Album Stream: Ben Wendel's 'Frame'

Marc Rosenfeld Antunes
Staff Writer
mra337@nyu.edu / @mcrantunes

[Listen to Ben Wendel in the Nextplayer]

Being a jazz musician today means being flexible and open to all things. Saxophonist and bassoonist Ben Wendel certainly fits this description; you might have heard him perform with Dan Tepfer. You might have heard him perform with Prince. You might even have heard him perform with Snoop Dogg.

But that certainly is not enough to make a musician interesting; you might say a musician needs a certain mastery of a voice of his own. In listening to his Frame (to be released on the 28th of February, 2012), it seems that this is absolutely true of Ben Wendel.

Wendel proves to be developing as a musician who can use different musical mediums and terrains to express himself as such. The album showcases Wendel’s experimentation with textures of all sorts, ranging from a more ambient feel on “Blocks” to edgier tastes on “Frame”. The listener of bebop and Latin jazz will find interesting Wendel’s slow and soulful interpretation of Dizzy’s “Con Alma”, featuring Gerald Clayton, just as the listener of “world music” will find interesting his take on the meters typically used in playing the Moroccan gimbre in “Backbou”. Wendel’s expressive style brings an interesting perspective to all of these different forms.

Jazz music has always promoted flexibility in terms of style. So why not use that function to its maximum? It is like this that Ben Wendel’s Frame, streaming on Nextbop until the 27th of February, takes advantage of the jazz form. This listen is so exciting because of this very reason; it pushes the limits of jazz just that little bit further.

Frame also features Gerald Clayton,Tigran Hamasyan, & Adam Benjamin trading off on piano & Fender Rhodes, Nir Felder on guitar, Ben Street on bass, and Nate Wood on drums.