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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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20
Album Review

The Bad Plus: Complex Emotions

Read "Complex Emotions" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


For those out there who may have inadvertently thought The Bad Plus had nothing major left to say after two-plus decades of saying major things, guess again. Because Complex Emotions--their sixteenth statement of purpose--doubles down and ups a hundred. Proof positive is how guitarist Ben Monder's valedictory “LiPo"--equal parts biblical wind and prairie sandstorm--sleigh rides Category 5 nonstop from Complex Emotions's changeling opener, founder/bassist Reid Anderson's “Grid/Ocean." Seemingly with a mind of its own, the track thrashes then ...

12
Album Review

Ross McHenry: Waves

Read "Waves" reviewed by Nenad Georgievski


One of the reasons jazz is so intriguing is its wide range of styles and unpredictability. It has always been tricky to define. It is a genre that is constantly evolving, picking up influences along the way, and adapting in ways that can blur the lines between styles. While the term jazz often suggests something hard to pin down, labels can provide a useful way to describe the key features of a particular release. Packed with unpredictable forms, formats, rhythms ...

3
Radio & Podcasts

Ben Monder, Joao Lencastre & Emile Parisien

Read "Ben Monder, Joao Lencastre & Emile Parisien" reviewed by Maurice Hogue


The much-respected guitarist Ben Monder took ten years to painstakingly craft the music on his latest release Planetarium. It's Monder at his finest, filtering through various moods, technique and sonic surprises. There's new music from Europe as usual--the German trio Brom, French soprano sax wizard Emile Parisien and his quartet, and Portuguese drummer Joao Lencastre and friends cutting loose on some Ornette & Monk tunes. Drummer Ivanna Cuesta from the Dominican Republic has been noticed of late and her new ...

51
Album Review

Matt Pavolka: Disciplinary Architecture

Read "Disciplinary Architecture" reviewed by Glenn Astarita


Matt Pavolka, a seasoned bassist and composer, has carved a distinct niche in the New York jazz scene for over two decades. Initially focused on trombone (studying under the legendary David Baker), Pavolka's path took a sharp turn at Berklee College of Music. There, he switched to bass and blossomed as a composer, earning accolades for both performance and composition. His latest offering, Disciplinary Architecture, is a record brimming with ambition and a unique sonic atmosphere. The album ...

6
Play This!

Ben Monder: Hydra

Read "Ben Monder: Hydra" reviewed by Mike Jacobs


Stylistically hard-to-describe artists are nothing new. However, with Ben Monder's solo excursions, one often feels the need to issue a warning/disclaimer that might read something like, “Caution--Exiting Known Musical Universe." The 24-minute title track from his album Hydra (Sunnyside, 2013) indeed melds techniques and generic signposts from jazz, rock, medieval and modern classical music, but it may be the harmonic space that dominates Monder's vision that is most remarkable--a mysterious zone the eschews nearly all familiar harmony without wallowing in ...

Album Review

Jeremy Udden: Wishing Flower

Read "Wishing Flower" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


Jeremy Udden è un sassofonista e compositore dallo stile impressionista, che predilige atmosfere intime di sapore folk, in temi melodicamente lenti e descrittivi. Come spiega nelle note del disco, le sue composizioni sono ispirate al suo vissuto biografico di giovane nato e cresciuto nel contesto rurale del Massachusetts ed entrato poi nella dimensione urbana. Residente da anni a Brooklyn, Udden osserva la gioia della figlia nei percorsi casa-scuola, quand'è attratta dalla bellezza dei fiori che nascono spontaneamente nei giardini o ...

Album Review

Sunny Kim, Vardan Ovsepian, Ben Monder: Liminal Silence

Read "Liminal Silence" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro


Un felice cocktail acustico/elettr(on)ico con sostanziosa e significativa presenza vocale (quindi triplice) è quanto ci giunge da questo album, inciso nella primavera 2023 da una cantante coreana trapiantata in Australia, un pianista estone e un chitarrista statunitense (il più noto dei tre). Un ventaglio geografico così composito, evidentemente, non poteva non dar vita a un progetto altrettanto composito, per quanto, come si diceva, assolutamente coeso nei percorsi e negli esiti. Nella vocalità di Sunny Kim c'è addirittura ...

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9

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 ...

69

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 ...

290

Recording

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

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

Source: All About Jazz


148

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, ...

88

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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Photos

Concerts

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Disciplinary...

Sunnyside Records
2024

buy

Complex Emotions

Mack Avenue Records
2024

buy

Waves

Self Produced
2024

buy

Waves

Earshift Music
2024

buy

Odysseus

Independent Release
2023

buy

Caught in the Rhythm

Origin Records
2023

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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