SOUND PROJECTIONS
AN ONLINE QUARTERLY MUSIC MAGAZINE
EDITOR: KOFI NATAMBU
SUMMER, 2020
VOLUME NINE NUMBER ONE
BRIAN BLADE
Featuring the Musics and Aesthetic Visions of:
SULLIVAN FORTNER
(August 8-14)
JOEL ROSS
(August 15-21)
HORACE TAPSCOTT
(August 22-28)
BILLY HART
(August 29-September 4)
MARC CARY
(September 5-11)
EDDIE HENDERSON
(September 12-18)
CECIL MCBEE
(September 19-25)
MAKAYA MCCRAVEN
(September 26-October 2)
FRANK MORGAN
(October 3-9)
RASHIED ALI
(October 10-16)
DON REDMAN
(October 17-23)
IDRIS MUHAMMAD
(October 24-30)
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/joel-ross-mn0001266028/biography
The Chicago-born, Brooklyn-based vibraphonist Joel Ross is a sophisticated jazz performer with a sound steeped in the post-bop tradition. A protege of Stefon Harris, Ross initially gained attention in 2016 as a sideman with Marquis Hill and his own Good Vibes ensemble. In 2019, he issued his debut Blue Note album Kingmaker.
Born in 1996, Ross
grew up in Chicago's South Side with parents who worked as police
officers. A twin, he and his sibling started playing drums at age three,
and by elementary school were regularly playing at church where their
father also worked as the choir director. As a teenager, he switched to
the vibraphone after joining the All City concert and jazz bands. More
opportunities followed including playing with groups at the Jazz
Institute of Chicago and eventually enrolling at the Chicago High School
for the Arts. Via the school's partnership with the Thelonious Monk
Institute of Jazz, Ross engaged with a bevy of performers including Herbie Hancock, Gerald Clayton, and Stefon Harris; the latter urged him to audition for his Brubeck Institute Jazz Quintet at California's University of the Pacific. Ross won the audition and spent two years working with Harris
and developing his skills. The vibraphonist ultimately transferred to
the New School where he formed his own Good Vibes ensemble and finished
out his degree. In 2016, he took first place at the 2016 BIAMP PDX Jazz
Festival "Jazz Forward" Competition. Based in Brooklyn, he has played
with such luminaries as Makaya McCraven, Peter Evans, and Marquis Hill. In 2018, he joined Walter Smith III and Matthew Stevens for the album In Common. A year later, he issued his debut album as a leader, Kingmaker, on Blue Note.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/joel-ross-mn0001266028/biography
Joel Ross
(b. 1996)
Artist Biography by Matt Collar
Joel Ross
Highly anticipated vibraphonist, Joel Ross is making waves across the
nation. The Chicago native has performed with notable jazz musicians
that include Herbie Hancock, Louis Hayes, Christian McBride, Stefon
Harris, Gerald Clayton, The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and many
others. Ross has been twice selected as a Thelonious Monk Institute
National All-Star and a 2013 YoungArts Jazz Finalist. He has had the
opportunity to perform at the Brubeck, the Monterey and Chicago Jazz
Festivals, along with performing at venues such as Dizzy’s Club
Coca-Cola in New York, SF Jazz in San Francisco, Club Vibrato in Los
Angeles and a host of others. Recently, Ross completed a two year
fellowship with the Brubeck Institute Jazz Quintet in California. He now
is a New York resident attending the New School for Jazz and
Contemporary Music studying under the direction of Stefon Harris.
“I never had a doubt
that I was going to do music,” says Joel Ross, the most thrilling new
vibraphonist in America. “My whole life it was just about finding a way
to do it.” In the past few years, keeping up with all of those ways has,
for aficionados, turned into a virtuosic practice unto itself. The
Chicago-born, Brooklyn-based player and composer has a way of being
everywhere interesting at once: from deeply innovative albums (Makaya
McCraven’s Universal Beings, Walter Smith III & Matthew Stevens’ In Common)
to reliably revolutionary combos (Marquis Hill’s Blacktet, Peter Evans’
Being & Becoming) to the buzzing debut of Blue Note’s 2018 breakout
star James Francies (Flight). Even with his own bands—which
include quartets and a large ensemble dedicated to works of and
in-the-style-of Ornette Coleman and the Keith Jarrett’s American
Quartet—Ross is basically a living blur of mallets and talent and ideas.
But 2019 is his year to be the star as he joins the Blue Note Records
roster and adds his name to an illustrious jazz vibraphone legacy on the
label that extends from Milt Jackson and Bobby Hutcherson to Stefon
Harris and now Ross.
Ross grew up in a harmonious home with three older
sisters and police officers for parents in a quiet South Side
neighborhood. By 3, he and his twin had spent enough time beating on
things around the house that it was deemed wisest to buy them separate
toddler-sized drum sets. Before long they were taking turns sitting in
at church, where dad was choir director at one point. They joined school
band as soon as they could, age 10, and since Joel was the younger
twin, he was consigned to xylophone while his brother hit skins. They
auditioned for the multi-school All City concert and jazz bands too.
“To be fair my brother was the better drummer,” Ross
admits. “We both made the cut and since I already played mallets they
said, ‘Why don’t you try vibraphone?’ I was like, ‘I don’t know what a
vibraphone is. I don’t want to do this.’” But he did, and found it the
most natural way to express himself. He practiced and played constantly
through numerous opportunities from the Jazz Institute of Chicago, and
later became one of the first students at the city’s first public arts
high school, Chicago High School for the Arts. Through ChiArts’
partnership with the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, Ross got to meet
kindred spirits at other high schools around the country, jam with
Herbie Hancock (his class of 2013 keynote speaker), and learn from
special guest Gerald Clayton, a gateway to the beguiling music of
Akinmusire, in particular the trumpeter’s own Blue Note debut When the Heart Emerges Glistening, which Ross didn’t immediately understand, so, naturally he became keenly devoted to unpacking every note.
Still, he’d never had a dedicated vibraphone teacher. Enter Stefon Harris, who after meeting Ross at a festival, invited him to try out for his Brubeck Institute Jazz Quintet at University of the Pacific in Nor Cal. Ross won it, and for two intense years worked to tear down and rebuild his approach to the instrument. “Stefon completely revamped my technique,” says Ross. “We were also learning his [now-famous] ear-training method, applying emotions to chords and hearing harmony in new ways. I figured out how I wanted to sound.” Ross soon transferred to the New School and formed his band Good Vibes featuring his favorite players he met at camps, contests, and gigs along the way.
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Joel Ross And His (Exceptionally) Good Vibes
- Download
Vibraphonist Joel Ross, whose debut album KingMaker was released May 3 on Blue Note. Courtesy of Blue Note Records
Ross, 23, has become the breakout jazz star of the moment partly on the basis of this volatile spark and its cathartic release. Last December, at a high-profile New York show by drummer Makaya McCraven, on whose album Universal Beings he appears, Ross took one solo that provoked the sort of raucous hollers you'd sooner expect in a basketball arena. Again, this was a vibraphone solo.
I first heard Ross at the start of 2016, months after he arrived in New York as a music student, and he made a strong impression even then. He was appearing during Winter Jazzfest with pianist James Francies, who had just been signed to Blue Note Records. I publicly stated my intention to keep them both on my radar.
