About Ben

An artist with incredible versatility, unique groove and pocket, and a sound sorcerer on any stage, Ben Misterka’s story is anything but ordinary. A top-call session and touring guitarist, he has held down arenas, festival main stages and late-night clubs on three continents, backing pop stars and renowned touring acts and leading bands of his own, with a tone you can pick out in a few notes.

His sound is modern yet vintage, exploratory yet emotional, diverse yet distinct. Jazz, fusion, funk and rock all run through it, and the blues is never far away. Lately that range has been pointing inward. His 2025 single “Slow Flame” opened a more personal chapter, and a new solo record is on the way. On any given night he might be playing classical solo guitar, or running a hybrid set that moves between DJing, looping, keys and live guitar.

He is a bandleader by nature. Ben founded Collectivity, a high-energy, genre-blending ensemble of world-class players built on collective improvisation. Their album Off the Grid (2019) carried them across Asia, the US and Europe, including opening for Larry Graham at Shanghai Stadium. Singles from The Oakland Sessions, among them “Things Turn Around” and “Microdose,” followed, and More Cushion landed in 2026. He co-founded New Grasslands, a bluegrass and Mongolian folk band that toured Japan and China in 2025, and plays original fusion with the W.I.M. Trio alongside renowned drummer Tommy Igoe. Other artists trust him to run their bands too: he has served as music director for Lyrics Born, Pamela Parker and Pinay, and during six years in Shanghai he led and produced the house band behind Shake Vol. 1.

Now based in the Bay Area, Ben opened Collectivity Studios in San Francisco in 2026, a space for recording, production and teaching. He studied with Wayne Krantz, Fred Hersch and Doug Richards, and has been featured in Guitar Player and AKR Magazine.

• Lyrics Born
• Goapele
• Tommy Igoe
• Boot Juice
• Fred Yonnet
• The Voice of China
• Nikki Glaspie
• Uriah Duffy
• Morris Hayes
• Tia Ray
• Glen David Andrews
• Tan Wei Wei 谭维维
• Leah Dou 窦靖童
• Yu Quan 羽泉
• Anika Nilles
• Mindi Abair
• and many others