Joel Ross & Universes in THE MATRIX

Joel Ross — by the small-world principle — is within 6 degrees of most humanity. The matrix uses the principle behind this phenomenon to position the world's artists within discoverable reach of each other, and the planet.
THESE CURATED NODES are one degree forward from this Joel Ross node. Are these Joel Ross's curations?

CURATION STATUS

1 degree forward: by The Matrix

Who & Where

Name: Joel Ross
City/Place: Brooklyn, NY
Country: United States
Hometown: Chicago

Life & Work

Bio: “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 the works of and in-the-style-of Ornette Coleman and 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 the 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.

Contact Information

Management/Booking: Management
Zakiya Fola
Fola Management, LLC.
773.639.0930
info@folamanagement.com

Bookings
Chris Mees
US/Europe/South America/Asia
B Natural Management, Inc.
646.397.8705
347.622.1775
chris@bnatural.nyc

Media & Markets

▶ Buy My Music (downloads/CDs/DVDs): http://joelross.bandcamp.com/
▶ Twitter: iplayvibes
▶ Instagram: imjoelmross
▶ Website: http://www.iplayvibes.com
▶ YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWD2pqEkDaUXvsQLaZKkrQQ
▶ YouTube Music: http://music.youtube.com/channel/UCzM0qQx0mfxQviYRgKvXaDw
▶ Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/album/4XZmtRKGaFmcJHak5xii6m
▶ Spotify 2: http://open.spotify.com/album/6pOQZLX0cpubgk6Ev0HaG1
▶ Article: http://www.npr.org/2019/05/23/725759208/joel-ross-and-his-exceptionally-good-vibes

Quotes, Notes & Etc. “...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. Though his musicality [shone] through brightly, I was most impressed by the revolutionary way in which he approached the physicality of the instrument, reworking classic limitations as creative allowances. In contrast to the metallic sustain of players like Gary Burton, Ross’ tone was brittle, percussive and woody; instead of letting his notes ring out and wash over each other indefinitely he exploited the relatively sharp decay of each hit. This allowed him to throw down precise flurries while sounding neither muddy nor blunted.”

— Asher Wolf, All About Jazz

“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.”

— Kevin Laskey, The Jazz Gallery

“[Ross is a] bright young vibraphonist on his own rocket-like trajectory,...he’s somebody I’ll keep my eye on in the coming months.”

— Nate Chinen, The New York Times

Clips (more may be added)

Joel Ross - Yana
By Joel Ross

240 views

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THE MATRIX WAS BUILT HERE, inspired in (the kabbalah-inspired fiction of) Borges' El Aleph, that in the pillar in Cairo's Mosque of Amr, where the universe in its entirety throughout all time is perceivable as an infinite hum from deep within the stone.

The Brazilian "aleph" doesn't hum... it sings.

w/ David Dye for U.S. National Public Radio

Given the immense untapped power of the small-world phenomenon, from Brazilians the matrix was expanded to include nodes per jazz artists, given jazz's common roots with Brazilian music (nodes based in publicly available information; some artists we informed — Bob Mintzer, Kamasi Washington, David "Fuse" Fiuczynski, Vijay Iyer, Greg Osby — and got thumbs up, others we'll get to), and moved on from there. Artists/academics are welcome to create their own nodes and curate (connect to other artist nodes, so that others may follow). BTW, our logo is a cortador de cana, cane cutter. It was designed by Walter Mariano, professor of design at the Federal University of Bahia to reflect the origins of the music the shop specializes in.

MUCH MORE on all of this in the window below (which, if you are logged in, will instead contain instructions on recommending), and in the window within that window (which includes a "radio" called by The Guardian one of "10 of the best music radio stations around the world"):