Performing at The Jazz Gallery in New York in Feb. 2018. Jonathan Chimene/WBGO
He has a slight build and a quiet demeanor, but exudes an untroubled self-confidence. "I'm kind of taking it as it comes," he says of his surrounding buzz. "I feel like I'm fine." We spoke one recent afternoon at The Jazz Gallery — a crucial hub for several generations of rising talent, including musicians in his immediate orbit, like saxophonists Melissa Aldana and María Grand.
Ross grew up on the South Side of Chicago, where both his parents were police officers. From an early age, he and his fraternal twin brother played drums in their Baptist church.
"He was the better drummer," Ross says of his brother, "so that's how I wound up playing the mallet instruments — xylophone, specifically, at first." His evident talent on mallet percussion inexorably led him to the vibraphone, and to Chicago's All-City Jazz Band.
Rhythm is still his first love, as you can hear throughout KingMaker. Many of his compositions begin with a vamp – a repetitive rhythmic motif – that his band can build upon or push against. The intricacies in the music tend to involve layers of counterrhythm, or sudden shifts of gear. But the ultimate aim, Ross hastens to explain, is to elide the feeling of a busy focus: "I'm trying to find a way to make all these modern irregular rhythms still groove and swing."
At the same time, he has a strong attachment to melody. The vibes opened that world up for him — so I was surprised when Ross casually proclaimed it his least favorite instrument. "I have a love-hate relationship with the vibraphone; I've always been small, and it's always been larger than me," he says, laughing. "And it's cold metal bars. It's really hard to get expression out of it. That's the challenge. So that's how I come at it, as a challenge."
KingMaker places Ross in a storied fraternity of Blue Note vibraphonists, from bebop pioneer Milt Jackson to post-bop paragon Bobby Hutcherson to turn-of-the-century dynamo Stefon Harris. Each has played a role in his development: Ross acknowledges Jackson as a core influence, and once made a pilgrimage to Hutcherson's house in California. "He was telling me to write music every day, to write about life," Ross recalls as if describing a visit with Yoda. "We looked outside, it was kind of overcast and he was like, "You can write about this.' "
But it was the tutelage of Harris — who, about 20 years ago, rode in with similar momentum — that proved most pivotal. Harris was the artist-in-residence when Ross studied at the Brubeck Institute at the University of the Pacific, and they worked together not only on the finer points of vibraphone technique but also ear training, harmony and rhythm.
The vibraphone — with its motor, resonators and sustain pedal, and that grid of tuned aluminum bars — can suggest both a marvel of industrial engineering and a piece of gym equipment. There's a useful tension in the ambivalence Ross harbors for the instrument. "I feel like we should devote more time to our tone, the way horn players do," he says. "Vibraphonists can often hold down the pedal too long, and then their notes run together. I want clarity, for the most part. So I do a lot of pedal tapping, half-pedaling. It's nothing new, but I'm really specific about it."
KingMaker captures that tactility, in places, but it's not a vibraphone album first and foremost. Most of its songs are inspired by people in Ross's life; his parents, his brother, a niece. He's writing about life, as Hutcherson impelled him to do. And he has followed a similar impulse elsewhere, as in a longform 2017 Jazz Gallery commission, pointedly titled Being a Young Black Man. Just this week he presented another commissioned work, at Roulette in Brooklyn, with a quartet and an eight-piece ensemble called Parables. Ross calls this piece "Revelation," describing it as "a collection of composed and improvised music inspired by a reflection of self."
That earnest interiority is a Ross hallmark, for those who have been paying close attention. It's one reason McCraven, the drummer and producer, named an album track "Young Genius" in the vibraphonist's honor.
Last month Ross played another gig with McCraven, back home in Chicago. Footage of a vibes solo on "Young Genius," posted by photographer Kristie Kahns and embedded above, captures his spirit perfectly.
Watching the clip, it's easy to be struck by the terms of Ross' engagement with the vibraphone: all that kinetic magnetism, all that strength in his sound. But it's also easy to picture a world beyond the notes. The bright future stretching before Ross has as much to do with that emotional expression as anything that happens between his mallets and those metal bars. But it's also inextricable from that contact, and Ross is perceptive enough to walk the line.
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All right. If you're a jazz fan, you may have heard the name Joel Ross before. The 23-year-old vibraphonist has been turning heads on the jazz scene ever since he moved to New York as a music student four years ago. Now he has released his debut album. It is called "KingMaker." And Nate Chinen from Jazz Night In America and member station WBGO reports the title might not be too far off.
NATE CHINEN, BYLINE: The first thing that's likely to grab you about Joel Ross is the force of his attack.
(SOUNDBITE OF JOEL ROSS'S "IS IT LOVE THAT INSPIRES YOU?")
CHINEN: He's a vibraphonist who leans hard into the percussive qualities of his instrument, jackhammering notes and complex patterns against a swirling groove.
(SOUNDBITE OF JOEL ROSS'S "IS IT LOVE THAT INSPIRES YOU?")
CHINEN: Ross grew up on the South Side of Chicago, where both his parents were police officers. He has a twin, and they both started out playing drums in their Baptist church. His brother was the better drummer, which is one reason Ross turned to mallet percussion - first xylophone, then marimba and vibraphone, which has bars made of metal instead of wood and a motor that can add vibrato to the notes. In a few short years, he's become the hot young vibraphonist. But he says it's actually his least favorite instrument.
JOEL ROSS: I have a love-hate relationship with the vibraphone. I've always been small, and it's always been larger than me (laughter). It's cold metal bars, and it's really hard to get expression out of it. That's the challenge. So that's how I come at it - it's a challenge.
(SOUNDBITE OF JOEL ROSS'S "PRINCE LYNN'S TWIN")
CHINEN: Ross grew up listening to jazz, but not necessarily jazz vibraphone. He says he's always gravitated more to the sound of Miles Davis and John Coltrane, who literally used breath in their playing and developed tight bands.
ROSS: I want to play around the world with my friends. But also, I really want to develop something with a band. That's what Miles and 'Trane (ph) inspired. You know, they were playing a bunch and really got to a band sound. And I want to get to the highest form of communication that a band can get to.
CHINEN: Ross pushes this idea to the fore on his debut album. It's a proud statement of arrival, showcasing not only his smart compositions but also his working band, Good Vibes.
(SOUNDBITE OF JOEL ROSS'S "ILL RELATIONS")
CHINEN: "KingMaker" is a signal flare for a jazz generation just hitting its stride. Ross and his bandmates, including saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins and drummer Jeremy Dutton, are all in their early 20s. They share an understanding of a jazz tradition that's wide open to outside influence, with no single path forward.
ROSS: With this generation, I feel like we're all doing such different things now. I don't even know if we'd say we have a common goal, but it seems like the common goal is to specifically express what you feel like expressing. That seems to be the thing.
CHINEN: For his part, Ross draws on the rhythmic clarity of Milt Jackson - the bebop titan of the instrument, best known as one-fourth of the Modern Jazz Quartet - and his own studies with Stefon Harris, who helped bring the vibraphone into the 21st century.
(SOUNDBITE OF JOEL ROSS'S "ILL RELATIONS")
CHINEN: In their solos, Ross and his bandmates often push their expressive output into the red. But they're also respectful of melody, seeking to connect emotionally with listeners.
ROSS: It's not so much the what, it's the why. You know, I feel like the audience - whether you're swinging, tipping or playing some in 30/13 - you know, it's like, if the intent is honest and strong enough, you know, I feel like they'll understand why you're doing it even if they don't know what it is. They could feel something. Whether they liked it or not was a different story, but they could - you could feel something. And that's what I want. I want just to put out something that people can feel.
