Ben Rogers

Ben has been playing guitar since the early sixties, initially influenced by the popular instrumentals of that period. He currently performs with several groups including his trio Ben Rogers’ Instrumental Asylum (with Nikki Scarlett on bass and Denis Close on drums), which has released five albums of surf/spy/guitar-noir. During the 1980s he was based in Perth, where he performed in various bands including Vipers Dream - a quartet influenced by the music of Django Reinhardt. His arrangement of the Django Reinhardt jazz standard “Nuages” – recorded with Instrumental Asylum - is listed as a recommended version in The Jazz Standards, a reference book published by Oxford University Press. Now based in Melbourne, Ben has released several acoustic albums including Windfarms of Your Mind - a collection of his original acoustic instrumentals (included in Billy Pinnell’s Top Ten Albums of 2011 in Rhythms Magazine). In 2023 he released The Chamber Pots - a 5 track EP of original acoustic compositions.