Ben Monder: Day After Day

On Day After Day, Ben Monder explores memories triggered by songs. Over two discs, one solo and the other with bassist Matt Brewer and drummer Ted Poor, the guitarist rouses impressions formed long ago. Just like a certain fragrance can spark the memory of an old lover, songs deep in your brain's hard drive can be recovered. Miles Davis and Sonny Rollins were masters at this, but covering Rodgers and Hammerstein's "The Surrey with the Fringe on Top" from the 1943 musical Oklahoma!, as they did, can't be expected to do much for baby boom and post-baby boom generations.

Monder (b. 1962) has the key to unlock those memories. Songs that may have once been an earworm, or an involuntary musical image stuck on repetition like David Gate's "The Guitar Man" written for his group Bread in 1972, are reinstalled and a song you hadn't thought about for decades is reanimated. For the most part, we aren't talking The Great American Songbook here. With covers of "Galveston," a hit for Glen Campbell, Fleetwood Mac's "Dust," and Bob Dylan's "Just Like A Woman," this is more like the pop hall of fame's memory unit.

What Monder has going for him is that memories are never the same. We continually rewrite and rewrite, changing them unconsciously. Maybe that's why covers by an improvising jazz guitarist are so appealing.

Comments