(SOUNDBITE OF JOEL ROSS'S "KINGMAKER")
CHINEN: "KingMaker" is an auspicious debut for Joel Ross, but it's also just a marker. He's already composed a lot of other new music for ensembles big and small. And he's definitely going to keep pushing himself on the vibraphone, as he strives to make it sing.
For NPR News, I'm Nate Chinen.
(SOUNDBITE OF JOEL ROSS'S "KINGMAKER") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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http://www.iplayvibes.com/
New Album Coming out October 2020
“Ross’ playing erupts through the layers of lush arrangements like consistent currents of electricity, high-powered and full of luminous energy” — DownBeat
For the past several years, Joel Ross has been refining an expression that’s true to his sound and his generation. In 2019, the vibraphonist-composer released his anticipated Blue Note debut KingMaker to eruptive critical acclaim. He’s topped the DownBeat Critics Poll Rising Star category for vibraphone and in 2017, he became one of the youngest artists to receive a coveted Residency Commission from The Jazz Gallery. With the release of Who Are You? (Blue Note, 2020), Ross shares the culmination of a year-long exercise in experimenting and risk-taking on and off the bandstand.
Inspired by mentor Stefon Harris’ empathetic, whole-self approach to articulation, Ross has adopted an entire ethos dependent on truthful, ongoing communication. Honesty persists throughout his sets. And with each release, he reaffirms a commitment to authentic discourse, particularly among the members of his band Good Vibes: Jeremy Corren, Immanuel Wilkins, Kanoa Mendenhall and Jeremy Dutton.
“The bright future stretching before Ross has as much to do with that emotional expression as anything that happens between his mallets and those metal bars” --NPR
A steadfast improviser, Ross saturates live sets with a lyrical intuition that’s equally grounded in melody and phrasing. He plays the moment. Rather than impose energies on the music, he allows moods to set, linger and transform. In recent years, he’s engaged established artists of similarly tenacious voices, including Makaya McCraven (Universal Beings, 2018), Maria Grand, Kassa Overall, Nicole Mitchell, Gerald Clayton, Melissa Aldana (Visions, 2019), Walter Smith III (In Common, 2018), Georgia Anne Muldrow, Jure Pukl (Broken Circles, 2019), Rajna Swaminathan, Wynton Marsalis & the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and Marquis Hill (Modern Flows Vol. 2, 2018), who penned liner notes for Who Are You?
“Ross finds and uses his ultra-musical voice in an intricate, tender, soul-full — and Black church induced — set. We clearly hear his generous vision: a compositional mixing of classical, late modern, current ‘jazz,’ Black church — and a distinctive sense of the Chicago sound.” — Marquis Hill
Playing thoroughly in the broad, resonating tradition of Black music, Ross draws inspiration for his layered expression from vital, intersecting scenes of his native Chicago. Imbibing nuanced traditions from improvised music hubs to the church, he embraced a range of gestural possibilities he’d begin refining in New York. After graduating from University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, Ross pursued a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Jazz Studies from The New School in downtown Manhattan. Now based in Brooklyn, he regularly performs across the country and around the world. As a leader, he’s appeared at such storied venues and iconic events as Smalls Jazz Club, Umbria Jazz Festival, The Jazz Gallery, Winter Jazz Fest, Newport Jazz Festival, Dizzy’s Club, BRIC Jazz Festival, The Blue Whale, North Sea Jazz Festival, The Brubeck Institute and Kuumbwa Jazz Festival, among others. A highly sought collaborator, he’s performed at Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Village Vanguard, SF Jazz, Duc des Lombards, Ronnie Scotts, Jazz Standard, Red Sea Jazz Festival, Yoshi’s Oakland and California Jazz Conservatory.
Folkloric resonance incubates Ross’ artistry. Improvising melodies or composing at the piano, he leaves space for a theme to emerge and evolve, always inviting creative response. Nimble, virtuosic lines approximate speech. He often transitions among the roles of storyteller, protagonist and supporting character. His sophomore release for Blue Note Who Are You? features Good Vibes at their most synchronous.
For more information on new music and performance dates, visit iplayvibes.com and follow Joel on his social channels at @imjoelmross.
Dizzy's Club
Joel Ross Good Vibes
With vibraphonist Joel Ross, alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, pianist Jeremy Corren, bassist Kanoa Mendenhall, and drummer Jeremy Dutton.
“...Ross’ precocious creativity, facility, and confidence were downright shocking. His style is so unique and developed that it changed my image of the vibraphone itself.” – All About Jazz
Vibraphonist Joel Ross is one of our absolute favorite young artists, and it truly seems like every person who sees him feels the same. Always a huge hit with audiences and fellow musicians alike, Ross dazzles crowds with his technical virtuosity while also moving them with compelling musical statements. Ross regularly plays at Jazz at Lincoln Center as a sideman with a growing number of top bandleaders, and tonight will be his debut performance as a main set headliner. For the occasion he’s bringing his Good Vibes band (also the title of his soon-to-be-released debut album), an outstanding young group that plays a mix of beautiful originals and pieces by artists such as Ornette Coleman, Thelonious Monk, Ambrose Akinmusire, and Benny Golson. This show is an easy recommendation for listeners of all tastes and experience levels with jazz.
Visitor Info
Dizzy's Club
Broadway and 60th Street
5th Floor
Set Times*
7:30 & 9:30pm nightly
Late Night Session Tues-Sat
Doors Open at 11:15pm
*unless otherwise noted
Broadway and 60th Street
5th Floor
Set Times*
7:30 & 9:30pm nightly
Late Night Session Tues-Sat
Doors Open at 11:15pm
*unless otherwise noted
Acclaimed vibraphonist Joel Ross comes home for set at Chicago Jazz Festival
Joel Ross and his Good Vibes band are set to perform Aug. 30 at the Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/65115425/JoelRoss_4117_byLaurenDesberg.0.jpg)
Joel Ross sometimes talks about the instrument that has
made him one of the most in-demand young jazz musicians in America as
if it were a wardrobe stuck on a staircase between floors or a
refrigerator that quits spitting out ice in the middle of a heat wave.
“Honestly, it’s still a love-hate relationship,” said the
24-year-old South Side native, speaking recently from his home in
Brooklyn, New York. “The drum is my first love, and I actually fell in
love with the piano a few years ago.”
Listening to Ross play, few would guess at his struggles with the vibraphone — a “big, awkward” and occasionally cantankerous instrument.
In less capable hands, the vibraphone — essentially a
xylophone with a motor — might sound like wind chimes or something to
ignore in a hotel lobby. Ross’ playing transports his audience, as
though on a magic carpet skimming across a shimmering sea.
Ross, who will be in town Aug. 30 performing with his
Good Vibes quintet at the Chicago Jazz Festival, grew up in the Avalon
Park and Calumet Heights neighborhoods.
His parents were Chicago cops, now both retired. As
toddlers, Ross and his twin, Joshua, were fascinated by a godparent
playing drums at church.
“We would be watching him and kind of emulating him,” said Ross. “We’d get home and we’d be beating on stuff.”
The twins were given drum sets, with Ross’ brother showing more “natural talent.” Joshua now plays the drums professionally.
“When we were about 10 years old, we joined our
elementary school concert band,” Ross said. “[Joshua] kind of made me do
that mallet percussion because he was better at the snare drum and the
actual drums. That’s how I got to play the xylophone and the orchestra
bells.”
And the glockenspiel, a xylophone-like instrument.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been worried about what’s cool, per se,” he said. “It’s the love of the music that drives it.”
