Ben Monder

Since the mid-1980s guitarist Ben Monder has cultivated a progressive identity defined by ethereal yet incisive playing, appearing alongside organist Jack McDuff, saxophonist David Binney, and composer Maria Schneider as well as numerous additional partners. His own projects—Flux in 1997, Excavation in 2000, and Hydra in 2013—consistently merge exploratory improvisation with spacious, ECM-inspired textures, a synthesis he extended on the 2015 album Amorphae in the company of drummers Paul Motian and Andrew Cyrille. David Bowie enlisted Monder among the jazz musicians who performed on his final recording, Blackstar. The guitarist presented the double-length set Day After Day in 2019. Two years later he documented a bass-less trio with saxophonist Tony Malaby and drummer Tom Rainey on Live at the 55 Bar, later reprising the format on 2022’s Live in Lisbon, while also recording the trio album Liminal Silence with vocalist Sunny Kim and pianist Vardan Ovsepian. In 2024 Monder issued the triple-length Planetarium, which featured bassist Chris Tordini together with three alternating vocalists and drummers.

Born in New York City in 1962, Monder began on violin before taking up guitar near the age of eleven. Following high school he attended the Westchester Conservatory of Music, then continued studies at Queens College and the University of Miami. By the mid-1980s he had launched his professional career, performing first with Jack McDuff and subsequently with Lee Konitz, Maria Schneider, and Paul Motian. As a leader Monder debuted with the trio album Flux, recorded with bassist Drew Gress and drummer Jim Black, in 1995. A year afterward he collaborated with vocalist Theo Bleckmann on No Boat. Dust, his second trio recording, appeared in 1997 and substituted bassist Ben Street for Gress. The following year Monder joined Gress’s Jagged Sky ensemble for the album Heyday.

Excavation, released in 2000, again paired Monder with Bleckmann, Black, and electric bassist Skuli Sverrisson. Another project with Bleckmann, Oceana, arrived in 2005 and also included Sverrisson, bassist Kermit Driscoll, and drummer Ted Poor. In 2009 Monder recorded the duo album Bloom with saxophonist Bill McHenry; three years later he made the duo recording Equilibrium with Estonian pianist Kristjan Randalu for Fresh Sound New Talent. Hydra, issued in 2013, assembled a larger ensemble comprising Bleckmann, Sverrisson, Poor, bassist John Patitucci, and vocalists Gian Slater and Martha Cluver.

Monder’s ECM debut, Amorphae, came in 2015 and captured some of drummer Paul Motian’s final performances before his passing during the sessions; keyboardist Andrew Cyrille and drummer Paul Rende completed the album. The following year Monder joined vocalist Sunny Kim for the atmospheric duo recording The Dream of the Earth. He next appeared with pianist Randalu and Finnish drummer Markku Ounaskari on the ECM album Absence. In 2019 the guitarist issued the trio album Day After Day, reuniting with longtime colleagues bassist Matt Brewer and drummer Ted Poor.

While maintaining a weekly residency at New York’s 55 Bar in early 2020, Monder led a recurring bass-less trio project with saxophonist Tony Malaby. On March 3 drummer Tom Rainey occupied the drum chair for two fully improvised sets that were later released as Live at The 55 Bar in February 2021. Monder joined Bad Plus for their self-titled 2022 album and simultaneously released Live in Lisbon with Malaby and Rainey. The next year he recorded Liminal Silence with vocalist Sunny Kim and pianist Vardan Ovsepian, contributed as a sideman to Dutch saxophonist Tineke Postma’s Aria, and performed with saxophonist Jeremy Udden on Wishing Flower.

Throughout 2024 Monder maintained a demanding schedule that included appearances on Taylor Deupree’s Sti.ll, Jon Irabagon’s Recharge the Blade, and Disciplinary Architecture alongside bassist Matt Pavolka, keyboardist Santiago Leibson, and drummer Allan Mednard. He also unveiled the ambitious triple album Planetarium on Sunnyside that September, featuring bassist Chris Tordini, vocalists Charlotte Mundy, Emily Hurst, and Theo Sable, and drummers Ted Poor, Joseph Branciforte, and Satoshi Takeishi.