After more than five years since his last release, Boston-based funk and
retro-soul musician Big Ben Hillman is finally releasing his debut
full-length solo album. The Friday Night Consortium, a
collection of a dozen all new original Hillman compositions, runs the
gamut of soulful grooves; from the up-tempo kick off number “Let’s Get
Crazy” and the smooth dance-floor grinder “Friday Night,” to melodious
ballads like “Beautiful Stranger” (a duet with Boston-based songstress
Lydia Harrell) or feel-good disco romps like “It’s Too Easy,” The Friday
Night Consortium has something for everyone.
“I’d been recording an album in New York before I got called to go on
tour with the Greg Luttrell Band,” says Hillman, who was born and raised
in the Boston area. “We spent four months in Shanghai, China. When I
got back to the states I was going to pick up where I left off, but
instead I ended up writing a whole new album with all new songs.” Big
Ben Hillman, best known for hits like “It Must Have Been The Music”
featuring Nephtaliem McCrary of The Nephrok! All-Stars and the
blues-flavored hip-hop number “I’m Sorry” featuring Boston emcee Fee
(One-Love, Ex-Cal) and Meyer Statham (Chucklehead, John Scofield) has
spent most of his career as a hired freelance keyboardist, percussionist
and background vocalist. He’s performed with local acts such as
D-Tension, The Boston Horns and Michigan Blacksnake as well as major
artists as diverse as hip-hoppers De La Soul and The Wu Tang Clan and
rockers like Les Claypool and Jimmy Buffet, yet Hillman says that
writing and producing music has long been his primary aim.
“I’ve always considered myself a songwriter first,” says the man known
by many as The Professor of Funk. His first big break as a producer came
in the form of “Lay ‘Em Down,” a heavy gangster rap cut featuring Krumb
Snatcha that he co-wrote and co-produced with D-Tension on his Contacts
and Contracts II album. “I was raised on hip-hop; it’s a part of my
heritage,” Big Ben says of his past work with the Brick Records artist
“but I always knew I had something else inside of me to share with the
world.”
In
2010, the performer who had started his career as a session drummer in
Lowell, MA would take his act on the road, performing in clubs in
Philadelphia, Washington DC and New York City. “I got a whole lot of
experience spending those days on the club circuit out there; I was
really starting to find my voice as an artist,” Hillman says as he
reflects on his days on the road. “Now that I am back in Boston I really
feel like I have found my center and I am able make my visions come to
life.”
The Friday Night Consortium can be purchased at CD Baby.
To read Big Ben's full biography, click here: BIG BEN'S BIO