Ross and his brother, when in the fifth grade, auditioned
for the All-City Concert Band and Jazz Band; they made the cut for
both.
“We both auditioned on drums, and he was the better
drummer,” Ross said. “So they suggested I play the vibraphone. I had
never really heard of [it]. I didn’t really want to play it. But my dad
and the percussion instructor strongly suggested that I stick with it.
So I did. and I’m here now.”
The twins were part of the very first class at The Chicago High School for the Arts, which opened in 2009.
“He was clearly very, very talented even as a 13- and
14-year-old,” said Betsy Ko, head of the high school’s music department.
“He had a very distinguished career with us.”
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A decade later, Ross is earning rave reviews for his
playing. Pitchfork.com called Ross’ solo debut album, “KingMaker,”
released in May, a “marvel.”
“He’s so in command of the instrument and just really
clear about what he wants to say that he’s very mesmerizing to watch,”
said Ko.
Ross said his influences include Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk.
“As a piano player, [Monk] found a way to develop a
completely unique voice on the piano,” Ross said. “That was a shining
example of how it can be done for an instrument that doesn’t use the
voice [and how] it can still be vocal.”
One of the challenges with the vibraphone is that — because of its size — the instrument doesn’t travel with Ross on tour.
“We have to come in, sound check, get used to the
instrument we’re going to be playing that day and then try to make music
on it with everyone else,” he said. “We don’t have the same luxury of a
horn player who takes their horn with them, gets to know their horn
personally.”
Sometimes the motor dies, silencing the vibrato. Or a string breaks. Or the pedal that sustains the notes isn’t working.
“I just did a gig with my group in D.C. at Blues Alley,
and the string broke on the first tune of the first set,” Ross said. “So
I had to make it through the gig with a broken note.”
His 2019 tour schedule has included gigs in England, Italy, the Netherlands and the Canary Islands.
How, at such a young age, is he handling the jet-set life and the effusive praise he’s received?
“My family and my friends do a good job of keeping me
humble,” Ross said. “It’s exciting. I tend to keep a level head about
everything.”
Rising star Joel Ross brings his ‘Good Vibes’ to D.C.
Joel
Ross is celebrating his new album 'KingMaker' with a short tour,
including a stop in
Washington, D.C. Courtesy Lauren Desberg
“I enjoy most when we are all communicating and playing with each other and trying to achieve that highest form of listening and responding and playing with each other,” Ross said in a phone interview recently.
Take for example “Ill Relations,” the fourth track on KingMaker. The solos don’t just emphasize a single instrumentalist’s virtuosity or ability to build toward some grand conclusion; Ross and alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins trade passages while the rhythm section (Jeremy Corren on piano, Benjamin Tiberio on bass and Jeremy Dutton on drums) supplies constantly shifting accompaniment that’s as lively as the blowing on top.
Kept alive by this constant surge of melodic and harmonic material, Ross’ music never feels routine or repetitive. And in his burgeoning career, he brings a commitment to communication into multiple projects, whether playing the hard-bop/hip-hop fusion of Marquis Hill, joining other creative young talents like Adam O’Farrill and Maria Grand in his Parables octet, or serving in Peter Evans’ Being and Becoming ensemble.
Ross and his band Good Vibes are on the road now, in support of KingMaker. In advance of their tour stop at Blues Alley in D.C. this coming Tuesday, May 28 (featuring bassist Or Bareket and drummer Kush Abadey on this trip, plus Wilkins and Corren), Ross talked to CapitalBop about his desire to challenge himself, his style of communicating as a bandleader, and how he’s developed as a writer and player since recording KingMaker in late 2016.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
CapitalBop: Let’s just get right to it: Why the vibraphone? It’s not the most popular or easy-to-transport instrument, so how did you pick it?
Joel Ross: I have a twin brother and we both started playing drums when we were 2 or 3 years old. We went to church every Sunday with our family so eventually we started playing there, because our godfather played drums there so we’d watch him play. Eventually, in fifth grade — I think we were about 10 years old — we joined the school’s concert band. And I’m the younger twin, so I’m pretty sure he made me play the mallet instruments so he could stay on the drums, and the snare and the bass drum and the timpani. So that’s where I learned how to play, like, xylophone and orchestra bells.
The same year we auditioned for Chicago’s all-city concert band, joined that ensemble, and then also auditioned for the all-city jazz band. We both auditioned on drums but with him being better, they took him and they said to me, “Well, since you play mallets in the concert band, you should play vibraphone in the jazz ensemble.” I didn’t want to do that because I wanted to play drums! My dad and the percussion instructor, who became our percussion teacher, insisted that I play the vibraphone, and I’ve been doing it ever since — begrudgingly sometimes, but it’s a part of my life now.
CB: But there had to be some connection, some resonance between you and the instrument, for you to keep playing it, and to now be in the position where you are. So what made you stick with it?
JR: I look at it less like it’s a “resonating” thing. I have a love-hate relationship with it. At least, definitely when I was younger, I was such a small guy, having to physically lug around such a large, awkward instrument. I don’t like to move a lot of heavy stuff, so there was some disdain in that.
But I guess I liked how it was still similar to a drum. For the past year or so, I’ve been getting back into practicing the drums again and figuring out more rhythmic stuff and how that information relates to the vibraphone. I would probably then say the rhythmic aspect, but at some point, it was just like any other instrument I would try to play, I’d go back to the vibraphone and it was just the easiest instrument. It’s the easiest instrument for me to communicate on. I very much love the piano and the drums more, and I write at the piano, and I practice everything at the piano and the drums. But when it comes to performing and playing with other people and communicating … it all comes out better on the vibraphone.
CB: The connection between drums and the vibraphone reminds me: On KingMaker, your playing seems to try to navigate your instrument’s ability to be both a melodic instrument and rhythmic one. What’s the balance?
JR: Improvisationally, if somebody is soloing or I’m soloing or such, I definitely focus on communicating through the rhythms that everybody is playing. I won’t say more than the melodic material. Because of what’s going on with my ears, I don’t necessarily have to worry — plus, it’s music I wrote, so I know the harmonies well enough so it’s not a thought; it’s something I don’t have to think about anymore. That just leaves open communication more than just hearing melodic material; I can also respond to what someone is doing rhythmically. That’s normal for jazz improvisation and communication, but I think I tend to focus on it more. Plus, the timbre of the mallets I use allows the vibraphone to come off more as a melodic drum than a mallet instrument.
CB: Something that strikes me about Good Vibes is how much interplay there is — even if someone is soloing, it’s not drawn-out or individualistic. It feels more like one person leading a collective improvisation. Was that intentional? What’s your vision of the group’s interplay?
JR: I enjoy most when we are all communicating and playing with each other and trying to achieve that highest form of listening and responding…. I definitely do focus on the band thing, from studying Miles’ quintets — especially the second great quintet, which is my favorite group. Particularly, I spent two or three years listening to Live at the Plugged Nickel almost every day, just studying the group interplay, how Miles would direct the band from what he played or didn’t play. I’m just really big on that type of group interaction and trying to communicate without words, trying to — we’re still working on this — communicate, like, “We’re going to stay here, in this section,” and then use the melody to cue. I think it’s simple stuff, just using the melody as a cue to go on.
So when it came to the album, I very much preferred trading, trading with everybody … it’s easier for me to communicate because I think of it as a conversation. If we’re talking to each other, there’s more than can be said. We don’t always need 10-minute solos. That also leaves more time to devote to the actual material of the song; if no one’s taking a 6-minute solo, that leaves more room for the actual composition.
