Ben LaMar Gay (US)

Ben LaMar Gay is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, singer, poet, and patently eclectic polymath who Afropunk has called “strikingly original,” Pitchfork has called “uncategorizable,” and Jeff Parker has called “hands down, one of my favorite musicians on the planet today.” He channels a radical array of sound, color, and space through the universal language of folklore; but despite the widely attributed genius of his work, his artistic approach and general demeanor are characterized by an endearing humbleness and warm humanity.

His critically–lauded 2018 break out Downtown Castles Can Never Block The Sun (International Anthem) was more like a greatest hits than a debut album, as it compiled the best of the prolific but obscurity–prone Chicago native artist’s previously unreleased music.

On Open Arms to Open Us (November 2021, International Anthem) he fluently interweaves jazz, blues, ballads, R&B, raga, new music, nursery rhyme, Tropicalia, two–step, hip–hop and beyond in his most colorful and communicable work yet ― a beaming expression of Gay’s signature omni-genre, “Pan-Americana” brew.

His latest album Yowzers (June 2025, International Anthem) is a leap forward in the lexicon of Gay’s recorded output, and a veritable masterwork of ancient inner-body rhythms and intuitive melodic storytelling. ​