"“I never had a doubt that I was going to do music,” says Joel Ross, 23 years old and the most thrilling new vibraphonist in America. “My whole life it was just about finding a way to do it.” In the past few years, keeping up with all of those ways has, for aficionados, turned into a virtuosic practice unto itself. The Chicago-born, Brooklyn-based player and composer has a way of being everywhere interesting at once: from deeply innovative albums (Makaya McCraven’s Universal Beings, Walter Smith III & Matthew Stevens’ In Common) to reliably revolutionary combos (Marquis Hill’s Blacktet, Peter Evans’ Being & Becoming) to the buzzing debut of Blue Note’s 2018 breakout star James Francies (Flight).

Even with his own bands—which include quartets and a large ensemble dedicated to works of and in-the-style-of Ornette Coleman and the Keith Jarrett’s American Quartet—Ross is basically a living blur of mallets and talent and ideas." - Blue Note Records