The timbre of the mallets I use allows the vibraphone to come off more as a melodic drum than a mallet instrument.CB: I know you’ve been working with other projects like your “Being A Young Black Man” [suite] and the Parables octet. What led you to put out this material first?
JR: Well, we did this first. This album, we recorded it in December 2016, and I was just kind of holding onto it. I’ve had it, and I talked to Don Was at Blue Note and said, “I already have this, let’s release it.” So that’s how KingMaker came about, being the first thing. Also, I’m still figuring out what I to want record. I mean, I have the next five albums planned, but I’m still figuring out the specifics. That stuff will be coming out real soon too, I hope.
CB: I know Tyshawn Sorey played in the “Being a Young Black Man” group at the Jazz Gallery, and Parables features Adam O’Farrill and Maria Grand. All of these musicians are well-known in what we might call the avant-garde or creative music circles. Is that a direction you want to move towards?
JR: The thing about me being a vibraphonist is that I’ve been able to be put in a bunch of different situations. So when I first moved to New York, I joined Marquis Hill’s Blacktet. That’s sort of like hip-hop-based hard-bop jazz. That was the first time I was the primary comping instrument. And then I played with [saxophonist] Melissa Aldana; we just recorded. That’s its own type — I’m not good with labels. When I first moved to New York, I was still doing a bunch of stuff with Jazz at Lincoln Center, which is definitely closer to the tradition. And then I’m also in trumpeter Peter Evans’ ensemble Being and Becoming, which I guess you could say that’s complete avant-garde. I have all of those in me because I’m playing in all those situations.
I am definitely building bands around people and not the music, because the music is going to be me. So I’m just hiring people, people’s characteristics and personalities to play that music. I called Tyshawn for “Being A Young Black Man” because he’s a very open player and I wanted that openness over that music. I also called Marcus Gilmore, because there’s a bunch of music we didn’t play at the commission, so we did a show a year later called “Young Black Man Revisited,” and I wanted Marcus’ thing on that … I don’t see it as a genre thing, and it’s just bringing people together to play what I wrote.
CB: Do you now write with people in mind or do you more look for people to fit the music afterwards?
JR: Well, just from doing so many things, now I’m writing music and playing it across all of the groups. So I’ve been writing some small-band stuff, angular grooves and stuff that I’ve used as intros for Good Vibes, and then last October I had an ensemble with Jeremy Dutton, Adam [O’Farrill], Maria [Grand] — that was a bunch of new music I was working on. And then I did a quartet — Immanuel [Wilkins], [drummer] Craig Weinrib, and a bassist from Philly, Nimrod Speaks — in the style of Ornette. Good Vibes played, Parables played.… These groups have their respective music, but I wrote these pieces that I just brought to each band, and we played them the way we would play the other music. That’s where a lot of the music I’m writing is now.
A lot of the music on KingMaker I was writing just to challenge myself because I couldn’t play some of those harmonies or riffs. So a lot of the music, when I wrote it, I couldn’t play it.CB: Is that process different than how you wrote KingMaker?
JR: Oh definitely! A lot of the music on KingMaker I was writing just to challenge myself because I couldn’t play some of those harmonies or riffs. So a lot of the music, when I wrote it, I couldn’t play it — back when I was at school in California at the Brubeck Institute. When I moved to New York, finally I got some cats who could play it, so I had to get it together quickly. It was hard: We spent a good amount of time trying to play this music. Now actually we haven’t played it in two years; we kind of stopped playing it after we recorded it. We’re looking to getting back into it because I definitely do feel like now we can play it better.
CB: Is the music still challenging for you to play?
JR: The music itself? No. The challenge now — I’ve been in this space where I want to write a piece of music and do anything to it: Know the piece of music so well that you can change what’s on the page. I mean, that’s jazz. Now the challenge is trying to get to the point now where, like I was saying with communication, I want it to be so unspoken that we can do that as a group, as one unit.
https://www.chicagojazzmagazine.com/post/jazz-with-mr-c-a-chat-with-joel-ross
JAZZ WITH MR C: A Chat with Joel Ross
by Jeff Cebulski
June 10, 2019
Chicago Jazz Magazine
Joel Ross photo by Lauren Desberg
Joel Ross, a noted instrumentalist not yet twenty-five, has gained national interest faster than the proverbial speeding bullet. Beginning as a church-nurtured wunderkind here in Chicago, where Ross discovered the vibraphone, he subsequently moved on to advanced learning at the Brubeck Institute in California, at which he made important connections, leading to a move to New York City, where he created a band and began what seems certain to be a climb to stardom.
His recording career and national attention began auspiciously, as part of Matt Stevens and Walter Smith III’s crew on In Common. Having a new album on the Blue Note label hasn’t hurt, either. Recorded a bit more than two years ago, Kingmaker is getting rave reviews while Ross is seen as an heir apparent to people like Milt Jackson, Bobby Hutcherson, and a mentor, Stefon Harris.
Photo by Lauren Desberg
Ross is now busy performing with his band Good Vibes, including a gig at Newport later this summer, as well as participating in occasional stints as part of a stereophonic percussion duo (with drummer Jonathan Pinson) in trumpeter Marquis Hill’s Blacktet. One of a number of thoughtful, studious younger jazz musicians, Ross graciously found some time to converse with me about Chicago, his instrument, his band, and his music.
Jeff Cebulski: When did you get your first sense that your development as a vibraphonist was going to become something special?
Joel Ross: I wouldn’t say that I ever thought anything was ‘special;’ playing music had already long been a part of my life, so once the vibes were introduced it was just a continuation of playing music. What was special were the peeps my age like [pianist] James Francies, [flutist/vocalist] Elena Pinderhughes, and [trumpeter] Adam O’Farrill, who I was starting to meet who inspired me. Meeting folks like them was when I knew I wanted to excel because I wanted to play with them more.
JC: What, to you, was crucial about your Windy City musical upbringing?
JR: If I had to point any one thing out, it’d be my upbringing in the church. Consistently attending church with my fam almost every Sunday for the first eighteen years of my life definitely ingrained that Black Gospel sound in my ears, so when I started getting into jazz and heard Milt Jackson for the first time, I could hear the church right away. Turns out he sang in church before he played vibes so, boom, there was that connection.
JC: I have always thought the vibraphone was a paradoxical instrument, a percussive vehicle that is limited in fidelity but wide in expression, sort of passive-aggressive. Is that a fair observation?
JR: At first I was inclined to agree with you, but as I really ponder the question I realize it’s not much of a paradox at all. First and foremost, the vibraphone is a percussion instrument so it is meant to be struck, no different than a snare drum, bass drum, cymbal or woodblock. Secondly, as a member of the mallet family, you’re tasked with the same goal of expression as you would for a marimba, xylophone, glockenspiel, or tubular bells. You could say the percussion family as a whole is limited in fidelity; you can only hit a drum so hard or so many times before the head breaks; vibes usually only have the three octaves to work with. But the music doesn’t come from the instrument, it comes from the musician. It doesn’t matter what instrument is being played, it’s up to us to use said instrument to make art. History has already shown that expression won’t be limited to twelve notes.
JC: For us non-musicians, can you help us understand the main differences between conventional methods of musical training and the “ear-training” method you were introduced to by Stefon Harris?
