Guiding Light Ben Todd Quintet

• 1 With One L 05:59
• 2 Guiding Light 06:08
• 3 Cast On 05:59
• 4 Daffodil Daze 06:16
• 5 Caravan Dreams 05:38
• 6 Gorge Wanderer 05:30
• 7 Frank and Stein 05:19
• Total Runtime 40:49

Info for Guiding Light

Introducing the second release as part of our ongoing series of commissions: Ben Todd's 'Guiding Light' - an album dedicated to his aunt who has been a major supporter of the drummer's musical endeavours over many years.

'Guiding Light' features the Adelaide-based drummer and his long-running quintet of James Muller on guitar, Paul White on keys, Adam Page on sax and Damien Steele Scott on bass. Ben's music is energetic and playful, with each composition built from the drums up, and it showcases some of South Australia's best in fine form.

Ben Todd Quintet

Ben Todd
is a drummer, percussionist, composer and bandleader from Adelaide in South Australia.

Over the past 10 years, Ben has been touring the world with the internationally acclaimed "Cirque du Soleil" as a featured drummer, percussionist and now bandleader with 3 of their shows, "CORTEO", "KOOZA" and most recently "VOLTA". During this time, Ben has performed in Japan, Russia, The United States, Spain, Canada, France, Belgium and England and performed over 1500 shows.

Prior to joining Cirque, Ben performed with a wide range of artists back in Australia including Kate Cebrano, Paulini, Ben Folds, Doug Parkinson, Rhonda Burchmore, James Morrison, David Campbell, Barry Humphries and Glen Shorrok, as well as playing in the pit orchestras for a variety of musical theatre shows including the Australia/NZ tour of Cats, The Wedding Singer, Miss Saigon and Grease.

Ben began playing drums at the age of 3, adding to an already large family of drummers (3 generations to be exact). His first introduction to the instrument was from his father, who was a full-time freelance musician at that time.

Before reaching high school, Ben had already toured nationally with various bands and was starting to make his own mark on the professional Adelaide music scene. At age 13, he was accepted under scholarship to attend the acclaimed Marryatville High School as a specialist music student. During his time at Marryatville, Ben was part of the award winning "Big Band One" which led him to tour both nationally and internationally, including performances in London, New York and Los Angeles.

After leaving high school, Ben quickly became established in the Adelaide music community and began work in sessions, musicals and corporate bands. This allowed him to develop an extremely versatile approach and had him performing in a multitude of different musical environments. Ben also conducted several drum clinics and workshops both in Adelaide and interstate.

In 2007, Ben was selected as a "James Morrison Jazz Scholarship" finalist, then in 2008, Ben was a featured artist at the "Ultimate Drummers Weekend" in Melbourne, Australia. He would later be asked back to perform again in 2015, this time in a duo format with Multi-Instrumentalist Adam Page. 2010 saw Ben release his debut solo studio album, "20TEN" which featured all original compositions, and later released as a play-along package for drums. Since the release of this album, Ben has also gone on to release 4 more recordings as a leader; the “Ben Todd and Adam Page Duo EP” in 2015, the “Ben Todd Quintet EP” in 2016, “Memento” in 2020 and “Guiding Light” in 2021 for ABC Jazz.

Ben proudly endorses Pearl Drums, Zildjian Cymbals, Remo Drumheads, Vic Firth Sticks, LP Percussion and ProLogix Percussion.

This album contains no booklet.