The music of Ben LaMar Gay is sublimely ephemeral, as if made elusive by design – meant to be absorbed in the dynamic now of physical spaces rather than enjoyed in stasis via recordings. The Chicago cornettist’s 2018 debut Downtown Castles Can Never Block the Sun suggested as much. Ostensibly a greatest hits compilation, the album collected a disparate canon of pieces that had previously escaped capture, but still appeared constrained by the format.
Seven years and two studio albums later, Gay feels more comfortable in the role of a traditional recording artist; yet, the tracks presented on Yowzers remain just as eager to escape into communal spaces as his earlier works.
The malleability of the shared musical…
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