JR: I’m no authority on the subject but the way I interpret it is that both methods involve basic rote practices like singing and identifying different bass notes, intervals, pitches, and chords at the piano and picking out/trying to sing the notes, etc. What stands out most in my mind regarding Stefon’s method is that we attached emotion to the harmony as a way to intuitively identify harmony as soon as we heard it. For example, there’s a chord my school group agreed was called “The Baby Chord” (ex: C13(b9)), which meant that every time we heard the chord (when we were first learning about it) we’d look down and cradle our arms and ask ourselves “Would I look at a baby like this?”. So now almost every time I hear that chord, I know what it is because it evokes that emotional response.
JC: Kingmaker appears to be both a celebration and an early culmination of the evolution of your Good Vibes band. When did you know you had the group you wanted to play and record with?
JR: Well, I moved to NYC with the full intent on starting a band; one of the cats who was at Brubeck with me, an amazing Houstonian drummer by the name of Jalon Archie, moved to New York, too, and so I knew we were automatically gonna play together (we talked about the band all the time at the Brubeck Institute), but he moved back to Houston shortly.
I met and played with [drummer] Jeremy Dutton when I visited and played in Houston with pianist James Francies one time, and we ended up attending the New School together once I moved, so it was pretty much a no brainer that I’d call him for our hits. I met the pianist Jeremy Corren first actually, back in high school my senior year and fell in love with his playing back then, so by the time I moved to New York and found out he was there too, I called him for everything. I met the bassist Ben Tiberio at the Vijay Iyer-run Banff program up in Canada with Jalon and our good high school friends James Francies and Elena Pinderhughes. He was by far one of the best bassists I’d ever played with and a super-cool dude at that. I went back to Brubeck constantly hitting him up making sure he was gonna move to New York after he finished school where he was. He did move shortly after that; we ended up being roommates back around when we recorded the album in December of 2016. And lastly, after Corren, Ben, Jalon and I notched a couple gigs under our belts I met [saxophonist] Immanuel Wilkins. Good Vibes was playing at a Dizzy’s Club late-night set and he came through the session that was afterwards. He played and sounded amazing, so I hit him up for a session/rehearsal. From then on I knew we’d probably be playing together for the rest of our lives, and he’s quickly become my brother and best friend.
Photo by Lauren Desberg
That was the group, and we ended up playing many gigs at the Jazz Gallery thanks to Rio Sakairi, and the late night sessions at Smalls thanks to Spike Wilner, which culminated in us going into the studio and recording that music. We sound pretty young on the recording in my opinion, but that’s the sound we were in and that was a part of our journey, so I’m thoroughly happy with the result and looking forward to the next project.
JC: You said you moved to New York to form a band. Why was moving there a necessary part of that goal?
JR: New York has long been the place to be for jazz—or any art career really—so it was pretty much a no-brainer. I did two years of school in California straight out of high school so most of my peers were already in New York. It was just a matter of time before I’d move, too.
JC: Besides location, what are the main differences between the Chicago and New York jazz scenes, in your experience?
JR: I can’t really speak on the topic based on experience. As I was saying above, I went away to California right out of high school so I didn’t get to experience playing in Chicago much on a professional level, though I did get a lot of public performing experience largely through the Jazz Institute of Chicago. I moved to New York after that and got into the scene but didn’t play in Chicago much until I joined Marquis’ [Hill] group, then started playing with Makaya [McCraven], too.
JC: How much of your music is a fully-composed idea as realized by your band vs. an idea that is co-created by the band members, starting perhaps with a fragmentary melodic or rhythmic idea?
JR: I usually bring already written music or ideas to them, and we figure out how to play it. From there I might tweak things, but they already know I’m open to any ideas they might have. I tend to send things before because I don’t like to spend time learning how to play the music. We don’t rehearse often so when we do get together I wanna be able to work with what we can do off the page, not still figuring out the charts.
JC: You have stated that you were encouraged [by Bobby Hutcherson] to write music about your life. How much of your Chicago experience shows up on the new album?
JR: Almost every tune on the album, with the exception of “Grey” (Dutton’s tune) and “Yana.” Every other song was influenced by family members (“Prince Lynn’s,” “KingMaker,” “Freda’s”) or friends ("Angel”), questions (“Is It Love,” “With Whom”), arguments (“Grand Struggle,” “iLL Relations,” “Too Late”), and other experiences from high school. Bobby Hutcherson gave me those instructions, and I wrote most of the music while I was at the Brubeck Institute in California, so it was sort of reflective writing in a way.
JC: Is there a song on the new album that, in your view, is uniquely representative of your band and the musical concept/form you are trying to accomplish?
JR: Nope, there isn’t any one song or thing. My interest and concepts keep changing, as does life, as does the way we play. We recorded this music two years ago, so we’re different musicians, different people. All I’m trying to do is play music with my friends and bring folks closer to God.
To which I, and I think many here in Chicago, can say: Amen.
Read the review of Joel Ross's Kingmaker: A Paean to Heritage and Community"
Jazz
with Mr. C" is written by Jeff Cebulski, a jazz enthusiast and regular
contributor to Chicago Jazz Magazine. Contact Jeff at
bullski@hotmail.com
Joel Ross Releases Striking New Music Video For YANA
Joel Ross has revealed his mesmerizing new music video for "Yana" (directed by Daveion Thompson) from the vibraphonist's acclaimed debut album KingMaker, out now on Blue Note Records. Blue Note has also announced a 2-LP vinyl release for KingMaker, which will come out on August 9 and is available for pre-order now here.
If 2018 was the year Chicago-born, Brooklyn-based vibraphonist Joel Ross kept turning up on acclaimed album after acclaimed album (Makaya McCraven Universal Beings, Walter Smith III & Matthew Stevens In Common, James Francies Flight, Marquis Hill Modern Flows, Vol. 2), then 2019 is his year to be the star as he joins the Blue Note Records roster and releases his debut album. With the arrival of KingMaker, he adds his name to an illustrious jazz vibraphone legacy on the legendary label that extends from Milt Jackson to Bobby Hutcherson to Stefon Harris and now Ross.
Check out the video for YANA here:
For his first release, Ross brought in bassist Harish Raghavan as producer and convened his Good Vibes band-Immanuel Wilkins on alto saxophone, Jeremy Corren on piano, Benjamin Tiberio on bass, and Jeremy Dutton on drums, plus guest vocalist Gretchen Parlato-for a lithe and melodic trip through a wild array of inspirations: the uncanny interplay of Miles and Wayne, the cooling touch of Bags, the harmonic acuity of Harris, the rhythmic heat of Steve Coleman, and the genius album-building of Ambrose Akinmusire. And at the heart of it all is the wisdom passed down personally to Ross from Hutcherson: "Write music about your life and write every day."
"I took Bobby's words literally," says Ross, who visited the master in his home while studying in California. "Every song is influenced by people or events, relationships I had, or even a question someone posed." 11 of the KingMaker's 12 tracks were composed by Ross, and from the cover photo to the music within, the album finds him exploring the formative stuff that made him the man he is, first and foremost, family. The centerpiece title track is dedicated to his mother, while other compositions pay homage to Ross' twin brother, father, and niece.Ross premieres his new work "Revelation" this week at Roulette in Brooklyn (May 22) and will be appearing at the Atlanta Jazz Festival (May 25) and Blues Alley in Washington DC (May 28) leading up to his album release shows at Jazz Standard in New York City on June 4-5. Ross will also be on tour in Europe this Summer and makes his debut appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival on August 3.
