In The Past:
BEN was born in St. Louis, Mo. At the age of 8 his mother enrolled him in CASA, a Conservatory School of Fine Arts in St. Louis. He attended Casa for eleven years where he studied different styles of music, theory and drumming such as classical, ragtime, folk, medieval, Latin jazz, big band and concert under the direction of Mr. Glenn (PAPA) Wright. While attending CASA he was exposed to several professional areas of gospel music and played with some of the best artists in gospel such as John P. Kee, Marvin Winans, BeBe & CeCe, Keith Staton, The Clark Sisters, Beau Williams, Helen Baylor, Yolanda Adams, the late James Moore, and the late Brenda Waters, among many others. Before moving to Houston in 1991, he worked at Shalamar Studios as a studio drummer and teacher for two years. He has played for many black gospel stage plays as well as for crusades, conventions and conferences which are host to such individuals such as T.D. Jakes, Rick Joiner, Dr. Handby, Creflo Dollar and Don Meares. While living in Houston, he has made guest appearances on several television stations such as BET, TBN, Daystar as well as Bobby Jones Gospel and Houston‘s own Debra Duncan Show. He was a judge for the National Drum Off competitions for five years for Guitar Center and Mars Music Stores under James Douglas. Among other things, in 2003 BEN’s sports clothing line design was approved and had participated in the World Olympics, which was endorsed by Mary Onyali who currently holds the Gold & Bronze for the 100 & 200 meters in the World Olympics.
Present:
Currently BEN is a member of ASCAP, and has written over 400 songs in past three years. To date he has released a total of 9 Gospel CD’s in the form of Gospel Jazz, Rap and Praise & Worship. In 2003 and 2004 he released “Jazz According To Gospel Chapter’s 2, 3, and 4 as well as “Where My Soldiers At Christians ” a gospel rap CD. All of these CD’s are being sold successfully online via cdbaby.com. They are also available with 50 different digital download companies. In 2005 BEN released “Jazz According To Gospel New Birth” & another gospel jazz CD which he dedicates to our troops at war entitled “Off The Chain” featuring St. Louis own James Matthews, a great jazz pianist. He just released a soundtrack CD titled “Regretful Decision” for the film “Regretful Decision” written by Elson Williams III. The film premiers in Chicago, IL on April 20th 2005. In addition BEN has released his praise and worship CD dedicated to the late Brenda Waters titled “Let’s Worship” which features some great gospel singers. He is presently working on two other CD’s; one gospel rap and another Praise and Worship CD for this summer’s release. In Texas, he co produced a gospel TV show called Inspire The Desire which he plans to film in St. Louis which will feature local gospel talents. His ultimate goal this year is to release his book “Life Before Adam” which is about Lucifer before he became Satan. It is expected to be both controversial and informative.
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