This Friday and Saturday, March 7th and 8th, saxophonist-composer Ben van Gelder will be bringing two bands to The Jazz Gallery. On Friday, he'll be performing quartet without chordal accompaniment, which will feature Kyle Wilson on tenor saxophone, Joe Sanders on bass, and Craig Weinrib on drums; on Saturday, he'll be performing with his quintet, which features some of the usual suspects from ongoing collaborations: Sam Harris on piano, Peter Schlamb on vibes, Thomas Morgan on bass, and Craig Weinrib again on drums.Ben led his quartet on our stage back in October, and we spoke a bit about his musical interests and the formative influences on his ever-developing musical persona. On his own website, Ben reflected on his past year in music and mentioned the work that's gone into the music that you'll be hearing this weekend:

I’m currently working on writing music for a chord-less quartet. I played a few shows over the past months featuring either Ambrose Akinmusire or Mark Turner. These concerts felt natural and effortless.

We're looking forward to hosting Ben this weekend as he continues to pursue his compositional vision with both the new chordless and regular quintet configurations. Here's a video of the quintet that'll be performing this Saturday, recorded last year:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HC7_222QcgoBen van Gelder performs with his chordless quartet and working quintet this Friday and Saturday, March 7th and 8th, 2014. On Friday, he'll be joined by Kyle Wilson on tenor saxophone, Joe Sanders on bass, and Craig Weinrib on drums; on Saturday, he'll be joined by Sam Harris on piano, Peter Schlamb on vibes, Thomas Morgan on bass, and Craig Weinrib on drums. Sets are at 9 and 11 p.m., $20 general admission and $10 for members. Purchase tickets here.