JOEL ROSS - 2019 TOUR DATES:
May 22 - Roulette - Brooklyn, NY
May 25 - Atlanta Jazz Festival - Atlanta, GA
May 28 - Blues Alley - Washington DC
June 4 - Jazz Standard - New York, NY
June 5 - Jazz Standard - New York, NY
June 6 - Scullers Jazz - Boston, MA
July 10 - Pizza Express - London, UK
July 11 - Pizza Express - London, UK
July 14 - North Sea Jazz Festival - Rotterdam, Netherlands
July 17 - Umbria Jazz Festival - Umbria, Italy
July 19 - Plaza de Europa - Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands
July 20 - Plaza de Santa Ana - Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands
August 3 - Newport Jazz Festival - Newport, RI
https://www.udiscovermusic.com/news/blue-note-joel-ross-kingmaker/
News
Blue Note To Release Joel Ross’ Debut Album, ‘KingMaker’
Blue Note Records are set to release the 23-year-old, Chicago-born star’s debut on 3 May.
by
After an impressive 2018 where Ross featured on consecutive acclaimed albums (Makaya McCraven Universal Beings, Walter Smith III & Matthew Stevens In Common, James Francies Flight, Marquis Hill Modern Flows Vol. 2), this latest Blue Note signing adds his name to an illustrious jazz vibraphone legacy that extends from Milt Jackson to Bobby Hutcherson to Stefon Harris and now Ross.
KingMaker is an album that fuses clear technical might with youthful energy and bright emotion. For his first release, Ross brought in bassist Harish Raghavan as producer and convened his Good Vibes band—Immanuel Wilkins on alto saxophone, Jeremy Corren on piano, Benjamin Tiberio on bass, and Jeremy Dutton on drums, plus guest vocalist Gretchen Parlato—for a lithe and melodic trip through a wild array of inspirations. And at the heart of it all is the wisdom passed down personally to Ross from Hutcherson: “Write music about your life and write every day.”
“I took Bobby’s words literally,” says Ross, who visited the master in his home while studying in California. “Every song is influenced by people or events, relationships I had, or even a question someone posed.” 11 of the KingMaker’s 12 tracks were composed by Ross, and from the cover photo to the music within, the album finds him exploring the formative experiences that made him the man he is, first and foremost, family. The center piece and title track is dedicated to his mother, while other compositions pay homage to Ross’ twin brother, father, and niece.
In support of KingMaker, Joel Ross plays the following European dates:
July 10 – Pizza Express – London, UK
July 11 – Pizza Express – London, UK
July 14 – North Sea Jazz Festival – Rotterdam, Netherlands.
KingMaker is out on 3 May. Scroll down to read the full tracklist and buy it here.
Touched By An Angel’
‘Prince Lynn’s Twin’
‘The Grand Struggle Against Fear’
‘Ill Relations’
‘Is It Love That Inspires You?’
‘Interlude’
‘KingMaker’
‘Freda’s Disposition’ feat. Gretchen Parlato
‘With Whom Do You Learn Trust?’
‘Grey’
‘Yana’
‘It’s Already Too Late’
https://jazztimes.com/reviews/albums/joel-ross-kingmaker-blue-note/
Joel Ross: KingMaker (Blue Note)
A review of the vibraphonist's debut album
The balance of handsome melody and harmony with fractured rhythm on KingMaker
augurs exciting things from 23-year-old vibraphonist Joel Ross.
Actually, it is exciting in itself. The album is Ross’ debut, after
previous high-profile appearances with drummer Makaya McCraven and
pianist James Francies. Like those two young pioneers, he’s got a
terrific concept in the offing.
Regard, for example, the title track. It exploits the vibes’ inherently gauzy, dreamy character, with Ross’ Good Vibes band (alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, pianist Jeremy Corren, bassist Benjamin Tiberio, drummer Jeremy Dutton) intensifying that core trait, strengthening it into a gorgeous full-on waltz, then collapsing it into shambolic free-funk that slowly reincorporates the waltz form. It’s a remarkable, and remarkably organic, six-minute journey.
The rest of the album never quite replicates that richness, but it comes close. Tunes like “Touched by an Angel,” “Ill Relations,” and “With Whom Do You Learn Trust” focus on solid melodies but also display a stunning rhythmic sleight of hand from Ross and Dutton. “The Grand Struggle Against Fear” hides some beats here and there as well, but more pointedly has Ross, Tiberio, and Corren rendering beautiful changes and internal harmonies. (Wilkins asserts himself as the emotional release near the track’s close.) There’s room for delicate explorations too, in the cool experimentalism of “Grey” and the sumptuous warmth of “Freda’s Disposition,” with a guest turn from vocalist Gretchen Parlato. (Who better to evoke delicacy?)
Not since Stefon Harris’ arrival 20 years ago has the jazz world heard a young vibraphonist intent on exploring so many dimensions. KingMaker shows us a player deeply versed in the jazz vibes tradition who’s also internalized the atmospherics of ECM and EDM as surely as he has the grooves of hip-hop and M-Base. On his first recording, Ross oozes potential.
Regard, for example, the title track. It exploits the vibes’ inherently gauzy, dreamy character, with Ross’ Good Vibes band (alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, pianist Jeremy Corren, bassist Benjamin Tiberio, drummer Jeremy Dutton) intensifying that core trait, strengthening it into a gorgeous full-on waltz, then collapsing it into shambolic free-funk that slowly reincorporates the waltz form. It’s a remarkable, and remarkably organic, six-minute journey.
The rest of the album never quite replicates that richness, but it comes close. Tunes like “Touched by an Angel,” “Ill Relations,” and “With Whom Do You Learn Trust” focus on solid melodies but also display a stunning rhythmic sleight of hand from Ross and Dutton. “The Grand Struggle Against Fear” hides some beats here and there as well, but more pointedly has Ross, Tiberio, and Corren rendering beautiful changes and internal harmonies. (Wilkins asserts himself as the emotional release near the track’s close.) There’s room for delicate explorations too, in the cool experimentalism of “Grey” and the sumptuous warmth of “Freda’s Disposition,” with a guest turn from vocalist Gretchen Parlato. (Who better to evoke delicacy?)
Not since Stefon Harris’ arrival 20 years ago has the jazz world heard a young vibraphonist intent on exploring so many dimensions. KingMaker shows us a player deeply versed in the jazz vibes tradition who’s also internalized the atmospherics of ECM and EDM as surely as he has the grooves of hip-hop and M-Base. On his first recording, Ross oozes potential.
CD Review: Joel Ross, Kingmaker: A Paean to Heritage and Community
Reviewed by Jeff Cebulski
Joel Ross. Kingmaker. Blue Note, 2019.
Joel Ross-Vibraphone
Immanuel Wilkins-Alto Sax
Jeremy Corren-Piano
Benjamin Tiberio-Bass
Jermy Dutton-Drums
The latest, newest generation of jazz artists spawned from the 21stCentury American cacophony has one thing that unites it: an organic relationship between them and their music. This integrity is meant, I think, to transcend a perceived old-fashioned idea of the relationship between musician and audience, that the audience pays for what it expects and then rules the proceedings. The ’60s began to tear away from that paradigm (Dylan, Coltrane, for examples), but the ’70s and ’80s did some backtracking (remember those albums Freddie Hubbard and [even] Wayne Shorter produced for Columbia?). Today’s jazz musician sometimes has to ride a fine line between “pleasing the masses” and “doing what I want to.”
