Ben LaMar Gay Ensemble

Ben LaMar Gay is an elusive, singular composer and versatile sound researcher whose work moves along the boundaries of music. Growing up on Chicago’s South Side, Gay was shaped by the creative music tradition that developed around AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians); from a young age, he placed the cornet at the center of his practice and moved through a broad network of scenes spanning jazz to hip-hop. After living in Brazil for a period, the musician returned to Chicago in the early 2010s and drew attention with the album Downtown Castles Can Never Block The Sun (2018), a record of sorts of the time he spent away from the spotlight; he subsequently developed an expansive compositional practice through film scores and interdisciplinary projects. With his latest album, Yowzers (2025), released by International Anthem, he has taken his multilayered approach, centered on a cosmopolitan understanding of the blues, to a new threshold. As part of the 36th Akbank Jazz Festival, the musician will give his first Istanbul concert at Babylon on the evening of October 1.

Ben LaMar Gay: Cornet, vocals, synth
Edhino Gerber: Guitar
Matthew Davis: Tuba
Tommaso Moretti: Drums