WNYC's New Sounds dedicates its latest episode to "some of the exciting new music coming out of Chicago," including three albums released through partnership between the Chicago-born label International Anthem and Nonesuch Records: Jeff Parker's Suite for Max Brown and Forfolks and Ben LaMar Gay's Open Arms to Open Us. You can hear the episode here. Both artists will perform at the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville in March. Parker then tours the West Coast with Steve Gunn and will perform on the East Coast with Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo in May.

Ben LaMar Gay is on the latest episode of BBC World Service's Music Life, joining Angel Bat Dawid in conversation with Qur'an Shaheed and Dr. Adam Zanolini about the importance of not conforming and recognizing one's own gifts. You can hear it here.

Composer, singer, and instrumental polymath Ben LaMar Gay's new album, Open Arms to Open Us, is out today on International Anthem / Nonesuch Records, and lives up to NPR's claim that "there is no one universe for Ben LaMar Gay, he just sonic booms from one sound to another." On the album, recorded at International Anthem studios in Chicago, Gay interweaves jazz, blues, ballads, R&B, raga, new music, nursery rhyme, Tropicália, two-step, hip-hop, and beyond in his most colorful and communicable work yet, an expression of his signature omni-genre, "Pan-Americana" brew.

Ben LaMar Gay has shared a new single and music video for “Aunt Lola and the Quail,” a new song off his upcoming album, Open Arms to Open Us, out November 19 on International Anthem / Nonesuch. You can watch the video, by Chris Strong, here. Gay will give a special album release performance at Public Records in Brooklyn on January 18 as part of NYC Winter Jazzfest.

Ben LaMar Gay shares a new video for “Mestre Candeia’s Denim Hat,” off his upcoming album Open Arms to Open Us, out November 19 on International Anthem / Nonesuch. An homage to improvisatory and rhythmic elements of the Brazilian “Partido Alto” tradition, “Mestre Candeia’s Denim Hat” sees Gay lay a Chicago-style free-jazz synth raga over a swinging, fractured march. The title is a nod to the insight and style of master sambista and partideiro Antônio Candeia Filho. You can watch the video, directed by Andrea Rodea and Erik Mares of the Mexico City based Rhizomes Films, here.

Ben LaMar Gay has released “Oh Great Be the Lake," the second single from his upcoming new album Open Arms to Open Us, out November 19 on International Anthem / Nonesuch. The new track is a ballad penned by Gay to his memories of jumping off the rocks into Lake Michigan on Chicago’s Southside; you can watch the video by Chris Strong here. Supported by delicate, minimal flute accents by Rob Frye and wordless backing vocals by Ayanna Woods, Gay croons encouragingly, repeatedly: “Learn how to swim.” This song also birthed the album title, which is taken from the lyrics in the second verse.

Composer, singer, and instrumental polymath Ben LaMar Gay's new album, Open Arms to Open Us, is due November 19 on International Anthem / Nonesuch Records. Living up to NPR's claim that "there is no one universe for Ben LaMar Gay, he just sonic booms from one sound to another," he interweaves jazz, blues, ballads, R&B, raga, new music, nursery rhyme, Tropicália, two-step, hip-hop, and beyond in his most colorful and communicable work yet, an expression of his signature omni-genre, "Pan-Americana" brew. You can watch the video for the track "Sometimes I Forget How Summer Looks on You," featuring OHMME, here.