WGXC-90.7 FM

Audio Buffet: Rob Saffer and Ben LaMar Gay

Feb 17, 2026: 11am - 11:59 am
WGXC 90.7-FM: Radio for Open Ears

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Ben LaMar Gay

Ben LaMar Gay. Image courtesy of PS21. (Feb 18, 2026)

Produced by many contributors.

Tune in for an interview between Rob Saffer, host of WGXC's Overlooked, and Ben LaMar Gay ahead of the artist's upcoming performance as part of PS21's winter festival The Dark. Ben LaMar Gay will perform Cold Was the Ground at the Crandell Theater in Chatham, NY this Wednesday, February 18th at 8:30pm. If you can't make it in person, the performance will also be broadcast live on WGXC!

“Overlooked” is a show focusing on overlooked and underplayed music of all varieties: jazz, improvisational, international, and other fringe music, ancient to future, familiar to rare, classic to weird. Broadcast live from Overlook Mountain in Ulster County, “Overlooked” offers programs focused solely on newly released music along with others that focus on specific musical themes or history.

Ben LaMar Gay is a composer and cornetist who moves sound, color, and space through folkloric filters to produce electro-acoustic collages. A Chicago native, Ben’s true technique is giving life to an idea while exploring and expanding on the term ‘Americana.’ With his band, the Ben LaMar Gay Quartet, he will dive into the hypnotism of their cosmopolitan blues, with old and new tales as well as selections from their latest release Yowzers via International Anthem. This work represents a leap forward in the lexicon of Gay’s recorded output and a veritable masterwork of ancient inner-body rhythms and intuitive melodic storytelling. The quartet consists of Ben LaMar Gay on cornet, electronics, and vocals; Tommaso Moretti on drums; Edinho Gerber on guitar; and Katie Ernst on bass.

The Dark is a new annual festival from PS21 : Center for Contemporary Performance that celebrates and elevates the depths of winter. Taking place February 16–22, 2026, the festival will unfold at PS21 and across Columbia County—in theatres, restaurants, libraries, saunas, and outdoor public spaces. Featuring more than 60 international artists and over 80 performances, The Dark offers a packed week of world-class contemporary performance, installation, music, dance, and theatre—all exploring winter as a time of community and solitude, fire and ice, darkness and light. A major new attraction for the region, the festival positions Columbia County as a year-round cultural destination—not just a summer one. It is a light in the dark—and The Dark is the light.