{"id":2445611,"date":"2019-06-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-22T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=308002"},"modified":"2019-06-22T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-06-22T06:00:00","slug":"jazz-aspen-june-experience-jamison-ross","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/jazz-aspen-june-experience-jamison-ross\/","title":{"rendered":"Jazz Aspen June Experience: Jamison Ross"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Jamison Ross will play the Jazz Aspen Snowmass June Experience on Saturday night at VIctoria’s.<\/strong>
Courtesy photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

When Jamison Ross<\/a> won the Thelonious Monk Institute drumming competition in 2012, it gave him a \u201cgolden ticket\u201d to the jazz world. But the young drummer didn\u2019t know exactly where he wanted to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat it gets you is notoriety and a platform,\u201d said Ross, who plays two sets at the Jazz Aspen Snowmass June Experience today. \u201cBut the catch is, what do you do with that platform? When I got the chance to make a record due to the competition, it took me three years to figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

That process of figuring it out led Ross to sing \u2014 a move that surprised him as much as anyone else. Renowned as a drummer, he was not a singer. He\u2019d been doing it since his childhood performing in church in Jacksonville, Florida, but had never worked it into his performance repertoire and never thought he\u2019d pick up a microphone onstage.<\/p>\n

Touring with pianist Jon Batiste in 2015 on the \u201cSocial Music\u201d tour (before Batiste signed on as Stephen Colbert\u2019s bandleader on \u201cThe Late Show\u201d) kicked open the possibility. Batiste pushed Ross to get adventurous onstage and to try singing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did a lot of crazy stuff, a lot of experimenting, and he knew I had a gift to sing \u2014 he wanted me to sing,\u201d Ross, 31, recalled. \u201cSo on that tour I jumped into singing and playing the drums at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n

He wanted the songs to be personal and to do something new with jazz.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to tell my story,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat happened was that I sang on two tracks and the next thing you know, it ends up being 10 out of 12 tracks where I\u2019m singing.\u201d<\/p>\n

He discovered that his voice \u2014 steeped in the traditions of blues and soul \u2014 made for a strange and original alchemy when combined with his jazz drumming. Ironically his voice has now become his signature instrument, thanks to the wide acclaim he\u2019s earned since his debut 2015 album, \u201cJamison,\u201d which earned Ross a Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album.<\/p>\n

Ross\u2019 two shows tonight in the intimate setting of Victoria\u2019s Espresso are ground zero of the reconfigured Junefest, which is aiming for a more social, more dance-friendly and more music-packed lineup than its previous sit-down style at the Benedict Music Tent. Jazz Aspen president and founder Jim Horowitz said he\u2019s hoping the Victoria\u2019s shows take on a lively late-night jazz club vibe in the mode of the bars along Frenchmen Street in New Orleans (where Ross is based). Also in the Frenchmen vein, expect a lot of drop-ins and surprise collaborations this weekend at Victoria\u2019s and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

For Ross, the Aspen shows come at the outset of his \u201cKeep On\u201d tour, in support of his latest record, \u201cAll For One,\u201d running through the summer across the U.S. and Europe.<\/p>\n

Ross still doesn\u2019t think of himself as a vocalist.<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard it as more of an expression and exploration of rhythm,\u201d he said. \u201cPlaying drums and singing, I\u2019ve always thought about my drums as a melodic feature.\u201d<\/p>\n

On \u201cAll For One,\u201d Ross wanted to write positive and personal songs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels like I\u2019m talking about more personal things,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s something that\u2019s been lost in my generation in the jazz community. We don\u2019t talk about personal things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even when covering jazz standards, Ross argues, millennial jazz musicians tend not to make them personal. By contrast, on his debut album, Ross always puts his personal stamp on everything he touches.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like you need to understand something about the standards that means something personal to you,\u201d he explained. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to search for the magic clues to the puzzle \u2014 every song has magic clues that stick out to you. Once you find those, you can really rearrange it and make it your own.\u201d<\/p>\n

atravers@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jamison Ross will play the Jazz Aspen Snowmass June Experience on Saturday night at VIctoria’s.Courtesy photo When Jamison Ross won the Thelonious Monk Institute drumming competition in 2012, it gave him a \u201cgolden ticket\u201d to the jazz world. But the young drummer didn\u2019t know exactly where he wanted to go. \u201cWhat it gets you is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2445611","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-20 02:45:44","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2445611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2445611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2445611\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2445611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2445611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2445611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}