Label: Blue Note Records, 2020
Personnel - Joel Ross: vibraphone; Immanuel Wilkins: alto saxophone; Jeremy Corren: piano; Kanoa Mendenhall: bass; Jeremy Dutton: drums + guest Brandee Younger: harp.
Only with two albums released as a leader, Joel Ross is already considered one of our era’s most brilliant and lavishly gifted vibraphonists. Following up Kingmaker - his encouraging debut on Blue Note - Who Are You? is a collection of 15 new made-to-measure instrumentals whose result is utterly rewarding. Ross, who moved to New York from Chicago, welcomes bassist Kanoa Mendenhall into the group, expanding the original quartet featuring saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, pianist Jeremy Corren and drummer Jeremy Dutton. Proficient jazz harpist Brandee Younger is also featured on five tracks, including Coltrane’s “After the Rain”, where the sweetness of her sweeps and plucks contribute to achieve spiritual heights.
The record kicks off with “Dream”, a Dutton-penned piece that brings a certain magic spell and dramatic quality. This is followed by Mendenhall’s solo-bass “Calling”, which serves to bridge the path that takes us from the opening piece to the waltzing “Home”, a Ross composition cooled-out by an unspeakable comfort and endearment.
In addition to showcasing Dutton’s rumply drumming, “More?” generates extra excitement by featuring alternate solo segments entrusted to saxophone, piano and vibes. The mind-boggling outside inflections in Wilkins’ warm-blooded playing stand out not only here, but also on a ripe reading of Ambrose Akinmusire’s “Vartha”, in which throbbing bass notes join skittering percussive actions designed with beat-driven detail. Ross churns out a statement full of color, and Dutton concludes the piece with an expedite final stretch. Both contribute heavily to the indomitable energy and all-enveloping sound in the music.
Put forward with stimuli, “Marsheland” exalts sax-vibes unisons and thrives with the surging energy derived from exchanges between Ross and Wilkins.
In contrast with this number, some others denote a super relaxed posture with a melodic grandeur that steeps the listener into the composition with a great deal of warmth. Illustrations of what I’ve just said are “Gato’s Gift”, a dedication to the late Argentinian saxist Gato Barbieri that benefits from Younger’s pristine harp sounds, the ballad-inclined “When My Head is Cold” and “Harmonee”, and “3-1-2”, a homage to Chicago, which concludes the program with melancholy riffery and a modal jazz tradition sometimes redolent of Bobby Hutcherson.
Ross is a storyteller with an ample melodic and harmonic sense. He brings such a broad scope to the jazz vibraphone universe that his music is capable of influencing hearts and minds.
Grade A
Favorite Tracks:
04 - More? ► 06 - Vartha ► 15 - 3.1.2