Described as a joyfully irreverent psychedelic fantasia of folklore, free jazz, and avant-garde Blues, Chicago composer, improviser, instrumentalist and musical folklorist Ben LaMar Gay announces his new album and shares the title track new single, Yowzers.
Yowzers is released on June 6th, 2025, via the International Anthem label. Gay’s working quartet features Tommaso Moretti (drums, percussion, voice), Matthew Davis (tuba, piano, bells, voice), and Will Faber (guitar, ngoni, bells, voice). He’s also joined by Rob Frye (flute, bass clarine) and a mini-choir comprising vocalists Ayanna Woods, Tramaine Parker, and Ugochi Nwaogwugwu whose voices can be heard on the lead single, articulating a mantra that ‘echoes the climate of our times with a universal Blues we can all feel in our bones’:
Ain’t gon snow no more x4
Rain gon pour and pour x4
Fire don’t stop no more x4
Talking about the single, Gay says: “Yowzers” was a word and a sound that came to mind while observing the intersection of humor and horror in our present reality. On one side of a coin flip, “yowzers” is a deep sigh that quietly exits the body after facing the absurd. On the other side, it is a cry of amazement at how many secrets were left behind to help us endure and transcend the absurdity.”
The album is summed up in the informative snap description: As a whole, Yowzers recalls the high-minded freedom of Liberation Music Orchestra, the abstract boom-bap balladry of Georgia Anne Muldrow, the unbridled rhythms and sandpaper bellows of Bukka White, the harmolodic cartoon glory of Arthur Blythe’s Illusions, or the oft-copped but rarely distilled patterns of Naná Vasconcelos. It’s a fresh thought made up of old ideas, filtered through an improvisational approach and a lifetime of stories and secrets embodied.
Pre-Save Yowzers: https://international-anthem.lnk.to/Yowzers
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