LIVE: Chuck Lamb Trio and Ben Monder @ Caffe Lena 9/10/2019

Chuck Lamb’s monthly jazz series at Caffe Lena took the summer off. The series resumed with the appearance of guitarist Ben Monder. For those not in the jazz world, Ben tracked several guitar parts on David Bowie’s final album “Black Star”. Ben’s guitar playing embodies every technique imaginable to the guitar, from fingerpicking, flamenco, octaves Wes Montgomery style, and many others. The band played two sets of varied music of mostly standards with some originals. All played with great ear stretching imagination and virtuosity.

Chuck Lamb’s trio for this gig was well chosen, each a virtuoso in their own right. The versatile Jay Anderson on bass, polyrhythmic Harvey Sorgen on drums and the ever-imaginative melodic Chuck Lamb each contributed their own flavor to the music.

As Chuck described the set as “A Great Trip on the Monder Highway”. The performance left the audience looking forward to a future trip down that highway.

1st set: Come Rain or Come Shine (Johnny Mercer), Pale Blue Dot  (Chuck Lamb), Ben solo piece, This is New, Wichita Lineman (Jimmy Webb)

2nd set: Gazebo (Chuck Lamb), Hot House (Tadd Dameron), Lover (Kurt Weil), Skylark (Hoagy Carmichael), Li Po (Ben Monder)