Excavation

Ben Monder is one of the most original jazz guitarists working today. He works mainly in NYC and the surrounding areas. His guitar work is certainly revered amongst jazz listeners and musicians. I actually encountered Ben's music by accident. I was reading an issue of Jazziz magazine (a March 05 or 06 issue) and it had an article in this issue of "Great Unknown Guitarists" or something to that effect. Anyway, Monder was featured in a section of this article. Out of all the players mentioned the way his guitar style was described appealed to me the most. They called his style textural, atmospheric, and virtuosic. These words describe Monder's playing well, while he's obviously a technically accomplished guitarist who can play shred licks better than guitarists who choose to do that kind of thing all the time, the main attraction, for me, was his harmonic vocabulary. I mean this guy really knows the chord voicings!"Excavation" was released in 2000 and is apart of the continuing evolution of his music. It seems Monder doesn't change much in terms of style, he just keeps perfecting his music. Some of the music is pretty strange like "Hatchet Face," for example, that uses tone rows (a la Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, Eisler, etc.) and doesn't follow any kind of conventional musical thinking in terms of jazz music. It's a very freightening piece of music. It has a very aggressive, distorted horror movie-like sound to it. "Ellenville" is the epic piece of the album, which follows an almost classical type of structure, but obviously with improvisation. The chordal work from Monder in this tune is astounding. "Sunny Manitoba" is Metheny-like in it's clear melody, but definitely has Monder's stamp all over it, especially in the harmony, Metheny couldn't come up with this kind of harmony. This piece is probably the most "normal" sounding tune on the album.Joining Monder on "Excavation" are Jim Black on drums, Theo Bleckmann on vocals, and Skuli Sverrisson on bass. This particular release is the newly remastered recording on Sunnyside Records. It is of signifigant improvement over the Arabesque recording.Anyone interested in a highly original jazz guitarist and are sick of Metheny, Rosenwinkel, and Scofield, then listen to "Excavation."Special Note: Monder was gracious enough to send me a signed copy of this CD. I've talked with him several times through emails, he is a very easy-going, passionate individual and I'm humbled he would take the time to talk to one of his fans.

The reviews for this album on this page all gush about his technique, which is clearly of the highest cut, but I don't see much mention of the emotional vistas he's opening here. From the passionately disconnected opening arpeggios of "Mistral" to the eery and alien instrumental back alleys of "Ellenville" to the grungy fusion crescendoes of "Hatchet Face," Monder is doing things that no guitarist ever has.Not that he does it alone, of course. Theo Blackmann's vocal mirroring of Monder's chordal melodies fulfills the promise never quite fulfilled in Pat Metheny's Brazilian projects. It was always a nice concept to take Joao Gilberto-style melodies and layer them over the changes of an electric band, but Metheny always came across as so . . . cheesy. No cheese here. The melodies are a constant revelation, touching recesses of the listener's synapses that he or she may not have known she possessed. Consistently scintillating.It seems that Monder is able to achieve this through his immersion in serial music, even offering some insights for classical composers who want to wring something fresh from the tone rows (of course a kick-ass jazz rhythm section will help this occur). He has recently taken this approach to concerto-like heights with "Oceana," a precious delicacy that I can only listen to on occasion for fear of the charm ever going out of it from too much listening. "Excavation" is, on the other hand, a CD that I can listen to repeatedly, perhaps because all of the songs don't flow into one another. I can listen to one piece and have my subconscious scintillatingly aflutter on my way into another work day. Great stuff to help convince one that the maxim "there is nothing new under the sun" is wrong.I told my girlfriend that this is "Pat Metheny in space." Sit back on a ring of Saturn with a dacquiri in your hand and lazily watch the comets go by as they etch random fractals on your psyche.

Ben Monder is one of the most esteemed of the new generation of incredible jazz guitarists. This album is a fair representation of his style and ability. His technique is beyond anything normal players can hope for. His style is to create a haunting atmosphere through considerable repetition (with variations) of a quirky but hypnotic figure, and then to use that as a platform for wild improvisation. The improvisation can be his own Alan Holdsworth-like whizzing around the guitar or it can be subtle or not-so-subtle rhythmic or harmonic variations on the theme, it can be really groovy rhythm section work (as was pioneered by Weather Report in the mid-70s), or it can be the crazy, computer modified vocals of Theo Bleckmann. This album is not easily comparable to any other music I know, but it is hot. It fuses jazz and '80s technically incredible british rock guitar and super-hip modern rhythm with the novel, very expressive vocal work of Bleckmann. It is groundbreaking work. I was lucky to see the band in the fall of 2002: the room was silent for the entire show--I have never seen such an enraptured audience--except, of course, for the unstoppable applause after each tune. If you want to know where music is going, start here.

Monder can wander far off the beaten path into fascinating progressive ambiance which may alienate more traditional-leaning jazz guitar aficionados, but this alluring language the fluid musician has seemingly pioneered himself always seems to justify any excess by the end.

Ben Monder is one of the most creative guitarists and composers working in jazz today. His music draws from 20th century music and is always exciting. On this recording he uses voice where most people might use sax or trumpet. It's exciting and complex... too complex for most listeners, but rewarding for those interested in modern music. Grooves like crazy.