Joel Ross
From Chicago
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Joel Ross has one upcoming show in the Netherlands: on October 28, 2026 at BIMHUIS, Amsterdam.
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About
Joel Ross plays vibraphone the way most people wouldn't dare, with just two mallets instead of four, specifically to avoid locking down the harmony and leaving more room for the music to breathe. The Chicago native signed with Blue Note Records after label head Don Was heard about him through his son, and his debut album KingMaker finally dropped in 2019 after being recorded back in 2016. Ross leads his band Good Vibes with a loose, conversational rhythmic approach inspired by Miles Davis's Second Great Quintet, where not everyone plays to the same pulse at once. Since then he has kept a serious pace on Blue Note, releasing Who Are You? in 2020, The Parable of the Poet in 2022, and nublues in 2024. He has also been a busy sideman, appearing on records with Makaya McCraven, Brandee Younger, and Johnathan Blake among others. The DownBeat Critics Poll handed him first place in the vibraphone category three years running, which is a pretty good sign the jazz world has noticed.
