JOEL ROSS GOOD VIBES (US)

With his new Blue Note album, Nublues, vibraphonist and composer Joel Ross, who has emerged in recent years as a defining voice for a new generation of American jazz musicians, comes to Budapest. His refreshingly honest music, drawing from jazz, hip hop and improvisation, has propelled him to the top of DownBeat's critical poll in both 2021 and 2022. Born in Chicago and currently based in Brooklyn, Ross is regularly invited to perform with artists such as Herbie Hancock, Joshua Redman, Makaya McCraven, Gerald Clayton, Wynton Marsalis, Marquis Hill, Peter Evans and Matthew Stevens. In February this year, his fourth album as a bandleader was released on the legendary Blue Note label. His nublues music remains as intricate and adventurous as ever, but with a greater emphasis on simple melodies and ballads than on his previous three albums - KingMaker (2019), Who Are You? (2020) and The Parable of the Poet (2022) - and, as his title suggests, on the blues, which Ross says is much more than a sentiment, a musical form or a rhythmic model: it carries a complex spirituality and a charge of energy.