythm ...

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Liner Notes

Yelena Eckemoff: I Am a Stranger in This World

Read "Yelena Eckemoff: I Am a Stranger in This World" reviewed by Mark Sullivan


Russian-born pianist/composer Yelena Eckemoff began setting verses from the Bible's Book of Psalms shortly after her conversion to Christianity, even before her emigration to the United States. But she waited until she had considerable experience working with jazz musicians before producing her jazz arrangements. They were first recorded on her album Better Than Gold and Silver [L&H Production, 2018], which presented ten Psalm settings in both vocal and instrumental versions. The detailed story of how Yelena Eckemoff came to set ...

8
Album Review

Ben Monder / Tony Malaby / Tom Rainey: Live In Lisbon

Read "Live In Lisbon" reviewed by Mark Corroto


Although we mourn the millions (estimated 6.5 million) of lives lost in the the great pandemic of the 21st century, some good things have survived. For our purposes, great expressions in music making. Live In Lisbon is a perfect example. Guitarist Ben Monder assembled a trio with saxophonist Tony Malaby and drummer Tom Rainey at the cusp of the pandemic in March of 2020 to perform at his Tuesday gig in New York. Eschewing written composition for an all improvised ...

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Album Review

Dave Liebman: Trust And Honesty

Read "Trust And Honesty" reviewed by Chris May


Dave Liebman's Trust And Honesty is the third release in Newvelle Records' limited edition audiophile-vinyl autumn 2022 Renewal Collection. It follows Elan Mehler's There Is A Dance and Michael Blake's Combobulate, both previously reviewed on these pages. Liebman's album is an unassuming little gem. It takes a master musician to take a selection of familiar ballads, give them simple, straightforward readings with an average duration of around four minutes, and come up with something so lovely and ...

3
Album Review

Randal Despommier: A Midsummer Odyssey

Read "A Midsummer Odyssey" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


Lars Gullin was a Swedish baritone saxophonist active mainly in the Fifties and Sixties and known for his work on his native jazz scene as well as playing with American stars such as Chet Baker and Lee Konitz. His compositions were an early example of a European musician mixing the sounds of his home country with American jazz, bringing a thoughtful Nordic calm into the cool jazz realm. Alto saxophonist Randal Despommier is a long-time Gullin fan and, on this ...

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Album Review

Randal Despommier: A Midsummer Odyssey

Read "A Midsummer Odyssey" reviewed by Mark Corroto


If it was possible to fall in love with a set of music, Randal Despommier's A Midsummer Odyssey might be the one. The backstory to this recording begins in Perugia, Italy in 2005, where the American saxophonist heard the composition “Danny's Dream," by the Swedish saxophonist Lars Gullin (1928--1976). He was captivated by the music performed by this Scandinavian luminary and master of the baritone saxophone. Gullin was little known to American audiences, but has been hailed by contemporary bari ...

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Performance / Tour

Songlines Recordings Will Celebrate Its 20th Anniversary With Guitar/Oud Night At New York's Shapeshifter Lab On June 14

Songlines Recordings Will Celebrate Its 20th Anniversary With Guitar/Oud Night At New York's Shapeshifter Lab On June 14

Source: Cary Goldberg

Triple Bill Will Feature Ben Monder Trio, Brad Shepik Quartet and Gordon Grdina/Mark Helias To help celebrate Songlines Recordings’ 20th anniversary, three string players with deep connections to the label will perform at ShapeShifter Lab on June 14,co-presented by Songlines and Search and Restore. Ben Monder is reviving his original trio with the personnel from its first recording, Flux (Songlines 1995) – Drew Gress on bass and Jim Black on drums. In fact it's this particular formation's first gig anywhere ...

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Event

Alternative Guitar Summit brings together Nels Cline, Mary Halvorson, Ben Monder, Thurston Moore: Jan. 13-15, plus many more

Alternative Guitar Summit brings together Nels Cline, Mary Halvorson, Ben Monder, Thurston Moore: Jan. 13-15, plus many more

Source: Fully Altered Media

Joel Harrison presents the Alternative Guitar Summit Co-sponsored by the New York Guitar Festival Featuring Nels Cline, Mary Halvorson, Vic Juris, Ben Monder, Thurston Moore and many more! January 13, 14 and 15, 2012 Rockwood Music Hall 196 Allen Street New York, NY 10002 (212) 477-4155 The guitar these days is a kind of magic wand, a poly-theistic blow torch, lovely, raging, gentle, noisy, intimate, voluminous, hallucinogenic, funky, juvenile, ageless. More than ...

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Recording

Ben Monder & Bill McHenry Release "Bloom" on BlueMusicGroup.com

Ben Monder & Bill McHenry Release "Bloom" on BlueMusicGroup.com

Source: All About Jazz


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Performance / Tour

Julie Hardy @ La Lanterna / Bar Next Door With Ben Monder, guitar and Matt Clohesy, bass

Julie Hardy @ La Lanterna / Bar Next Door With Ben Monder, guitar and Matt Clohesy, bass

Source: All About Jazz

On Monday, April 24th (8:00-11:30pm) at La Lanterna / Bar Next Door, vocalist and composer Julie Hardy will perform with guitarist Ben Monder and bassist Matt Clohesy. Both Monder and Clohesy will be featured on her next CD release on Fresh Sound New Talent records. A vast array of material will be presented including standards, original compositions and modern pieces from Hardy's latest CD release, “A Moment's Glance". La Lanterna / Bar Next Door is located at 129 Macdougal Street, ...

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Performance / Tour

Ben Monder at Philadelphia Museum of Art

Ben Monder at Philadelphia Museum of Art

Source: All About Jazz

Fresh off the release Oceana, his fourth CD as a bandleader, jazz guitarist Ben Monder will perform at the Philadelphia Museum of Art on Friday evening, Nov. 25, as part of the Museum's “Art After 5" series. Monder, a musician in the New York area for over 20 years, has performed with a variety of artists, including Jack McDuff, Marc Johnson, and Lee Konitz, and has appeared on over 90 CDs as a sideman. He has also appeared with the ...

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guitar, electric
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guitar
Ant Law
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Suura
band / ensemble / orchestra
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Photos

Concerts

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Odysseus

Independent Release
2023

buy

Caught in the Rhythm

Origin Records
2023

buy

Liminal Silence

Earshift Music
2023

buy

I Am a Stranger in...

L&H Production
2022

buy

A Midsummer Odyssey

Sunnyside Records
2022

buy

Trust And Honesty

Newvelle Records
2022

buy

Mississippi 1955 Confessional

From: Caught in the Rhythm
By Ben Monder

Just Me, Just Me

From: The Cave of Winds
By Ben Monder

Against Silence

From: The Poets Are Gathering
By Ben Monder

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