The latter group is, fortunately, gaining. Essentially, the younger generation is insistent on doing its thing, and we are invited to come along or be left behind. This tension, of course, is not always comfortable—I feel it every summer here in Chicago as the Jazz Festival planners attempt to assuage the varying, generationally-divided tastes of its crowds. But given the breadth and depth and caliber of the new generation, as well as its connections to healthier thoughts, one would be smart to pay attention.
I say all this after listening to the new Blue Note album Kingmaker by Chicago native Joel Ross, a vibraphonist whose rise has been gradually witnessed here and noted, now, in the Big Apple, to where Ross moved in order to form a band, Good Vibes, that is revealed on this new recording. To say that Ross’ relationship to his music is organic is an understatement; he carries deep memory and association into every composition and has crafted a group statement that represents a nod inward to his mentors and outward to his collective, spiritual vision.
I think it would be safe to say that fans of Brian Blade and his Fellowship Band would really dig Ross’ music, not because it is a mirror of the music but because their leaders want to impart deeply felt ideas to uplift our awareness of the necessity of family and community in a world of increasing societal dissonance.
The vibraphone, Ross’ chosen musical vehicle, is locked into a limited ambiance, kind of like the banjo—it’s hard to make it sound angry or disturbed. Pound as hard as you want to, and it still sounds like golden rain landing on our souls. What Ross does on Kingmaker is create a proto-spiritual yin-yang effect, where his articulate mallets rain holy water on Good Vibes, which communicates the various moods. This dichotomy is most apparent on songs like “The Grand Struggle Against Fear,” “Ill Relations,” “With Whom Do You Learn Trust?”, “Grey,” and “It’s Already Too Late,” all of which point to the serious, earthbound themes that Ross’ oblation douses in grace.
Each member of Good Vibes has his own niche in the proceedings. Ross’ visionary partner, alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, can create sufficient dissonance, profundity, and sweetness. Bassist Ben Tiberio is a find; pay close attention to his “Interlude” that leads to the title cut. The backbone he provides uplifts the entire album. Pianist Jeremy Corren accompanies the proceedings adroitly; his dense chords create the sonic heft in “Gray,” a tune that reminded me of the pensive, dramatic music from earlier Christian Scott albums like Yesterday You Said Tomorrow. Drummer Jeremy Dutton serves as counterpart to Ross’ mallet musings, especially on the rhythmically complex “Yana.”
Family is a subject for Ross. “Prince Lynn’s Twin” is an homage to his father and twin brother. Wilkins and Ross begin a dreamy melody, only to abruptly move into a much more frantic pace that then settles into a give-and-take with the original theme before Corren, Tiberio, and Dutton take over, leading to an improvised ‘conversation’ between Wilkens and Ross. On “Freda’s Disposition,” the wonderful Gretchen Parlato provides his niece with an angelic, reassuring lullaby. Yet the instrumental break represents some of Ross’ more vibrant, insistent playing—that dichotomy working almost in reverse. Corren provides corresponding commentary that seems to offer a counterargument—some of his best playing on the recording.
The centerpiece, “Kingmaker,” begins with a mild crescendo that ultimately joins everyone in a climb upward to Wilkins’ most expressive moment, a sometimes-dissonant statement that has touches of Eastern flavor. Ross’ playing here suggests that while the flesh is weak, the spirit is willing, and the song eventually is taken over by his more playful optimism. Tiberio’s effort in keeping up with the ‘debating forces’ is impressive.
Like a lot of jazz emanating from his home town, Joel Ross’ new album suggests that the most compelling music of this genre evolves from a community (see: the albums from Blade, Makaya McCraven, Steve Coleman, and, of course, the recent Art Ensemble nugget). While Ross needed to leave his home community to come up with a working musical community, his Chicago family—real and extended—should still be proud, supportive, and anxious to see what comes next. With his Good Vibes and their Kingmaker, this rising star is wise to hang not too high, but not too low, just high enough to shower blessings on a parched congregation.
Vibraphonist Joel Ross and his band Good Vibes will be
performing at the Vermont Jazz Center on Saturday, March 14. PHOTO PROVIDED BY VERMONT JAZZ CENTER
Good Vibes to play at jazz center
BRATTLEBORO — The Vermont Jazz Center presents Downbeat Rising Star Award-winning vibraphonist Joel Ross in concert at 8 p.m. on Saturday, March 14. Ross, a 24-year-old Blue Note recording artist, is making the "vibes" a more familiar and accessible sound to audience members of his generation.
For listeners familiar with the impact of the vibes in bebop and swing, Ross' dynamic sound and virtuosity brings back memories of its judicious use by jazz legends Red Norvo, Lionel Hampton, Bobby Hutcherson, Milt Jackson and Gary Burton. Ross' approach is both modern and steeped in the tradition. Of Ross, JazzTimes Magazine writes "Not since Stefon Harris' arrival 20 years ago has the jazz world heard a young vibraphonist intent on exploring so many dimensions."
Ross will be performing selections from his highly acclaimed Blue Note album, "KingMaker", a musical tribute to his family. Joining him at the Jazz Center will be Immanuel Wilkens on saxophone, Jeremy Corren on piano, Kanoa Mendelhall on bass, and Jeremy Dutton on drums. All except Mendelhall can be heard on Ross' recent release. Downbeat Magazine gave "KingMaker" a 4 star review, noting that "Ross' playing erupts through the layers of lush arrangements like consistent currents of electricity, high-powered and full of luminous energy. These bright bursts of solos and melodic lines surprise, excite and stretch "
Ross attributes his meticulous attention to tone-quality to the influence of his teacher, Stefon Harris. Depending on the context, his notes are either bell-like and sustained, or short and rhythmically driving. Ross applies this attention to detail in the arrangements for his band as well, exploring the timbral colors of each instrument to great effect. His compositions are rich with contrasts of sounds and textures, and are enhanced through masterful use of dynamics and unexpected parings of instruments.
The sound of Good Vibes is unmistakably modern; it is a "new thing" produced by young, virtuoso performers who are currently at the epicenter of New York's diverse scene, actively creating the music that defines "cutting edge," irrespective of labels in 2020. Will Layman of PopMatters captures Ross' relationship to the sounds of the current generation: "This band is sneaky. They play funk, but it never feels like
jazz-hip-hop fusion; they play rock but are never obviously sounding like, say, Radiohead. They have floating pop/gospel elements, but only a few, and for all the tricky playing with time, there is nothing off-putting or new-music-y or studied about the feel. It is also sneaking in the way the superb group interplay makes you realize that you haven't heard, perhaps, quite enough of the leader."
Good Vibes is a unified group effort lead by Ross that first came together when the members were studying together at the Brubeck Institute. It includes saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, who can be also be found in the groups of Jason Moran, Michelle Rosewoman, George Cables, Theo Crocker, Gerald Clayton, Elena Pinderhughes, Giveton Gelin and his own quartet.
The music that Joel Ross and Good Vibes will be bringing to the Vermont Jazz Center is steeped in the history of jazz, but it is also inclusive, welcoming and immersed in the music of today's younger generation. The compositions were composed primarily during Ross' tenure at the Brubeck Institute. In his interview with Capitol Bop, Ross said "A lot of the music on:"KingMaker" I was writing just to challenge myself because I couldn't play some of those harmonies or riffs. So a lot of the music, when I wrote it, I couldn't play it When I moved to New York, finally I got some cats who could play it."
https://www.jazzspeaks.org/lives-from-the-jazz-gallery-joel-ross-speaks/
