Offering an atypical approach to the melding of hip hop and jazz, Kassa Overall sets up his own little arts and crafts table in the larger existing field of mostly heavy on the beat, sparse on the jazz music tracks. Overall utilizes jazz motifs as a focal point rather than a background component, and allows the music to freely move around within the loose embrace of his lyrics … [Read more...]
Joel Ross – “Yana” (Video)
Vibraphonist Joel Ross has been impressing us a great deal in the last couple years. Of course on last year's Makaya McCraven's Universal Beings, Walter Smith III & Matthew Stevens' In Common, James Francies' Flight and Marquis Hill’s Modern Flows, Vol. 2, and he certainly has been wowing us with his debut album on Blue Note, KingMaker alongside his Good Vibes band of Immanuel … [Read more...]
Vibraphonist Joel Ross Releases “Ill Relations”, First Single off Debut “KingMaker”
For those paying close attention, Chicago-born and Brooklyn-based vibraphonist Joel Ross has slowly been making a name for himself as one of the freshest and most exciting newcomers on the scene with appearances on Makaya McCraven's Universal Beings, Walter Smith III & Matthew Stevens' In Common, James Francies' Flight and Marquis Hill’s Modern Flows, Vol. 2. So it will come as … [Read more...]
‘In Common: Walter Smith III, Matthew Stevens, Joel Ross, Harish Raghavan, Marcus Gilmore’ (Album Review)
In Common is an album co-led by tenor saxophonist Walter Smith III, guitarist Matthew Stevens, vibraphonist Joel Ross, bassist Harish Raghavan, and drummer Marcus Gilmore. It's an album with a clean and pure quality to it. It's a straight-ahead jazz album without all the conventions. It's definitely contemporary, but it doesn't exactly swing. These songs aren't trying to rock … [Read more...]
Makaya McCraven – ‘Universal Beings’ (Album Review)
We've been here before, in awe of the drumming, bandleading, and exploration of Makaya McCraven. His last full-length album, In the Moment was a well-curated collection of sounds that emerged instantaneously from a multitude of configurations at the top of their game and the illustration of a Chicago scene that is building more and more love. Many of McCraven's releases are … [Read more...]