A progressive jazz stylist with an ethereal yet edgy approach, guitarist
Ben Monder has been an active leader and sideman since the mid-'80s. An heir to the forward-thinking style of players like
John Abercrombie and
Bill Frisell,
Monder gained attention early on working with artists like
Jack McDuff,
Marc Johnson,
David Binney, and
Maria Schneider, among others. His own albums, such as 1997's
Flux with
Drew Gress, 2000's
Excavation with
Theo Bleckmann, and 2013's
Hydra with
John Patitucci, are inventive productions that combine an avant-garde, downtown N.Y.C. loft-scene improvisational aesthetic with
ECM-styled atmospherics -- a vibrant amalgam he championed on 2015's
Amorphae with
Paul Motian and
Andrew Cyrille.
Monder was also among cast of jazz musicians
David Bowie chose to perform on Blackstar, his final album. In 2019 the guitarist issued the double length
Day By Day, a program of standards played on solo electric guitar, alongside a set of 1960s and 1970s pop tunes for his trio with drummer
Ted Poor and bassist
Matt Brewer. In 2021,
Monder issued
Live At 55 Bar in a bass-less trio with saxophonist
Tony Malaby and drummer
Tom Rainey.
Born in 1962 in New York City,
Monder started out on the violin before switching to guitar around age 11. After high school, he studied first at the Westchester Conservatory of Music, and later at Queens College and the University of Miami. By the mid-'80s, he had embarked on his professional career, playing early on with organist
Jack McDuff, and then with artists like
Lee Konitz,
Maria Schneider, and
Paul Motian. As a leader,
Monder released his trio's debut,
Flux, featuring bassist
Drew Gress and drummer
Jim Black, in 1995. A collaboration with vocalist
Theo Bleckmann,
No Boat, appeared a year later.
Dust,
Monder's second trio album, came out in 1997 and found bassist
Ben Street replacing
Gress. The following year, he joined
Gress' Jagged Sky ensemble for
Heyday.
In 2000,
Monder issued
Excavation, which again featured singer
Bleckmann, drummer
Black, and electric bassist
Skuli Sverrisson. Another album with
Bleckmann,
Oceana, arrived in 2005, and also featured
Sverrisson, bassist
Kermit Driscoll, and drummer
Ted Poor. In 2009, the guitarist paired with saxophonist
Bill McHenry for the duo album
Bloom, and in 2012, he recorded another duo album, Equilibrium, this time with Estonian pianist
Kristjan Randalu for Fresh Sound New Talent. In 2013, he put together a larger group for
Hydra, featuring
Bleckmann,
Sverrisson, Poor, bassist
John Patitucci, and vocalists Gian Slater and Martha Cluver.
In 2015,
Monder made his
ECM debut with
Amorphae, which featured some of the final performances of drummer
Paul Motian, who died during the recording process. The guitarist finished the album with keyboardist
Andrew Cyrille and drummer
Paul Rende. The following year, he paired with vocalist Sunny Kim for the atmospheric duo album The Dream of the Earth. He then joined pianist
Randalu and Finnish drummer
Markku Ounaskari on
ECM for
Absence. In 2019,
Monder issued the trio album
Day After Day, working with longtime associates bassist
Matt Brewer and drummer
Ted Poor.
While playing a weekly residency at 55 Bar in New York City in early 2020,
Monder presented a recurring project with saxophonist Tony
Malaby, a bass-less trio with drums.
Tom Rainey helmed the revolving drum chair on March 3rd, 2020, a week before the COVID-19 pandemic shut everything down. They played two completely improvised sets that evening which were recorded and released as
Live at The 55 Bar in February 2021. ~ Matt Collar