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JOEL ROSS “NUBLUES” By Marcus J. Moore Joel Ross has amassed a dedicated following by creating music you have to lean into. That doesn’t make it any less palatable, but across the vibraphonist’s recorded output — 2019’s KingMaker, 2020’s Who Are You?, and 2022’s The Parable of the Poet — the compositions were somewhat complex, and ushered the virtuosity of his band’s live ...
One of his classes was taught by the alto saxophonist Darius Jones, who nudged students to dig into the history of the blues. That led Ross down a rabbit hole of what the blues can be; it isn’t just a 12-bar form. He realized it was a feeling. “Sort of a spirit or an energy,” Ross says. “It’s emotion, it’s expression.
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“ Ross swings effortlessly on the vibraphone, sometimes opting for a brittle sound reminiscent of Lionel Hampton, other times creating smooth and expressive lines in the vein of Milt Jackson. Yet while Ross’s sound is grounded in tradition, his rhythmic approach is very contemporary—intensely syncopated and excitingly abstract. ”
- Mechanics
- Hitting The Thing
- Acoustic, Mic'd, & Midi
A vibraphone might look like a kind of large xylophone, but it’s much more sophisticated than that. Vibraphonists know their instrument is in the percussion family, Joel explains. "Meaning you hit it," he says with a smile. "We use malletsto produce sounds, hitting aluminum bars that resonate and produce a tone." Using harder or softer mallets prod...
How many mallets? It’s a question for the individual player, but Joel prefers two or three. "That way I treat it like a single-line instrument, similar to a horn player. That came from when I was starting and listening to a lot of Milt Jackson, Lionel Hampton, Red Norvo. But you’ll see a lot of four-mallet playing, which Gary Burton made extremely ...
Joel Ross declares an interest—his endorsement with Musser, the brand that joined forces with Ludwig in the ‘60s. "I think they’ve been consistently making some of the best vibraphones," he says. "Their rival is Yamaha, who also make good instruments—Yamaha’s frames are different, and they coat their bars differently. There’s other brands, too, lik...
Joel Ross has amassed a dedicated following by creating music you have to lean into. That doesn’t make it any less palatable, but across the vibraphonist’s recorded output — 2019’s KingMaker, 2020’s Who Are You?, and 2022’s The Parable of the Poet — the compositions were somewhat complex, and ushered the virtuosity of his band’s live performance to a studio setting.
Feb 27, 2023 · Joel Ross. Composer. Ross has topped the DownBeat Critics Poll Rising Star category for vibraphone — graduating beyond the Rising Star to well-honed artist in 2021 — as well as the Jazz Journalists Association Critics Poll for Mallet Instrumentalist of the Year in 2020 and 2021. He recently became one of the youngest artists to earn a ...
Oct 21, 2020 · Oct. 21, 2020. Before the coronavirus slammed the brakes on live music this spring, New York jazz fans had recently grown accustomed to a new thrill: If you went out enough, you would inevitably ...
