When the pandemic arrived, Joel Ross went back to school – to New York’s famous New School conservatory, where completing his degree included a class on the blues. It proved a resonant decision for the twentysomething vibraphonist, transforming his view of the blues from archaic 12-bar form to what he calls “a sort of spirit, an energy”.
The pandemic also made Ross wonder whether his three previous albums for Blue Note were not too fussy, too concerned with “time and tempo manipulations”, a little daunting for the uncommitted.
