Joel Ross

THE EVENT WILL TAKE PLACE AT THE NEW KARLSTORBAHNHOF IN SÜDSTADT.

Alongside the harp, the vibraphone has emphatically secured renewed attention in improvised music of late. Not the only reason, but a weighty one, to be a guest at the Karlstorbahnhof this evening. The vibraphonist and composer Joel Ross, born in Chicago in 1995, studied at the Brubeck Jazz College with Stefron Harris. At 20, he ventured into the New York scene, playing there with Peter Evans, Ambrose Akinmusire or Wynton Marsalis.

Ross subsequently played at all kinds of important festivals and toured the USA and Europe. His debut album "Kingmaker" was released in 2019 on "Blue Note", was critically acclaimed and was awarded the German Jazz Prize for the best international debut album last year. By then, the celebrated follow-up "Who Are You?" had already been released. A huge talent, but without any of that "wunderkind" stuff with a pat on the back from Quincy Jones. More old school: a healthy mixture of curiosity and self-confidence, seemingly effortlessly oscillating between heated free jazz, spiritual jazz and checked-out modern jazz and can also be heard as a sideman on albums by Walter Smith III, James Francies, Makaya McCraven, Marquis Hill, Kassa Overall or Durand Jones & The Indications.

In the early summer of 2022, the third Blue Note album "The Parable of the Poet" was released, an expansive seven-part suite, realised by the well-rehearsed nine-piece ensemble Good Vibes, which succeeds in sounding expansive and intimate as a collective at the same time. A really big hit!