Ben LaMar Gay – “Aunt Lola And the Quail” [Video]

Chicago-based composer, singer and improviser Ben LaMar Gay shares a new single and music video for “Aunt Lola and the Quail,” a song off his upcoming album Open Arms to Open Us, out November 19, 2021 on International Anthem / Nonesuch. It’s also been announced that on Tuesday, January 18, 2022t Ben LaMar Gay will perform a special album release performance, presented by International Anthem at Public Records in Brooklyn as part of NYC Winter Jazzfest, with an opening set by his International Anthem label-mate Jaimie Branch. (Ticket link here).

The video for “Aunt Lola and the Quail,” was directed by Chris Strong. The song, written and composed by Gay, retraces his childhood summers spent on his Great Aunt Lola’s land in Alabama. He recalls, “Aunt Lola and I would stand still and listen together. We would immediately become aware of the winds approaching through the wavering pines, quail sounds and the chatter of distant cousins just up the road.”

Previously released tracks from Open Arms to Open Us are “Mestre Candeia’s Denim Hat,” “Sometimes I Forget How Summer Looks On You,” and “Oh Great Be the Lake;” the new album explores Gay’s interests in thermodynamics, rhythm as an inheritance of information, and improvisation as “the one freedom that we all have access to.”

You can pre-order the album HERE.