Joel Ross’ Good Vibes

The jazz scene is in the midst of a spectacular vibes resurgence, and the artist at the center of this 21st movement is Joel Ross.

Since gaining renown a decade ago in with Chicago trumpeter Marquis Hill’s Blacktet he’s brought the instrument to the forefront of the contemporary scene, with at least a dozen brilliant vibraphonists following in his wake. A gifted composer, Ross had already appeared on more than a dozen albums as a sideman before releasing his 2019 debut as a leader on Blue Note, KingMaker, which earned the 2020 Jazz International Edison Award. With each subsequent album he’s grown as a composer and improviser, like on his 2022 album-length suite The Parable of the Poet, which finds his luxuriantly lyrical sensibility energized by his thick, quick shifting harmonic orchestration.

Ross’s Good Vibes combo features some of jazz’s most prodigious young players, anchored by the charismatic bassist Kanoa Mendenhall, and Tyler Bullock on piano, Jeremy Dutton on drums, and Devin Daniels playing alto saxophone.

Closing the festival on a joyously ringing note, Ross makes it clear that the vibraphone legacy of Milt Jackson, Bobby Hutcherson and Steve Nelson is in expert hands.