Ben Allison - Layers of the City (2017)

Ben's 12th album features his band Think Free, featuring Jeremy Pelt (trumpet), Steve Cardenas (guitar), Frank Kimbrough (piano), and Allan Mednard (drums). Ben plays acoustic bass and, for the first time on record, electric bass.

“Layers of the City is a title that has a lot of meaning for me,” said Ben. “The ‘City’ in this case is New York, my home, where my parents were born, and where their parents arrived as immigrants. The people who live here are from everywhere. The layers of the city are reflected in the grime and uneven slope of old tenement buildings, the gleam and perfect angles of modern glass structures, the makeshift and the honed, the worn out and the state of the art, and everything in between. These juxtapositions, coupled with the cultural diversity of NYC, produce a unique kind of energy and vitality. This is why I live here.”